Jokers and Marbles — frequently asked questions
Rules questions, and the ones about accounts and coins.
The basics
What is Jokers and Marbles?
Jokers and Marbles is a traditional board game played with marbles and an ordinary deck of cards. It goes by a lot of names — Pegs and Jokers, Jokers and Pegs, Marbles and Jokers, and a dozen family variations besides. If you grew up playing it around a kitchen table, this is that game.
You and a partner race five marbles each from your start pen, all the way around the board, and into your home track. The first team to get all ten marbles home wins.
Is it free to play?
Yes. The game is free, and it is free forever — every rule, every board size, and every opponent. Nothing about how you play is behind a payment.
Coins only buy cosmetics: marble colours and finishes, avatar costumes, and board skins. They change what your pieces look like and nothing else. There is no advantage to buy.
Do I need an account?
No. You can open the site and start a game against bots, or create a room and send the link to friends, without signing up for anything.
An account is only needed if you want your progress to follow you — trophies, gamertags, and anything you have bought. Signing up takes an email address and a password.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. It runs in a mobile browser with no app to install, and the board and controls lay out for a narrow screen. There is nothing to download on a desktop either.
How do I play with friends?
Create a room and send the link. Anyone who opens it lands at your table — they do not need an account, and they do not need to install anything.
You can also join a room by typing its code, or use matchmaking to be seated with strangers.
Rules
How many players are there, and who is on my team?
Four players is the standard game, and six and eight-player boards exist too. You always play in partnerships, and your partner sits across from you.
Because it is a team game, helping your partner is often worth more than helping yourself — and once all five of your own marbles are home, you play your cards on your partner’s marbles instead of sitting out.
What does each card do?
Number cards move a marble that many holes forward. An ace moves 1, a jack 11, a queen 12, and a king 13.
An ace, jack, queen, king or joker also brings a marble out of your start pen onto your come-out hole.
The 8 is the exception: it only moves backward. There is no forward 8.
A 7 can be played as 7 forward on one marble, or split across two of your marbles with both halves moving forward. A 9 can be played as 9 forward, or split across two marbles with one half forward and the other backward.
What does the joker do?
A joker lets you move one of your marbles directly onto any opponent’s marble anywhere on the track, sending that marble all the way back to its owner’s start pen. It is the strongest card in the deck.
A joker cannot be used to enter a safe zone, and it cannot target a marble that is already home.
Why is the backward 8 such a good card?
Your in-spot — the hole where you turn into your home track — sits five holes before your come-out hole, which means it is almost a full lap away going forward and only a few holes away going backward.
So playing an 8 on a marble that has just come out is usually the fastest route home on the board. Bringing a marble out and immediately sending it back 8 is a standard opening.
Can I move backward into my safe zone?
No. You can only enter your safe zone moving forward. A backward 8 will carry a marble past your in-spot and around the track rather than turning it in, and the backward half of a split 9 cannot turn in either.
A marble already inside the safe zone cannot move backward at all.
What happens if I land on my partner?
You do not send your partner home. Landing on your partner’s marble throws it straight to its own in-spot — right at the mouth of their home track, which is usually a large gift rather than a setback.
Landing on an opponent sends that marble back to its start pen.
How many decks are used?
Two standard decks for four and six players, which is 108 cards including four jokers. Eight-player tables use three decks.
You hold five cards, and you draw a replacement each time you play one.
What happens if I have no legal move?
You discard one card and your turn ends. This is called burning a card, and you may only do it when nothing in your entire hand can be legally played — if any card has a legal move, you must play it.
Which card you give up is a real decision. A joker or a card that would slot a marble home is worth keeping over a number that does nothing for you.
What happens if I play out of turn?
You lose that card and your turn. This is the house rule the whole game is built around, and it is why nothing is greyed out when it is not your turn — the board stays live for everyone, and turn order is enforced by the penalty rather than by locking the controls.
Account, coins and progress
Why was I given a username I did not choose?
Usernames are assigned when you sign up so that every account has one immediately and no name is taken by someone who never plays.
You can change it, once every fourteen days. Names you have held stay claimed by you permanently, so nobody can pick up an old name of yours after you change it.
What do coins buy?
Cosmetics only — marble colours and finishes, avatar costumes, and board skins. They do not affect the rules, the cards you draw, or your odds of winning.
Can I get a refund on coins?
No. All sales are final. Coins are delivered as soon as the payment confirms and cannot be refunded or exchanged, so check the pack before you buy.
Payment is handled by Stripe on their own page. Card details never reach this site.
How do trophies work?
You gain trophies for winning and lose them for losing, and the amounts shift as you climb: near the bottom a win is worth much more than a loss costs, and near the top that reverses. The effect is that a rating settles at roughly the level you actually win at, and climbing gets harder the higher you go.
Trophy totals put you in a division, and the leaderboard is ordered by them.
Are the bots cheating?
No. Bots see their own hand and everybody’s marble positions, and that is all — they cannot see your cards or their own partner’s cards, and they draw from the same shuffled deck you do.