Rules

How a BoardMob board works

The board

Every board is a 10 by 10 grid, so 100 squares. The host names the board and names the two sides. One side runs along the rows, the other along the columns.

The host also sets two things when the board is created. How many points a claimed square is worth, as a whole number from 1 to 1000. And how the board total is divided across the four periods, as four whole percentages that add up to 100. A new board starts at 20 / 20 / 20 / 40, and the host can change it.

Each board has one link. Anyone who has that link can open the board and claim squares. Players do not create an account.

Claiming a square

While the board is open for claims, you tap the squares you want and enter a display name. The display name is the whole claim. It is 24 characters or fewer, and it cannot contain money or gambling terms.

You can select several squares and claim them together. If two people go for the same square at the same moment, exactly one of them gets it. The other keeps the squares that were still open and is told which ones were already taken.

Filling the rest of the board

The board has to be completely full before the game can start. Three things fill it:

• Players claim squares from the link.
• The host adds a player to a particular square. That counts as a claim, exactly as if the player had made it.
• The host runs Distribute, which hands out everything still open at once.

While the board is still open, the host can also release a square, which returns it to the pool for anyone to take.

How Distribute hands squares out

Distribute divides the remaining squares in proportion to how many squares each player claimed. A player who claimed twice as many squares as someone else receives about twice as many. Whatever is left after that division goes out at random. Every remaining square is handed out, so the board ends up full.

Squares received from Distribute are assigned rather than claimed. They do not count toward the board total, and they stay eligible to win a period like any other square.

Starting the game

The host starts the game by drawing the numbers. That only runs when every square on the board is held and at least 2 different players hold squares.

Drawing shuffles the digits 0 through 9 into a random order for the rows, and shuffles them again independently for the columns. That is what decides which score digit each row and each column stands for. Nobody knows it before it happens, including the host.

Drawing the numbers is also the moment the board locks. The numbers and the lock are written together in a single step, so there is no window where the numbers are visible while squares can still be claimed.

From that point, who holds each square is fixed for the rest of the game. Squares cannot be claimed, added, released or cleared after the numbers are drawn.

Scores and the winning square

The host enters the score at the end of each period: Q1, Q2, Q3, then Final. They are entered in that order.

The winning square for a period is found by the last digit of each side's score. Take the last digit of the row side's score and find it along the rows, take the last digit of the column side's score and find it along the columns, and the square where those two meet wins that period.

Scores are running game totals, so neither side's score can be lower than it was in an earlier period. A period where nobody scores is ordinary, not an error. Entering the Final score ends the game.

How points are worked out

The board total counts claimed squares only, at the board's points per square. Squares handed out by Distribute are not counted toward it, and they stay eligible to win a period.

That total is divided across the four periods using the board's percentages. Q1, Q2 and Q3 are rounded to whole points, and the Final period receives whatever is left over rather than being rounded on its own. That is deliberate: it means the four awards always add up to the board total exactly. Points are always whole numbers.

Points are a score kept on the board and nothing more.

The four states of a board

• Open for Claims. Squares can be claimed, added, released and handed out. No numbers have been drawn.
• Locked. The numbers are drawn and every square has an owner. Nothing about ownership changes from here.
• Game Live. At least one period score is in, and the board highlights the square that matches.
• Final. The Final score is in and the game is over. The board stays readable so everyone can see how it finished.

The host

A board belongs to the host who created it. The host shares the link, decides when the board is full enough to start, draws the numbers, and enters the scores. BoardMob is a coordination tool: it is not a participant in, an organizer of, or a party to whatever arrangement a host and their group make among themselves. That is set out in the Terms of Service, which also covers what a host is responsible for.

If something on a board looks wrong, ask the host who shared the link with you. If you need us, see Support.