1. Set your table
- Open Settings. Choose 2–9 players, including you. You occupy the near-side chair; the other seats are computer players.
- Choose your pace: Easygoing is the former Regular pace (9 seconds per reply). Regular is the former Quick pace (4.5 seconds). Quick allows 3 seconds, and Real Quick allows 1.8 seconds, with faster computer replies at each level. Olympic rounds always have shorter deadlines, even on Easygoing.
- Expand Choose your players to assign a named doll to each computer chair. A named player can occupy only one chair; assigning them elsewhere frees their previous chair. You can also use house players. Changing the player count or cast stops the current game and reseats everyone.
- Choose a voice, use Hear this voice to preview it, and set your comic bubbles, turn guide, and preferred key labels.
- Close Settings and choose Pull up a chair, or Start game · sound on on your phone. The player on your left says “I’ll start,” delivers the opening and calls a number automatically. Listen and answer when called. The computers handle their own replies. Between rounds, occasional table chatter may play; it never interrupts counting.
2. Your controls
| Action | Keyboard | On screen |
|---|
| Say Nay | A or Space | Nay button |
| Ask Who | S or ↓ | Who? button |
| Call a number | Number row or numeric keypad | Tap the number |
| Stop talking and play | Use the screen control | Pause, then Resume |
Both key pairs always work. The preferred-key setting only changes the labels and hints. B is no longer Who. You do not need to type the spoken opening.
The response buttons stay live when someone else is playing. Speaking at the wrong time can be a mistake. Hold a key down and it counts once; release it before your next reply. Keyboard shortcuts are inactive while a settings field or help dialog has focus.
Pause works at any point: between replies, during an announcement, a sip, a flag shout, or a chug. It immediately stops speech. Resume continues the sequence without charging the drink again. Settings is available even during announcements, peepage and drink ceremonies. Opening it pauses play and stops speech; closing it resumes only if it caused the pause. Opening Help pauses automatically; closing Help resumes only if Help was what paused it. If you had already paused, it stays paused. Switching away from the page also pauses play.
New round abandons the current exchange and has the player on your left open again. Use it when you want a fresh start; use Pause to continue the same exchange later.
3. The ordinary clockwise round
- The opener says “Whale’s Tales… calls tales on…” and calls a number.
- Count seats clockwise from the caller. Their left-hand neighbor is 1. Start with the neighbor, not the caller.
- The selected person says “Nay!”
- The person who called the number asks “Who?”
- The selected person calls the next number. Count afresh from that person’s seat.
Example with 8 playersYou call 3. The third person clockwise from you says Nay. You ask Who. That third person now calls a number, counting from their own chair.
Call 8 and you select yourself: 8 → Nay → Who → next number, all from you. Self-calls move briskly, so be ready.
The caller’s left is always 1 in clockwise rounds, regardless of where you are sitting. Your own number is the player count only when you are counting from your own chair. A call is relative to its caller; it is not a fixed player ID.
With the turn guide on, the table highlights the expected player and the prompt tells you which reply is due. The last-call line names the speaker. Heads bob while speaking, and comic bubbles can show the words. Turn the bubbles or guide off separately in Settings if you want to play by ear.
Choose your opening round: While you are saying the intro, or after the intro but before your first number, press Y for Olympic, R for reverse, O for oscillating, or M for modulus. Your player announces the chosen mode immediately and the gold banner changes. Then call your opening number. You can change your choice before that first number; the latest shortcut wins. Once the first number is called, the mode is locked for the round. These shortcuts work whenever you open a round, including after you drink and restart.
Who timing: You can ask Who as soon as the other player has begun saying Nay; you do not need to wait for their voice to finish. Jump in before their Nay starts and the table catches a Quick Who.
