How to play Roses

Add a mat, or open the bidding

Going round the table you either put another of your mats face down on your own pile, or you start the bidding. A bid is a number: how many mats you say you can turn over without finding a skull.

Bids only go up. Passing puts you out for the round, and the last bidder standing has to make good on what they said.

Your own pile first

The bidder turns their own mats — all of them, up to the bid — before touching anybody else's, which is the rule that makes the whole thing work: you cannot claim four and start with somebody you trust.

Then other people's, one at a time, from the top. All roses and they take a point. A skull and they lose one of their own mats: their choice if it was their own skull, drawn blind if it was somebody else's.

Two points wins, and nobody has said a word

Lose your last mat and you are out of the game. Two successful claims takes it, and so does being the last person with mats left.

There is nothing to read anywhere in it — mats, numbers and nerve — which is why a round takes two minutes and why the arguing happens entirely on the call.

Questions people ask

Is there anything to read or type?

Nothing at all. Roses is entirely language-free — four mats, a number, and whether you believe somebody. It is the fairest game on this shelf for a table where people are working in three different first languages.

How long does a round take?

About two minutes. A whole game to two points is usually ten to fifteen, which means you can play it in the gap at the end of a call rather than needing to plan for it.

Does anybody have to install anything to play Roses?

No. It runs in the browser everyone already has open. One person opens a room, reads out the six-character code or pastes the link into the channel, and everyone else is at the table in a couple of seconds.

Do we need accounts?

No. There is no sign-up, no password and no email address anywhere in the flow. You pick a name when you sit down, and that is the whole of it.

How many people can play Roses?

3 to 6 — best with four or five. A room seats up to 12.

How long does a game of Roses take?

About 15 minutes, which is the length of a coffee break rather than the length of a games night. Nobody is the host in the sense of holding the controls, so a round finishes whether or not everyone is still looking at it.

Does it work over a video call?

That is what it is for. The game is on the screen and the talking is on the call — nobody has to describe a board to anybody, and the parts that must stay private stay on the server rather than being read out.