Facedown: Card Game

Facedown is the card game you know how to play by the end of your first round.

Everyone gets four cards, face down. You may look at two of them, once. After that you are on your memory — and so is everybody else.

On your turn you take the top card of the pile and decide: play it to the middle, or swap it into your row and let the card it replaces go instead.

Some cards do something when you play them. A seven or an eight lets you look at one of your own. A nine or a ten lets you look at somebody else's. A jack or a queen swaps any two cards on the table, and nobody sees what moved. A black king gives you two powers, one after the other. A red king is worth minus one and is the best card in the deck.

The moment a card lands in the middle, anyone holding that same rank may burn it — first to tap wins. Burn one of your own and that slot is gone for good, which is exactly what you want. Burn somebody else's and you hand them one of yours, face down, unseen by both of you. Get it wrong and you take cards back with interest.

When you think you are lowest, call Magic. Everybody turns over there and then. Be strictly lowest and you take what is in front of you. Tie for lowest, or misjudge it, and you take thirty.

• Two to eight players • No account, no sign-up, nothing saved • Start a table, read out the four-character code, and everyone joins from the first screen • Practice players, to learn on or to fill a table • Red or blue deck, and your cards in a row or a block • Sound and vibration, both off with one tap

How to play is on the first screen, and it teaches the game with the actual cards rather than a wall of text.