J! RULES 101

<!-- Runs past Discord's 2,000-character limit. Post as FOUR messages now, breaking before the computer-host block (🤖), before "Two shapes of match" and before "Gang up."

It outgrew two messages when the comeback's overtime stake was added: the old split went to 2,186 / 1,707 against a 2,000 cap. The previous note here had already called that — thirty characters of headroom left, next rule needs a third message. It did.

Three-way was 1,026 / 1,477 / 1,388. It outgrew that in turn when the computer host learned to be overruled: the first message went past the cap again. Four-way now, with the computer host on a message of its own — which is the right shape anyway, since it is the part a room reads twice.

Four-way: 1,026 / 1,267 / 1,586 / 1,633, leaving 367 characters of headroom in the tightest part. Discord truncates silently, so count before posting rather than trusting the eye.

Do not paste a comment-stripping regex into this note. The first draft did, the pattern contained the comment's own closing delimiter, and the comment therefore ended in the middle of itself — which would have posted the leftover half of these instructions to the channel as if it were a rule. --> J! ROYAL RUMBLE — the rules

Thirty players. Three start. Last one above water wins. 🔗 j-royal-rumble.net

🐞 Something broken? There's a Report a problem button on your buzzer, the host console and the watch screen. No account, no form — it goes straight to us with the room code attached.

🔔 Entering. Everyone draws a number. Three start in the ring; the rest enter one at a time. Your buzzer counts down your last three clues in the queue — and you get an entrance, so pick your theme music on the buzzer before you go in.

💰 Scoring. Answer right and every player in the ring pays you the clue's value. Four opponents on a $400 clue = you gain $1,600, they each lose $400.

❌ Miss, and it stings twice. You lose the value and you're locked out of that clue. It goes back up for everyone else — and if someone converts it, you pay them too.

🤐 Nobody answers? The whole ring loses half the value. Passing is not free.

☠️ Elimination. Drop below zero and you're out. Exactly zero survives.

🤖 Sometimes the computer hosts — this is brand new, treat it as an experiment. Two voices: Mike reads the clues and rules on them, Gene calls the ring — entrances, eliminations, overtime. The voice comes out of your own buzzer, so turn your sound on and click the page once so your browser will play it. The buzzers arm the moment Mike finishes reading. Whoever has the board calls the next clue — say it ("presidents for four hundred") or click it; you get twenty seconds, with a countdown on your buzzer, and then Mike picks one for you. The category and value show on screen rather than being read out. Win a buzz and just say your answer — seven seconds, with a countdown on your buzzer, no question form needed, and "be more specific" earns you a second try instead of a miss. Chrome or Edge, and say yes to the mic; anything else and you click and answer on the call like always.

⚖️ Press O to object if Mike gets one wrong. Anyone can — in the ring, in the queue or already out — until the next ruling. It reverses on a majority of the whole match or two thirds of the ring, and your own objection counts. Play carries on while they're collected. If reversing it is ambiguous, everybody gets fifteen seconds to vote on who had it, and a clue the room can't agree on is thrown out — nobody paid, nobody charged, and it doesn't count toward the entry clock.

🕹️ Two shapes of match, and the host says which before the bell. ARCADE — one foot on the floor is on, so somebody knocked out early comes back with time off their buzz. Because that reorders the race, the room sees 1st, 2nd, 3rd instead of times. You still see your own milliseconds on your own buzzer — you just don't see anybody else's, and they don't see yours. TOURNAMENT — one foot on the floor is off. Fastest press wins every race and the times are public, because they mean exactly what they look like. It says which one at the top of your buzzer all match.

🩹 One foot on the floor. Go under before you've taken three clues and you don't go out at all — you stay up on half a starting stake, with your buzz rounded down to the nearest 60 ms for the next 40 races — worth one band at most, never a runaway. Once each. It's for people flattened before they got going: if you were in the match and lost it, you go out properly. Nothing to press, it just happens. If it fires during overtime your stake climbs with it — come back at ×4 and you come back with four times the money, because half a stake against quadrupled clues is one pot payment from going straight back out.

