Last updated 16 September 2026

House Rules

These are the rules used by Hintrigue’s game rulebook. The game is played in a room. A seat is a position in that room; the storyteller is the seat taking the current turn.

A round

The storyteller secretly chooses one card and gives a hint.
Every other participating seat chooses one card from their hand as a decoy.
The table shuffles the storyteller card together with the decoys. Every participating non-storyteller seat votes for a card, but cannot vote for its own decoy. The storyteller does not vote.
The table reveals the card owners and votes, applies points, refills hands, and starts the next storyteller’s turn.

Points

Round outcome	Points
Some, but not all, voters find the storyteller’s card	The storyteller gets 3. Each finder gets 3.
No voters find it, every voter finds it, or there are no voters	Each voter gets 2. The storyteller gets 0 for this part.
A decoy receives a vote	The decoy’s owner gets 1 point for each vote it receives, on top of any other points.

Decoy points are not capped: a decoy receives one point per vote it steals.

Turns, ties, and missed actions

The storyteller rotates through the participating seats for the configured number of rotations. The highest total wins. Tied top totals remain co-winners; finds, then votes stolen, order the standings but do not remove a co-winner.

With a timer enabled, a missing hint voids that round without changing cards or scores. A storyteller who times out on two consecutive hints becomes spectating until they next act. Missing decoys are chosen automatically from the missing seats’ hands. A seat that misses voting is not a voter for that round; votes cast for that seat’s decoy can still earn it decoy points. After voting, reveal and scoring advance on their own presentation timers. A game is abandoned if fewer than three active seats remain.

Good table manners

Keep hints playful and respect the people in your room. The game works best when every decoy has a chance to fool the table.