First Player

Let It Choose

Can't even agree on which method to use? Tap this and it randomly spins through the methods, lands on one, and runs it immediately. Name, Poker, 8-Ball, and RPS use everyone in your roster; Card and D20 are always ready.

Choosing a method

Tap the method tabs at the top to switch between six ways to pick a first player:

• Card — Draw a prompt card describing a trait or recent action. Whoever matches it goes first. Shuffled fresh every game. Use "Edit Cards" below the deck to write your own prompts, or import/export a set as a file (Pro — free during beta).
• Name — Shuffle your whole roster and land on one name. Simple and fast.
• D20 — Everyone secretly guesses a number from 1–20, then you roll the die. Closest guess goes first; ties re-roll.
• Poker — Everyone in your roster is dealt 7 cards, 7-card-stud style, and their best possible 5-card hand goes first. Works for up to 7 players (a 52-card deck can't stretch further).
• 8-Ball — Ask a question and shake. Instead of yes/no, the ball answers with one of your players' names.
• RPS — A knockout tournament for your whole roster. The app throws rock/paper/scissors for every matchup, best of 3, until one champion remains.

Name and Poker

Both tabs pull directly from your roster — everyone shows up automatically, no picking required. To leave someone out for the night, remove them in Player Names instead (or add them back after).

1. Open the Name tab and tap Shuffle & Deal to land on one player.
2. Open the Poker tab and tap Deal Hands — each player gets 7 cards, and the app finds their best possible 5-card hand automatically. More than 7 players in your roster? Poker mode will ask you to trim down for that one.

Using 8-Ball

Type your question (optional, just for flavor) and shake — tap the button or the ball itself. The window reveals one of your roster's names, picked at random and shown in their color.

Using RPS

Everyone in your roster enters a knockout tournament automatically.

1. Tap Start Tournament. Players are shuffled and paired up.
2. Each pairing plays a synced "Rock… Paper… Scissors… SHOOT!" countdown, best of 3 — a tied throw automatically replays just that round. With an odd number of players, one gets a bye each round.
3. Winners advance until one champion remains, with a full round-by-round bracket recap on screen. Tap New Tournament to run it back.

Light Saber and Wizard are real alternate rulesets, not just reskins. Light Saber is a 3-way Attack/Focus/Block duel (Attack beats Focus, Focus beats Block, Block beats Attack — based on the official Star Wars Lightsaber Academy toy). Wizard is a 5-way Rock/Paper/Scissors/Wizard/Croc cycle where each throw beats two others and loses to two (based on the card game Rock Paper Scissors Wizard Croc). Tap a mode to turn it on, tap it again (or the other mode) to switch back to classic rock-paper-scissors — a rule reminder appears on screen while a mode is active.

Your player roster

Every method here draws from the same shared roster, managed in Player Names — add, rename, recolor, reorder, or remove players there once, and it's reflected everywhere.

Add to home screen

Install the app on your home screen so it's ready in seconds when everyone sits down to play.

iOS · Safari

1. Open the app in Safari (must be Safari, not Chrome or Firefox).
2. Tap the Share button — the square with an arrow pointing up at the bottom of the screen.
3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
4. Tap Add to confirm.

Android · Chrome

1. Open the app in Chrome.
2. Tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
3. Tap Add to Home Screen or Install App.
4. Tap Add to confirm.

About

Board Game Tools is built and owned by Maxwell Drown (maxdrown@gmail.com) — check out maxdrown.com for more of my projects.

Your data stays on this device — everything you enter here is stored only in this browser's local storage and is never sent anywhere. There's no server and no account system yet, so there's nothing centralized to steal.