Back Page

Back Page is a book of small board games, drawn in biro on the squared back page of an exercise book, where games like these have always been played.

Play whoever's in the call

Start it in a voice channel and everyone there is already at the table: no link to send, no code to type. The seats wear your Discord names and faces, and whoever is talking lights up. Most games are for two; some seat three or four, and the computer fills any empty seat.

Or play the computer

Nobody around? Every game can be played alone against the computer, on easy, steady or ruthless.

The games

Classics and a few you may not know yet: Noughts & Crosses, Four in a Row, Reversi, Dots & Boxes, Go, Mancala, Hex, Yut Nori and more, with new ones added to the book as they are drawn. Each comes with its rules copied out by hand on a sheet taped in beside the board, so you can pick one you have never played and start.

Every move is checked

The rules are enforced on the server, not just drawn on the screen, so a move that is not allowed simply does not happen.

Coins, pens and covers

Every finished round pays coins, a win pays most, and a run of wins pays more. Spend them on new ink colours, pen types, covers for the book and desks to lay it on. It is all for looks: nothing is sold for money, and nothing changes how a game plays.

A score for every server

Rounds played in a server's voice channels go on that server's own top-ten board, wins first.

Little things

• A rematch swaps the seats, or pick another game at the same table.
• The sounds are drawn too: every scratch and tap is synthesised, no recordings.
• Stays readable on a phone, and when Discord shrinks it into a corner.