Six ways to score a game
Every game in Tabletales has a scoring mode. New games start on Highest wins, so pick another if your game is won a different way:
| Mode | How it works | Good for games like |
|---|---|---|
| Highest wins | Most points takes it | Wingspan, Catan, Rummy 500 |
| Lowest wins | Golf-style: fewest points takes it | Hearts, Skyjo, the card game Golf |
| Places | Finishing order, 1st, 2nd, 3rd. No points | Races and party games where only the order counts |
| Teams | Team A against Team B (up to four teams), and the win is shared | Spades, Euchre, Canasta |
| Co-op | You play together against the game: we won, or we lost | Cooperative games like Pandemic |
| Who won? | No points. Tap whoever won | Bananagrams, or any game where only the winner matters |
Places and Who won? don't use the keypad at all. In Places, you pick each player's place from a list. In Who won?, you tap the trophy on whoever won, and if more than one person won, you tap them all.
Totals, or every hand
The Scorepad has two views, and you can switch between them while you play.
- Totals: one number per player. Good for a board game you score once, at the end.
- By hand: a numbered row for every hand or round, a column for every player, and a TOTAL line at the bottom that adds each column as you type. Good for card games that go hand after hand.
Tap any hand later to fix it. If you decide you only want the final numbers, Keep totals only turns each player's hands into one total (and you can undo it for a few seconds).
Add it up on the keypad
Scores at the table are messy. Type them the way you count them: 23 + 8 + 4, and the Scorepad saves 35. Only the answer is kept, never the sum.
- The keypad puts 7 8 9 on the top row, with tall plus and minus keys beside the numbers and a Next key that moves on to the next player.
- Negative scores work: tap the plus-minus key, and the score shows in red.
- Scores are whole numbers.
Play to a score
Some games end at a number. Set the game to play to 100, 200 or 500 with one tap, or type any target you like. The top of the Scorepad then shows it, "To 500", so nobody forgets.
On the TOTAL line, a total that reaches the target is marked, and your phone gives a little buzz the first time anyone gets there. The Scorepad never ends the game for you, though: you finish the hand the way your rules say, and the best total wins.
(Co-op games don't have a target, since you win or lose together.)
The leader, at a glance
A small trophy marks whoever is ahead so far, and players tied for the lead share it. Wrong direction? Flip between High wins and Low wins with one tap, right inside the Scorepad.
Little things that save time
- Hold Next to give a player the same score as the player before, then move on.
- Hold 0 to zero this score and every blank one after it in the hand, then jump to the next hand.
- Hold a hand's number to clear that hand for everyone. There is an Undo.
- Someone joins late? Add them, and they start at the hand you're on. Their earlier hands stay blank, which counts as sitting out, not as zero.
- Someone just watching? Mark them as watching. They are part of the night, with no score.
Teams and co-op
Teams: tap a letter to put each player on Team A, B, C or D. A team's total is the sum of its players' scores, so you can type the whole team's score under one player and leave the rest blank. Everyone on the winning team shares the win. Playing a team game without points? Just tap the team that won.
Co-op: say whether the table won or lost. Scores are optional, for the games that keep one.
Share the Scorepad as a picture
A game you kept By hand can go to the group chat as a picture of the whole Scorepad: every hand, and the totals. You can send the game's card instead, or both together. Tap Share, or Save to Photos. It goes only where you send it.
Then the game is kept
When the game ends, save it with the rest of the night: who played, who watched, and a few photos from the table. A game you kept By hand keeps its Scorepad, so you can open it later and see how the game went, hand after hand.
Over time, every game builds a history: how many times you have played it, who you play it with, and who holds the high score.
Prefer paper?
We have free printable score sheets and scoring guides for card games like Rummy 500 and Hearts. Each guide also shows the live Scorepad, set up for that game.
