Russian roulette party game

A russian roulette party game for a group at home. Two to eight friends share one phone. A click keeps you in. A bang knocks you out. The last person in wins. There is no real gun.

Set up the room

Put the group in a circle, or around a table, so the phone has a short path.

Charge the phone before you start. A phone that quits mid-round wastes the names you just typed.

Open the site, set the player count, and type names. Names stop at 12 characters, and no two can match.

Read the names out loud once. Then tap Start game. The phone spins through the names and picks who goes first.

Agree the forfeit, if you want one, before that tap. The drinking rules and the forfeit list are separate pages. This page is about the shape of the night.

How many people, and how long

The roster runs from 2 to 8. Four to six is the comfortable band for a party at home.

Two players is a duel. It is sharp, and it is over as soon as one bang lands. Eight players is allowed. At seven or eight people still in, the cylinder has one chamber per player, so a full lap cannot pass without a bang.

The phone part of a pull is a one-second hold, a 3, 2, 1 count, and a result that stays up for about two seconds. Passing the phone takes longer than the pull.

A game ends when one player is left. Four players need three bangs to get there. Many cylinders bang early. A single game often fits in a few minutes, which is why parties run it more than once.

Round formats

Pick one format and say it before the first pull.

• Last person in. Play until one name remains. That is the game as the app runs it.
• Best of three. The same names play three full games. The phone picks a new first player each time. Most wins takes the night.
• Fair rounds. Turn this on in Settings if you want each living player to pull once per cylinder. The cylinder reloads after that lap. It stops one seat from pulling twice before the others have pulled once.
• Winner stays. The winner keeps their name. Replace the people who went out with friends who were waiting, then start again. The waiting friends still share the same phone.
• Forfeit round. A bang is a dare or a drink instead of a long elimination. Use this when the group wants more turns and less sitting out.

Tips for the host

Hold the phone in portrait. A phone held sideways asks you to rotate. A tablet or a laptop can show the same column, but the game is built to be passed.

Leave the sound on if the room can take a bang. The heartbeat is the tension. If the room is loud, or someone hates a sudden noise, mute the game in Settings. Vibration still marks the result on most phones.

Hand the phone over on the pass screen. That screen names the next player and has no trigger. The person who just pulled cannot fire the next turn from it.

Do not narrate the odds unless someone asks. The screen already shows 1 in N. Let the number do the work.

Stop the session when the group gets sloppy with the phone. A party game only works if the named player is the one holding it.

There is no download and no sign-up. The host opens the site and the group plays.