📖 Rules & variants
This page decides how a song gets sung and who sings it — never which song. The song comes from the room's own karaoke box. There is no backing track, no lyric sheet and no song list here, and nothing ever listens to you: no microphone permission, no recording, no pitch score.
There are four card types: whole-room chorus, two-person duet, one-person solo, and role cards that need no singing at all (caller, timekeeper, drummer, judge, hype crew). Every round is guaranteed at least one role card — one at 5 cards, two at 8, three at 12 — so the person hiding behind their phone gets a job too.
The difficulty of a round is a fixed curve, not a dice roll. The first card is always a warm-up and the last is always a challenge, with chorus → duet → one line → long solo in between. Every round therefore opens at the lowest possible exposure, including the second and third round: a new table's nerves do not inherit the last round's heat.
Judging is three buttons and there is no fourth way out. “Nailed it” records a completion and advances. “Too hard” rewrites the card as its easier version, still counts as done, and shows on its own line at settlement. “Swap card” deals a fresh card at the same tier while the progress bar stays exactly where it was, and the discarded card goes to the bottom of the pile so it will not come straight back. You get 2 swaps at 5 and 8 cards, 3 at 12; after that the button becomes “Skip this one”, still unlimited, it just moves the round along.
The time on a card is a suggestion, not a countdown. Tap the ring to start it. When it reaches zero it changes colour and adds one line of text — all three judging buttons stay live and nobody gets cut off mid-song. Switching apps pauses it, and it needs another tap to resume. That is deliberate: a hard countdown suits a typing game, and being cut off halfway is a second layer of awkward for someone singing.
Settlement has exactly one dimension: X of Y done. No pitch score, no “how good was it”, no elimination, no forfeit, and no “failed N” line anywhere. With names added you also get a per-person bar chart and a “boldest of the night” line (most solo and duet completions) — everyone tied is listed, because there is no single winner here.
Three details people miss: a swap does not move the progress bar, so “swapped 2” and “7 of 8 done” are not in conflict; chorus cards do not consume a turn, so the rotation only counts cards that need one person; and the round is saved in your own browser, so a refresh brings back the same card, the same stage and the same performer — but a different device starts fresh.
Variations worth trying: when the room is still cold, set the round to 5 cards and run it fast; with more than eight people always add names first, because a phone passed at random leaves someone out all night; hand role cards to whoever has been on their phone longest; and use “swap card” generously early — the more openly it gets used, the fewer people refuse a card later.
❓ FAQ
What are some good karaoke party games?
The four that actually work in a booth are task cards (draw a card that says how this song gets sung), a song wheel (decides which lane to pick from), song-title chains, and guess-the-song. This page is the first kind: each card says whole-room chorus, duet, one line only, or a no-singing role, plus roughly how long and what counts as done. It never touches the music, so it stacks with the other three.
What to do at karaoke if you can't sing?
Do not wait to get volunteered — take a card that narrows the job for you. The low-pressure ones come up constantly: sing along on the chorus with the whole room, trade lines with one other person, sing only the one line you are surest of, or take a role card and not sing at all (call who's next, keep the beat, start the applause, name one good thing afterwards). Every round deals at least one role card, and any card you cannot manage can be dropped to its easier version.
How do you keep karaoke turns fair in a group?
Let the app draw the order instead of letting a person name people out loud. Add 2 to 12 names, the order is shuffled once, and every single-performer card is dealt around that rotation — nobody ends up more than one turn ahead of anyone else. A permanent line shows who is up next, which hands the most awkward sentence of the night to the screen. Chorus cards do not consume a turn, so they never scramble the order.
How do you stop karaoke night from going flat?
A flat room is almost never short of singers, it is short of someone willing to go first. Fix both variables at once: decide who and decide how. In practice that means opening on a whole-room chorus so everyone makes a sound at the same time, keeping the second card at warm-up level instead of jumping to a challenge, and putting a role card in play early to pull in whoever has gone quiet. An 8-card round runs about seven minutes, which is exactly the gap between two songs.
What is written on a karaoke challenge card?
Three things, always: what to do, roughly how long, and what counts as done. For example: “The whole room sings this chorus, no lip-syncing — about 30 seconds — done when the chorus ends and at least three people made a sound.” Cards describe a way of singing, never a specific song or artist, so nobody ends up stuck with a track they do not know. There are 60 cards and the deck remembers what you have already seen across rounds.
What if you draw a karaoke card you can't do?
Two exits, neither of them costs anything. “Too hard” rewrites the card as a smaller target — a whole song becomes the chorus, a chorus becomes one line, and speaking it instead of singing it is often allowed — and it still records as done. “Swap card” deals a different card at the same tier and the progress bar does not move at all. You get two or three swaps per round; after that the button turns into “Skip this one”, which you can use as often as you like. Nothing is ever marked as failed.
How many people do you need for a karaoke game, and how long is a round?
Anywhere from 2 to 12, with 4 to 8 the sweet spot. Rounds come in 5, 8 and 12 cards — 8 by default — which works out at roughly 4, 7 and 11 minutes at 40 to 60 seconds a card. Small groups can stay on the default. Above eight people, add names before you start, otherwise a randomly passed phone leaves someone out for the whole night. If the room has not warmed up yet, run a 5-card round first rather than grinding through 12.
What are some singing challenge ideas that change how you sing?
The cards do the thinking for you. The step-up and challenge tiers include singing a chorus in a style that does not fit at all, dropping it an octave and going as low as you can, rapping it instead, flipping one line into falsetto, putting another song's words over this song's tune, doubling the speed, and singing it in your hometown accent. Each of those ships with an easier version, so two lines still counts — being brave enough to draw one does not mean you are stuck with it.
⚠️ This page deals task cards only — no backing tracks, no lyrics, no song list; use your own karaoke box or music app for the music. It never asks for microphone access, never records, never scores your pitch, and contains no drinking tasks. No sign-up, no download, nothing sent over the network while you play; names and records stay in this browser.