🎯 Want to deal with a bully? Press T and pick them. Take the clue and the whole pot comes out of that player alone — everybody else pays nothing. Miss, and if they convert it you pay a share of the pot on top — and the host sets that share. In Arcade it's nothing extra, so ganging up on a runaway leader is affordable; Tournament charges half. Press 0 to stand down. Everyone can see who you're hunting.

Gang up. One person aiming at the runaway leader is a gamble; three people aiming at them is a collection. It is the only thing in the game that reliably catches somebody who is running away with it, and it costs nothing to agree out loud on the call.

📈 The ceiling. There's a maximum score, sized to the field. Anything above it gets clipped — a big lead buys you room, not immunity.

⚔️ Overtime. When the queue empties — the last one in gets one entry interval to settle first — or the match stalls long enough, the stakes start climbing: clue values double every six clues, up to 8×, and the ceiling starts falling. The climb never resets. Somebody's going in the water. If you walk in once overtime has started, your stake climbs with it — enter at 4× and you enter with four times the money, because a normal stake against quadrupled clues is a death sentence. And you aren't clipped to a ceiling you never touched — you're capped by the roof as it stood when overtime opened, and you keep whatever you walked in with until your score first drops to the falling roof. Same for a revival or a comeback.

⏱️ Buzz early, buzz often. Your buzzer works while you're queued, and after you're out. Warm-up buzzes never touch your stats — but they clock you against the live field, so practice freely. Jumping the lights = quarter-second lockout. Sub-150ms times are normal here: don't react to the lights, learn the rhythm.

🏆 Winning. Last one standing. That's the only result — everything else is bragging rights.

To join: open the buzzer link, enter the room code, add your name, tap once for sound, and keep that page open — it's your buzzer all match.

J! ROYAL RUMBLE — ADVANCED MECHANICS

(Targeting moved to the standard rules — it's on by default now. See the main rules message.)

⚠️ All four are off by default — the host announces what's live before the match. You'll need a keyboard, so expect them off for phone-heavy fields.

🪜 TOP ROPE — press R between clues. The next clue is worth double to you, in both directions: twice the gain if you take it, twice the loss if you miss or somebody else takes it. Everyone else plays it at face value. Top-rope winnings ignore the ceiling — it's the only way to score past the cap. Declare before the clue goes up. No peeking. Then wait five clues before you can climb again — without that, anyone who reckons doubling is worth it just declares every clue and it stops being a decision. Changed your mind? Climbing back down before the clue is read costs you nothing. Step down in the same gap you stepped up and there's no wait to serve — the five clues are the price of riding one, not of declaring.

💀 BOUNTIES — press B while you're still in the queue. Stake up to half your starting score on someone's head. Whoever eliminates them collects it — and you enter the match that much lighter. If they survive to the end, they keep it. If they eliminate you, they keep it anyway. Choose your enemies carefully. (No bounty has ever been collected in a live match. Be the first.)

⚠️ Bounties and revival both wait on One foot on the floor (see the main rules). A player who hasn't taken three clues yet doesn't get eliminated at all, so no bounty on them pays out and no second life is spent. Put your money on somebody who's actually been playing.

💎 STABLES — press J to join one, B to betray. Teams, named after gemstones — Diamond, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Onyx, Topaz, each with its own color on the scoreboard so you can see the sides at a glance. When you win a clue, your stable pays nothing and the whole pot lands on everybody outside it — so the bigger your side, the harder each outsider is hit. The pot is then split evenly across your stable, so you are all earning together. A stable can hold at most half the ring. Leaving means betrayal: half your stack is split among the people you walk out on, and you pick a new side or go it alone. If the stable eliminates all the other players, the stable dissolves.

🔁 REVIVAL. Your first elimination sends you back to the queue instead of out the door — half stake, new entry number, one life only. If overtime has started your stake scales with it, so a second life is worth playing rather than a formality. Expect the match to run about half again as long (95 minutes vs 64 in testing). It's also quietly the kindest rule for early draws: a second life is worth most to the people who've been in longest.

Stack them if you dare: all of them at once is beautiful chaos. 🔗 j-royal-rumble.net