Zinger Rules: How to Play

Each player needs a phone, tablet or computer with a browser and a keyboard to type on. Nothing to download.

A game needs at least three players. Bots fill the seats up to five, so you can play on your own, with one friend, or with a whole room.

A TV or laptop is optional. Every phone shows the whole game. A TV shows it bigger for the room and reads the prompts and answers out loud.

In rounds 1 and 2 you get two prompts, and each one is shared with one other player. You both answer in secret. Then each pair of answers goes up with no names on it, and everyone who did not write one votes for the answer they like better. After the vote, the names come out and the points are given.

The last round is the final. Everyone answers the same prompt, and everyone gives gold, silver and bronze to three of the other answers.

The most points after the final wins. With five at the table, a full game takes around ten minutes and a short game about half that. Each extra writer adds one matchup to every round.

The host opens a room and everyone joins with the room code or the invite link. While the host is setting up, bots join one at a time until there are five players, so every matchup has three voters. A bot never joins in the middle of a game. In the lobby, the host can set each bot to easy, medium or hard.

Before starting, the host picks two things:

• Length: Full is three rounds (round 1, round 2 and the final). Short is two rounds (round 1 and the final). Full is the default.
• Prompts: Everyone or Kids. Kids deals only the prompts picked for younger players. Everyone is the default.

A prompt is a short setup with room for a joke, like “A terrible name for a cruise ship”. There are several kinds: names for things, slogans, what someone says, worst ideas, things you would find, and made-up words.

The prompts are written to be family friendly. Prompts that anyone in the room has played lately are held back until the others run out.

1. Write (75 seconds). Your two prompts are on your screen together, one card each. Type an answer of up to 45 characters on each card and press Send. Everyone sees who has finished, never what they wrote.
2. The first matchup goes up. Every screen shows the prompt and its two answers with no names. The clock says Get ready for a few seconds so everyone can read them: longer for longer answers, never more than 7 seconds.
3. Vote (15 seconds). Everyone except the two writers taps the answer they like better. One tap is your vote, and it is locked in. The two writers see “Your answer is up!” and wait.
4. The result. The votes land on each answer, showing who voted for it. Then the names come out, then the points. An answer that took every vote is stamped Clean sweep.
5. The next matchup goes up, and so on until every matchup in the round has been voted on.
6. The standings are shown, and the next round starts.

• An answer can be up to 45 characters. Extra spaces are trimmed.
• Once you press Send, the answer is locked. You cannot change it.
• An answer needs at least one letter or number. Without one, you are asked to write something first.
• Words on the blocked list are refused, and you are asked to try another word. Only you see the message.
• Help me fills in an answer the house wrote for that prompt. Tap it again for a different one. Sent as it is, it scores half points.
• An answer that matches one of the house’s answers for that prompt word for word counts as a Help me answer, even if you typed it yourself. Capitals, spaces, punctuation and accents do not make it different.
• If the clock runs out on an empty card, the house writes an answer for it. That answer scores nothing for anyone, and the other player can still win the matchup.

Each prompt in a round goes to exactly two players, and each player gets two prompts. So a round has as many matchups as it has writers: five at a table of five.

Your two prompts are against two different players. In round 2 the pairs change, so at a table of five or more you face two players you did not meet in round 1.

When the writing closes, the two answers in each matchup are put in a shuffled order, so the order does not show who wrote which. Nobody sees an answer before its matchup goes up, and nobody sees a name before the result.

In the final everyone gets the same prompt and has 45 seconds to write one answer. Help me works here too, for half points.

All the answers go up together with no names, in a shuffled order. After a reading pause of up to 14 seconds, everyone has 25 seconds to give out medals.

• Tap your gold, then your silver, then your bronze. Each goes to a different answer.
• You cannot give a medal to your own answer. It is marked “yours” on your screen.
• Tap an answer again to take its medal back. Your medals count once you tap Lock in. If the clock runs out before you do, none of them count.
• If there are fewer than three answers you can choose from, you give a medal to each of them.
• The result lists the answers from the most medal points to the fewest, with the medals each one got. Then the names come out, then the points.

All points come from the votes and medals your answers get.

