How to play

One big screen, a phone each, and a picture that could mean almost anything. Here is how a game of FlickerTale goes, from the first clue to the last lantern.

FlickerTale is a storytelling game for one room: three to sixteen people, or just you against the house. The big screen is the table everyone looks at. The phone in your hand holds your cards. There is nothing to install and nobody signs up.

What you need

• A big screen everyone can see. A TV with a web browser, a laptop plugged into the TV, a laptop on the coffee table, or a tablet propped up.
• A phone each, with a web browser. Any recent phone will do.
• Three players or more. If you are short, the house can fill a seat or two; if you are on your own, it can fill the whole table.

Setting the table

1. On the big screen, open flickertale.com and choose Set the table. The screen becomes the table and shows a five-letter code and a QR code.
2. Everyone else opens flickertale.com on their phone and types the code, or points their camera at the QR code. A tap on Copy the link for the group chat gives you a link to send as well.
3. On your phone, type the name the table should call you, choose a companion (a little creature in your colour), and tap Take my seat.
4. When everyone is in, the host taps Start on the big screen. The host is whoever set the table, on that screen.

A round

Each round, one player is the storyteller. The story moves round the table, so everyone gets a turn.

1. The storyteller picks a painting from their hand and gives a clue: a word, a line of a song, a sound, a feeling. They can type it, or say it out loud.
2. Everyone else slips in a card from their own hand that could fit the clue, hoping to lure the others to it.
3. The cards are shuffled onto the big screen, numbered, and everyone but the storyteller guesses which one is the storyteller’s. Tapping a card only picks it; you confirm to lock it in, and you can change your mind until the clock runs out.
4. The reveal. First the table sees where every guess landed. Then the bluffs are unmasked one by one, and last of all the storyteller’s own card.
5. Scores, then the next storyteller.

Scoring, in one breath

The storyteller wants some of the table to find their card, but not everyone.

• If some but not all find it, the storyteller and everyone who found it score 3.
• If everybody finds it, or nobody does, the storyteller scores nothing and everyone else scores 2.
• Whatever happens, you score 1 for every person who guessed your card instead of the storyteller’s. Bluffs score too.

The first to 30 points wins. At a big table (nine or more), the game ends instead when everyone has told one story, and a single bluff can earn at most 3 in a round. The rules reference has every number, and scoring has worked examples.

The clocks

The storyteller has 90 seconds, and everyone else 60 seconds to slip in a card. The 30 seconds to guess start when the first person confirms a guess. Nobody is ever left waiting on one person: if time runs out, the card already chosen for you plays itself, and a guess is picked for you. If the storyteller runs out of time with a card and a clue ready, they are sent; otherwise the story passes to the next player, with no penalty.

Before the game starts, the host can loosen or tighten all of this from Change the rules on the big screen, or choose Relaxed: no clock on the storyteller or the cards, up to five minutes to guess, and each part of the reveal waits up to a minute for everyone to tap Next.

Play over a video call

Friends in other homes can play too. You need a video call and a phone each.

1. The host opens flickertale.com on a laptop, chooses Set the table, and shares that browser tab or window in the call.
2. Everyone watches the shared screen for the code and the table, and joins on their own phone: open flickertale.com and type the code, or scan the QR code off their call screen.
3. Play as usual. Your cards stay private on your phone; the shared screen only ever shows what the table may see.

A few things help: share the tab’s sound if your call lets you, so everyone hears the table; a shared screen can run a second behind, so trust the clock on your phone; and say clues out loud if the table prefers it. There is more in playing over a video call.

Just you tonight?

Choose Play with the house on the front door, pick how many house players sit down, and tap Deal me in. Your phone becomes both your hand and the table. House players tell stories, bluff and guess like anyone. They are played by the computer; some think with Claude, an AI. More in house players.

Last changed on 29 September 2026.