Topic Cards

🕹️ How to play

1. How to start a round of Topic Cards: There is no setup screen and no start button — the deck is already on the table. The card back says "Tap to flip"; tap it and the first question appears. The bar on top shows whose turn it is and how many cards you've talked through. The chips at the bottom are the five decks, starting on Icebreaker. Seats, names and round length live behind the gear icon, and you never have to open it.
2. How one turn works: Your turn → you tap the deck yourself → read the question aloud → talk → tap "Done, next person" → hand the phone on, and the next person taps the deck. The flip is deliberately done by whoever is about to answer, which is what actually makes the phone travel around the table. Turn off "Take turns" in settings and the main button becomes "Next card": one tap per question, which is what you want on your own.
3. What to do when an answer stalls: Every card has a collapsed row at the bottom: "Stuck for a reply?". Open it and you get one ready-made follow-up you can read straight out, such as "What were you doing at the time?" — a sentence, not a hint. If you'd rather not answer the question at all, tap "Swap card": it goes to the bottom of the deck, a new one comes up, nothing is counted and the settlement screen never mentions it.
4. Choosing between the five decks: Icebreaker (45) is safe with strangers — nothing about relationships, money or looks. Friends (45) allows the funny and self-deprecating ones. Team (40) is workplace-safe: no romance, no salary, no family, no age. Couples (35) is for two people and assumes nothing about marriage, children or anyone's past. Deep (35) is for when there is time and appetite for it, and shows a standing note when selected. Switching decks reshuffles, so it asks first.
5. What happens when a round ends: Hit your target (12 cards by default) or empty the deck and you get the settlement: how many cards you talked through, how long it took, which card held the table longest, and the ones you starred. The first button is "Keep going" — same deck, no reshuffle, timer and stars carry over. "New round" reshuffles the same deck and "Change deck" swaps it. Cards you finished are remembered, so the next round deals unseen ones first.

📖 Rules & variants

The basic loop: a face-down deck sits on screen, whoever's turn it is taps it, and the card shows one question written to be read out loud. Talk about it for as long as it holds, then tap "Done, next person": the counter goes up, the turn moves on, the card flips back. There is no scoring, no winner and no judgement of who answered well — on purpose. The moment answers get graded, somebody at the table stops talking.

The bank holds 200 questions in five decks: icebreaker 45, friends 45, team 40, couples 35, deep 35. Those are the real counts, not rounded marketing numbers — a unit test asserts the page and the data agree. Every question is original, capped in length, and carries one short follow-up line. The Mixed deck merges icebreaker, friends and team into 130 cards; couples and deep deliberately stay out of it, so a heavy question never lands on a table that wasn't ready for one.

What "Swap card" really does: the current card goes to the BOTTOM of the deck and a new one is dealt immediately. The counter doesn't move, the turn doesn't move, nothing is logged, and no skip count appears anywhere at settlement. The point is a free exit — if you don't want to answer, you don't, and you don't have to explain it to the table. The swapped card stays in the deck and may well come round again later in the same round.

Turns: four seats by default, labelled Seat 1 to Seat 4, and you can paste real names in settings (duplicates get ① ② markers automatically). Each "Done, next person" advances the seat and the card back updates to "Pass to Seat 3" as a nudge to hand the phone over. Turn the toggle off and the turn bar disappears entirely and the main button becomes "Next card"; turn it back on and the seat resumes where it paused rather than jumping back to Seat 1. Changing the seat count mid-round never restarts the round.

Round length and the two ways a round ends: pick 8 / 12 / 20 / all in settings, 12 by default. A round settles when either the target is reached, or the deck runs out AND the last card has been talked through. That second half matters: an empty deck does not cut anyone off mid-question. And when the card in your hand IS the last one, "Swap card" turns into "Skip this one, end here" — tap it and the round settles without counting that card, logging it or advancing the turn.

The settlement screen: how many cards this round (big), total time, which card held the table longest and for how long, and every card you starred, listed in full so you can copy one or unstar it on the spot. Deliberately absent: how many cards were swapped, who swapped them, who talked longest, per-person totals. Any per-person number turns a conversation into a contest. Total time only counts foreground time, so stepping away to take a call doesn't inflate it.

Keep going, new round, change deck: "Keep going" raises the target by the smaller of the original target and the cards left, then continues with the same deck — no reshuffle, no new seed, stars and elapsed time untouched, and the turn resumes where it stopped. When the deck is nearly out the button says so ("Keep going (9 left)"), and once it is empty the button is not rendered at all; a line takes its place instead. "New round" reshuffles the same deck; "Change deck" switches deck and reshuffles.

Not repeating across sessions: at settlement, the questions you actually finished are added to a local "already discussed" list (capped at 120, oldest dropped first). When the next deck is built, unseen cards are placed ahead of seen ones without exception — so a second evening doesn't open on last night's first few cards. That ordering is the hard rule; "open with something light" and "no three same-topic cards in a row" are best-effort and yield to it when the maths doesn't work out.

Find a card by number: every card carries a global number (#001–#200) in its top-right corner, and settings lets you pull up any of them directly. It exists for the friend who isn't in the room — they read you a number, you type it in, and you are both looking at the same sentence. A card pulled up this way costs no deck slot and moves no counter; if you had a card in hand, it returns to the bottom of the deck rather than disappearing. Numbers never change once published.

The soft timer (off by default): switch on a 30 / 45 / 60 second timer in settings and it starts when the card is revealed. When it runs out, exactly two things happen — the card border breathes once, and a faint line appears beside the main button. Nothing advances, nothing pops up, nothing makes a sound and no control is disabled. It is a nudge, not a referee; a table in full flow is free to ignore it.

Where your data lives: settings, the current round, your stars, the seen list and the lifetime counters are all stored in this browser only. There is no account, no server and no network request while you play. With storage blocked the game still works fully — it just won't survive a refresh, and both the first screen and the settlement say so. "Clear this game's data" sits at the bottom of the settings drawer behind a confirmation.

House rules worth trying: (1) Relay — after answering, name someone else who has to answer the same question; (2) Timed — switch on the 45-second timer and pass when it chimes, good for bigger tables; (3) Pick of three — flip three via "Swap card" and vote on which one to actually discuss; (4) Star and recap — star as you go, then read the starred list out before everyone leaves; (5) Solo prep — one seat, turns off, and the button becomes "Next card" so you can run through the deck before the evening starts.

❓ FAQ