Seats & private hands

Games use one to four players, depending on their rules. The game guides show the exact player range: Hearts, Spades and Riichi Mahjong need four seats; Solitaire needs one.

Taking a seat

Right-click a linked Game Chair to sit down and open the board. A player can hold one physical seat at a time. Getting up gives up that seat; closing the board screen does not.

For games with a variable number of hands, fill the seats in order starting at Seat One. The game deals to the contiguous occupied seats.

Private hands

Your screen shows the cards or tiles you are allowed to see. Other players’ hands remain concealed, while public cards, discards and moves remain visible. A spectator does not gain a private hand by opening the same table.

Play alone

When you have the table to yourself, Play alone gives you control of the other seats too. It is useful for practising a board game or playing every hand of a card game. Use Open the seats when you want other players to join.

This is manual control of the seats. It does not provide AI opponents. Blackjack’s automatic dealer is part of its rules, and Klondike and Spider are solitaire games.

Leaving and returning

Use Stand or get up from the chair to release your seat. A disconnect keeps your seat for ten minutes, so you can reconnect without immediately losing it. The table owner or a server operator can free a seat; a seated player can free an offline holder.

To put a whole match away, keep its saved board.

Physical seating and teams

Player One and Player Two sit opposite one another. Player Three and Player Four use the remaining sides. Turn order and partnerships follow the game’s rules rather than the order of chairs around the furniture. Spades pairs Players One and Three, and Players Two and Four.

Offline grace

The grace period counts offline time. Keeping a chunk unloaded while a player is online does not use up their offline allowance. Removing an occupied chair releases its original seat and refunds that seat’s item stake; it does not award a win or reset the other players’ game.