How a round of Our Deck works

Eight phases make the arc, always in this order, and Dare sits beside it as a side pile. Not every round uses every phase: the preset decides, and you can switch phases off before you start. Ground Rules and Aftercare always run.

Card counts are for a couple with one of each body. They change a little for same-sex couples, who get cards of their own.

1. Enter your names. Type the two names the cards will use. They stay on your phone.
2. Choose your bodies. Pick vulva or penis for each of you, so the deck only deals cards that fit.
3. Pick how to play. Choose Guided, Free Draw, or one of the five presets.
4. Choose how far the round goes. Switch on the phases the deck may use. Ground Rules, Release and Aftercare are always in.
5. Set the round. Choose how often dares are offered, give the round a time limit if you like, and turn on drinking mode if you both want it.
6. Agree the Ground Rules. Read the Ground Rules cards together: a safe word, a slow-down signal, who leads and what is off the table.
7. Play. Read each card aloud. Tap Done when you have played it, or Not this one for a different one.
8. Finish and come down. Release brings the round to its finish and Aftercare closes it, however it ended.

Guided runs the round for you: it deals each phase in order, paces it and suggests when to move on. Free Draw deals from any single phase you pick, with no arc and no pacing.

Free Draw is looser, not unsafe. Ground Rules still opens the round, refusing a card is still free, and Aftercare still closes it.

A preset decides which phases a round uses and how long each one lasts. All five are free.

Expansion packs add presets of their own: Back Door, Scene, Devotion, In the Dark and In Character. See the packs.

Done (Agreed in Ground Rules)

Plays the card and deals the next.

Not this one

Deals a different card. Always free: no forfeit, no reason, no counter.

Dare me instead

Swaps the card for a dare, when dares are on. It sits on its own row, never in place of Not this one.

Drink instead

With drinking mode on, a sip instead. Not this one is still there.

Next phase

Moves the round on early.

Pause

Steps out to the menu and keeps the round for three hours.

We're done with this round

Always at the bottom of the screen. It asks once, then goes to Aftercare.

• Cards that suggest a length have a timer. Tap Start and the button counts down; when it ends the phone chimes and buzzes. The screen stays awake while it runs.
• The clock gives a whole round a length. When time is up, the round moves on to Release and Aftercare.
• Dares can be off, occasional or often.
• Drinking mode adds do-or-drink cards and a Drink instead choice on every card. It asks for sips only, keeps Depths and restraint cards out, and is only for people of legal drinking age.

A card never repeats within a round, and a card drawn in the last 30 days won't open a phase again. The deck remembers that on your phone, nowhere else.

• The base deck has 242 cards. Seated on a couple, the full deck is 191 to 211 of them.
• Presets, the phases you switch on, dares and the clock all change the shape of a round.
• Cards are seated on the two of you, so whose turn it is changes from round to round.
• Five expansion packs add 155 more cards, dares included, and a preset each.
• With the full deck, Choose your cards switches off any card you'll never do, phase by phase or pack by pack, until you put it back. Each pack you own also has its own switch in Round settings.