• Round 1: 100 points for each vote.
• Round 2: 200 points for each vote, on new prompts.
• Clean sweep: an answer that takes every vote in its matchup, with at least two votes cast, earns one more vote’s worth. That is 100 in round 1 and 200 in round 2.
• The final: 300 points for each gold, 200 for each silver and 100 for each bronze.
• A Help me answer scores half of what its votes or medals are worth.
• An answer the house wrote for an empty card scores nothing.
• A level matchup: each answer scores its own votes, and there is no bonus.

After the final, the most points wins. Players level on points share the place. Nobody wins on zero points.

Two awards are shown with the final standings. Funniest line goes to the single answer whose votes were worth the most in its matchup or in the final: a round 2 vote counts double, and a gold counts for more than a bronze. Most sweeps goes to the player with the most clean sweeps, if anyone had one.

While people are voting, the host sees a Hide button beside each answer. It takes that answer off every screen, for a word the filter missed.

A hidden answer scores nothing, and votes for it do not count. If you had already voted for it, you can vote again.

• Closing early: writing or voting ends as soon as everyone still in the room has finished, without waiting for the clock.
• Last call for bots: once every person has finished and bots are the ones left, the bots get a few seconds more, not the whole clock.
• More than eight players: the first eight, in the order they joined the room, write. Anyone after that votes on every matchup and gives medals in the final, but does not write.
• Someone leaving: the game does not wait for them. Any card they had not sent is filled by the house. Their points stay on the standings, and if they come back during the game they can carry on playing.
• The host leaving: if the host taps Leave, the game ends and everyone goes back to the room. If the host’s phone drops out without leaving, another phone takes over and the game carries on.
• Late joiners: the seats are set when the game starts. Someone who joins later watches this game and plays in the next.
• The same answer twice: two players can send the same answer. Both go up as written.
• Voting pays nothing: you score no points for voting, and there is no penalty for missing a vote. You cannot vote on a matchup you wrote for.

Bots write and vote like anyone else. A bot cannot make up a joke, so it writes one of the house’s answers for its prompt. Every prompt has eight. An easy bot draws from all eight, a medium bot from the first four, and a hard bot from the best two. Bots join at medium.

A bot never writes the answer its opponent has already sent, and in the final each bot writes a different one. Because a bot’s answer is the house’s, it scores half for its votes, the same as Help me.

A bot takes its time like a person would. It sends its answers part of the way through the writing, and votes a few seconds after voting opens.

A bot cannot judge what is funny, so its vote is drawn by chance with a lean. An answer a person wrote themselves is four times as likely to be picked as an ordinary house answer, and twice as likely as one of the house’s best two.

• Solo: host a room and four bots fill the table. They write, they vote, and your own lines are the ones they like best.
• With friends anywhere: share the room code or invite link. Every phone shows the prompts, the answers, the votes, the names and the standings, so nobody needs a shared screen.
• As a party: put joinme.games/watch on a TV and enter the room code. The TV shows who has written, each matchup, who has voted, the result and the standings. It reads each prompt and its answers out loud as they go up, if its browser has a voice, and the room’s laugh and cheer come from it.

• Writing: type your answer and press Enter, or tap Send. Tap Help me for a house answer.
• Voting: tap the answer you like better.
• The final: tap your gold, silver and bronze in order, then tap Lock in.
• Host: tap Hide beside an answer to take it off every screen.

How do you play Zinger?

Two players get the same prompt and each writes the funniest answer they can. The two answers go up with no names, and everyone else votes for one. Every vote is points. In the final, everyone answers one prompt and gives gold, silver and bronze to the others.

How many players do you need for Zinger?

Three or more. Bots fill the seats up to five, so every matchup has three voters, and you can play alone or with one friend.

Can you play Zinger with two or three people?

Yes. With two people, three bots join. With three people, two bots join. The bots write answers and vote, and your own answers are the ones they are most likely to vote for.

How do you win Zinger?

Have the most points after the final. Each vote is worth 100 in round 1 and 200 in round 2, with a bonus for taking every vote. In the final a gold is worth 300, a silver 200 and a bronze 100.

Do you need a TV to play Zinger?

No. Every phone shows the prompts, the answers, the votes and the names. A TV on joinme.games/watch shows the same thing bigger and reads the prompts and answers out loud.

Is Zinger family friendly?

The prompts are written to be family friendly, and the Kids setting deals only the ones picked for younger players. Blocked words are refused when you send an answer, and the host can hide any answer during the vote.