Carry the Phrase

How to play

1. 1

   Carry the Phrase is for 3–12 players. Everyone creates one story together; its target length is three accepted lines for every starting participant, or 3 × N lines for N players. This sets the story length, not an individual writing quota.

2. 2

   Before play, the app randomizes and locks a circular turn order. The first accepted line opens the plot: it normally comes from the first player in order, or from the next player after a skip. Its author may use, edit, or completely ignore an optional original starter from the app.

3. 3

   On your turn, submit one line of 1–200 Unicode code points after NFKC normalization. Runs of spaces and line breaks collapse to single spaces; invisible or control characters and entries made only of punctuation or emoji are rejected.

4. 4

   Continue the visible plot in a way that gives the next player something to build on. The app checks only the safe format, not style, facts, spelling, or coherence; those choices belong to the group.

5. 5

   An accepted line appears immediately in the shared feed with its author, locks against editing, deletion, or reordering, and passes the turn to the next player in the circle.

6. 6

   Every N accepted lines moves the story from Opening to Turn and then Finale. These three acts make the pace visible but impose no extra content task or restriction.

7. 7

   The order keeps circling until the shared target is reached. A skipped turn creates no blank line and never lowers the target; a returning player receives another turn on the next circuit, while anyone joining after the start observes until a new match.

8. 8

   Each turn has a two-minute limit. When time expires, the app automatically passes the turn to the next player.

9. 9

   The match ends as soon as line 3 × N is accepted. The whole group completes the story together: there is no winner, personal ranking, or point award, and room scores remain unchanged.