4. Alternate rounds: watch the gold banner
Most rounds are ordinary clockwise Whale’s Tales. About every 10–15 rounds, someone announces an alternate. A gold banner stays visible for that whole round, with its name and instructions. The next round normally returns to regular tales. Modulus is much rarer than the other automatic alternates. When you open a round yourself, you can choose an alternate with Y, R, O, or M before calling your opening number.
| Round | How to count | What to say |
|---|
| Reverse | Counterclockwise; the caller’s right neighbor is 1. | Nay → Who → number |
| Olympic | Clockwise. | Numbers only. The selected person immediately calls another number. Skip both Nay and Who. |
| Olympic reverse | Counterclockwise. | Numbers only, with the Olympic deadline. |
| Oscillating | First number clockwise, next number counterclockwise, then clockwise, and so on. | Nay → Who → number. Direction flips after each number call, not after Nay or Who. |
| Modulus | Clockwise, with numbers up to twice the player count. | Nay → Who → number, wrapping around the table as needed. |
Olympic deadlines: Easygoing allows 1.8 seconds, Regular 1.3 seconds, Quick 1 second, and Real Quick 0.75 seconds to call a number. Saying Nay or Who is a mistake. A slow number gets a Sundial tails callout. Calling yourself keeps the number turn with you, so call again quickly.
Oscillating: The banner always shows the direction for the next number call. For example: clockwise call, Nay, Who, counterclockwise call, Nay, Who, clockwise call.
Modulus exampleWith 8 people, you may call 1–16. A call of 15 goes one full lap plus 7 seats, so it reaches the same chair as 7. Both 8 and 16 call your own chair.
Tap any displayed number directly. On a keyboard, type 1 then a second digit for 10–18. For a call of 1, press Enter after 1 or wait briefly (0.4 seconds). Backspace clears an unfinished 1. Numbers beyond twice the player count are invalid.
5. Mistakes, drinks, and golden chairs
When a round-ending mistake happens, play stops, someone calls it out, and the offender drinks. The offender then opens the next round. Computer players can make mistakes too.
- Peepage: Say Nay when it belongs to someone else and you drink. If that other person still owes a Nay, the round continues and they must answer. Your peep does not substitute for their reply.
- Silence: Fail to say your Nay before the deadline and you drink and start. If someone peeped first and the correct person then stays silent, both drink; the silent person opens the next round.
- Sundial tails: Take too long to ask Who or call a number and you drink and start.
- Quick Who: Ask Who before the other player has begun their Nay and you drink and start.
- Wrong turn or wrong reply: Speak out of turn, ask Who when you owe a number, or call an invalid number, and the table catches you.
Consecutive round losses: First loss: a sip. Second loss in a row by the same person: a flag above their head and a crushed cup beside their cup, with a heckle from the crowd Third loss in a row: a chug ceremony. Someone else losing clears the earlier flag and crushed cup; a chug also clears them and resets the streak. Non-ending peepage sips are tracked separately from consecutive round losses.
Golden chair
Between rounds, a computer player may announce a golden chair to use the bathroom, “blow,” or call a girlfriend. Their body disappears, but their empty chair still counts. Departures and returns happen at round boundaries.
- If your number lands on the empty chair, you supply its Nay and Who yourself.
- You call the next number, but count from the empty chair, in the current direction. Do not count from your own chair.
- Once another occupied chair is selected, that person resumes normal play from their own seat.
In Olympic play, skip the Nay and Who and immediately call the next number from the empty chair. In oscillating play, use the direction now displayed in the banner.
Quick-response bonus
Correct replies within 0.5 seconds earn 3 quick points; within 1 second earn 2; within 1.8 seconds earn 1. Your total appears beside the last call. A fast number call also puts the computer you select under pressure for its next reply: +30, +20, or +10 percentage points of mistake chance. Fast replies still have to be correct and on your turn. A fast mistake earns no bonus.
6. Mobile, voices, and display
On phones, the table fills the area above the buttons. Names sit along the outer edges so you can see faces and head movement. On desktop, names stay with the people. Controls only gives more space to the Nay, Who, and number buttons; Show table brings the room back. On short landscape screens, the table and controls sit alongside each other.
- Sound on/off: Use the room’s sound button or the Sound checkbox in Settings. Both control voices and effects together.
- Choose a voice: Auto picks the clearest available English voice. On phones, it uses one consistent voice. Select another installed voice and use Hear this voice to compare.
- If sound disappears: Pause and Resume to restart play cleanly. Check Sound is on, your phone’s volume and audio output, and try another voice in Settings. Tap a start or resume button to let the browser play audio.
- If the phone feels slow: Try Controls only to hide the 3D room. You can also turn comic bubbles off. Keep the turn guide on while learning the timing.
- Change view: Cycles the camera angle. It does not change your seat or counting direction.
Voices come from your device’s speech engine, so available voices and how natural they sound vary by phone and browser. You can play with sound off and follow the prompts, head movement, and optional speech bubbles.