Room setup
Choose four or five card slots, a new-card interval of 1s, 2s, or 3s, an empty-card probability of 0%, 2%, 5%, 10%, or 20%, a Claim answer time of 2s, 3s, or 5s, and a wrong-claim ban of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 rounds. Also choose one end condition: a maximum time of 3, 5, or 10 minutes, or a maximum number of rounds of 50, 100, or 200. The number of card slots is denoted by M. The defaults are a 5-minute maximum time, M=4, a 2s interval, a 2% empty-card probability, 3s to answer a claim, and a 2-round wrong-claim ban.
The deck
There are 81 regular cards. Every regular card combines one of three shapes (squiggle, oval, or diamond), three colors (red, green, or blue), the number 1, 2, or 3, and one of three shadings (solid, striped, or open). A dealt card may instead be an empty card, shown as ∅, according to the room's selected probability.
Starting the game
Every room in the lobby can be viewed by registered users and guests. Registered users also see Join for waiting rooms that accept another player. A signed-in viewer can select Join, and a joined player can select View, without leaving the opened room. If the host switches to viewing, another joined player becomes the host. The final remaining player cannot switch to viewing. Once every currently joined player is ready, the host starts the game and no more players can join or switch roles. The game screen begins with M empty card slots and a clock showing time elapsed from the game start.
Card slots
A thick black outline outside the card and an arrow from the center of the slots point to the next slot without changing the card or symbol size. After the room's selected new-card interval, either a random regular card or an empty card appears there; that slot is unhighlighted and the following slot is highlighted. The game continues through slots 1 to M, then returns to slot 1 and overwrites its existing card. The first card starts round 1. Additional cards remain in the same round until somebody claims. The first card dealt after that claim starts the next round.
Finding five of a kind
Look for exactly five units sharing one trait. The nine possible answers are five red pieces, five blue pieces, five green pieces, five ovals, five diamonds, five squiggles, five solid pieces, five striped pieces, or five open pieces. A regular card's printed number contributes that many units to its color, shape, and shading. An empty card contributes zero units to every trait. More than one answer can be correct on the same board.
Claiming and scoring
Every player begins with 0 points. Click Claim or press Space during gameplay when you see exactly five of something. Space does not trigger Claim while focus is in private notes, room chat, another interactive control, or an open dialog. The first accepted claim immediately closes the round to every other player, pauses the shared card cycle, opens the nine answers below that player's Claim box, and shows a progress bar draining over the room's Claim answer time. A correct choice adds 1 point. An incorrect choice, or failing to answer before the bar empties, leaves the score unchanged and bans that player from claiming and voting on the card interval for the configured number of subsequent rounds. At 0 rounds, no ban is applied and an existing interval vote remains. Otherwise, their existing interval vote is cleared, and they are excluded from interval-vote majorities until the ban ends. The scoreboard shows the remaining ban count next to a red circle with a white cross. A ban decreases when an accepted claim closes a subsequent round, not whenever a card is dealt. If every player who has not resigned would be banned, the smallest remaining ban is subtracted from all of those players so at least one can Claim in the next round. Regardless of the answer, nobody else can claim until the preserved timer deals a new card and starts the next round.
Changing the card interval
The interval control has three boxes: the current delay in milliseconds, slower, and faster. Exactly one is highlighted. Selecting the current-delay box means neither and clears your vote. The highlighted box cannot be selected again; change your vote by selecting one of the other two boxes. Immediately before a card appears, the server checks the votes. Strictly more than half of the players who have neither resigned nor been temporarily banned must choose the same option: faster reduces the interval by 10%, while slower increases it by 10%. The new value is rounded to the nearest positive whole millisecond and applies when scheduling the following card. Votes matching the applied majority are cleared; votes for the opposite direction remain selected.
Resigning
Select Resign and confirm to stop participating without ending the room. Your status changes to Resigned, and your Claim button and interval controls remain visible but disabled. Your existing interval vote is cleared, and only players who have not resigned count toward later interval-vote majorities. If you resign during your own pending Claim, that Claim is cancelled without changing your score and the card timer resumes. You remain able to watch the game and use room chat while the remaining players continue.
Ending the game
A round-limited game ends after the claim in its selected final round is resolved, times out, or is cancelled because the claimant resigns. A timed game ends at its wall-clock deadline, including when a player has paused the card cycle to make a claim. No claim, answer, interval vote, or new card is accepted at or after that deadline.
Every player, including a player who resigned, then receives an ELO change based on the final points. If all players have 0 points, each player score is 1 divided by the number of players. Otherwise, player score is that player's points divided by the total points. Expected score is 1 divided by the sum of 10 raised to ((each player's ELO minus this player's ELO) divided by 400), including this player in the sum. New ELO is the greater of 1 and old ELO + 40 × (player score − expected score). The completed scoreboard shows each player's ELO change.
The server records the round, claimant, claiming reaction time, trait-selection time, and outcome for every accepted Claim. Claiming reaction time is measured from the most recently dealt card until Claim is accepted. Trait-selection time is measured from Claim until the server receives the chosen trait and is empty when the outcome is timeout, resignation, or game deadline. The five outcomes are correct, incorrect, timeout, resignation, and game deadline. After the game, an overlapping histogram for each player compares claiming reaction times for correct and unsuccessful outcomes.
Game screen
The M slots appear in the middle of the playing surface, with the scoreboard on the left, Claim at the top right, and a helper showing the current exact-five results at the bottom right. The scoreboard ranks higher point totals first; players tied on points are ranked with the lower Five of a Kind ELO first. Use Room info in the navbar to review the selected end condition, Card slots, New card interval, Empty card probability, Claim answer time, and Wrong claim ban settings. The hamburger button shows or hides the right panel, which contains an Info box, private notes saved only in this browser for the room, and the shared room chat. The Info box reports how many rounds were deducted from every remaining player's ban when the server must preserve claim availability.