A GAME OF SEALED BIDS · AFTER THE TONTINE OF 1725

The dead fund the living.

Six players stake into one pot. Every round, each of you secretly picks a target and a price, and every bid lands at once. The last player holding tokens takes everything — including yours.

How it works
FREE, PERMANENTLY · NO ACCOUNT NEEDED · SIX SEATS · FIFTEEN MINUTES, HARD CAP
PLAYTEST BUILD. You're one of ~50 people invited to try this early. You play against five house opponents — real tables arrive with the backend. One session takes about 13 minutes. There's a feedback prompt at the end; it's the whole reason you're here.
How a session ends

Every token spent does something. Every round, someone has less.

I — STAKE

Equal chips, one pot

Everyone sits down with the same tokens. They live for this session only — and every one of them ends up in the pot.

II — BID

Sealed target, sealed price

Each round, pick a player, a method and a spend — in secret. Spend X, and your target loses more than X. You never know who else chose them too.

III — RESOLVE

All at once

Every bid lands simultaneously. Attacks on the same target stack. There is no winning bid — only what's left of you afterward.

IV — THE RATCHET

The floor sinks

Each round the pot drains a little from everyone still alive — and it escalates near the end. Hide all you want. You are still bleeding.

THE POT ONLY GROWS. PLAYERS ONLY SHRINK. THE AXE IS LOUD, THE POISON IS PATIENT, THE ACCIDENT LIES IN WAIT.
The pot

Not a number. A record of everyone who died funding it.

Every contribution in the pot carries the name of the player who put it there — and the round they stopped being able to fight for it. Survivors can see exactly whose money they're playing for.

The dead see it too. Their own labelled stake, still on the table, still being fought over — without them.

LOBBY 4C7F — ROUND 9POT 0
MARGAUX✝ R2610
OKONKWO✝ R4585
PIETRO✝ R6640
SIGRID✝ R8705
HALVARDALIVE720
YOUALIVE680
WINNER TAKES ALL SIX NAMES
The dead

Elimination is permanent. Leaving isn't the custom.

The eliminated stay in the room, an accumulating gallery around the table, watching their own money get fought over. Death reveals the method — never the culprit.

M
MARGAUX
✝ ROUND 2
O
OKONKWO
✝ ROUND 4
P
PIETRO
✝ ROUND 6
S
SIGRID
✝ ROUND 8
H
HALVARD
ALIVE
Y
YOU
STILL HERE
EST. 1725 · A BRIEF HISTORY

Subscribers pooled their money. The last one alive took everything. It kept producing murders.

The tontine financed governments and buildings still standing today, haunted detective fiction for a century, and was eventually curtailed across Europe — in part because a scheme that pays you to outlive your co-subscribers gives you an interest in their not living long.

So we built one. Tokens instead of inheritances, fifteen minutes instead of a lifetime.

Field notes — ways to play it

Named by us. Renamed by whoever survives them.

The Widow's Play

Spend nothing. Grieve convincingly. Let the table thin itself while the ratchet does your bidding — then bury the survivor.

The Loud Axe

One catastrophic overspend, delivered where everyone will feel it. Expensive, unmistakable, and excellent for your reputation.

The Long Bet

Small, patient poisons on the same name, round after round. Nobody notices the leak until the round nobody can stop it.

House rules

A fair fight — and a house that isn't hungry.

THE FIGHT IS FAIR
01

Nothing purchasable affects outcomes. Ever. Your odds are your play, not your wallet.

02

Everyone acts at once. No turn order to exploit, no waiting to be next.

03

Ties are never a coin flip. Every ending is deterministic — highest count entering the round wins.

04

Passive play is legal. Sit still all you like. The ratchet keeps your seat warm — and your balance falling.

THE HOUSE IS NOT HUNGRY
05

No real money. Tokens are chips, not currency. They evaporate when the session ends.

06

No nudge follows a loss. When you're done, you're done. Nothing here is designed to call you back at a weak moment.

07

No account to play. Guest sessions are unrated. Keep a profile only if you want your rating and history to persist — locally, in this browser.

08

Fifteen minutes, hard cap. Every session ends. The clock is part of the game, not a leash.

SIX SEATS. ONE LEAVES RICHER.
TERMINAL BONUS — playtest build. No real money, no payments, no purchases of any kind.
Opponents in this build are house bots. Profiles are stored locally in this browser only.