Jackline · iPhone and iPad
Five in a row, on a table everyone can see
Jackline is an offline board game for two teams, played across an iPad and everybody’s phones. You play cards from your hand to get five chips in a row. The iPad lies flat in the middle and is the board. Each player holds their own hand on their own phone, so nobody has to fan cards where the person next to them can read them. The devices talk straight to each other, which means the game works on a plane, in a car, or anywhere else with no signal at all. Only have one device? Pass and play runs the whole game on a single iPad or iPhone. It keeps every hand hidden until the next player taps to say they’re holding it, then hides the cards again when their turn is over.
- Two, four or six players
- Two teams
- No internet
- No account
- iOS and iPadOS 17
Coming to the App Store
One person buys it. Everyone else sits down free.
Jackline is being tested on real tables now and is coming to the App Store for iPhone and iPad. Joining a table is free, and always will be — only whoever brought the iPad and is running the game pays for it.
No ads, and no subscription. The game has no server to keep paying for.
The app opens on one question
Run the table, join a table, or play the whole thing on one device. It is one app either way, and you can switch which you are doing whenever you like.
Usually an iPad
Run the table
This device draws the board and deals. It holds the deck, the chips and the score, and it never shows anybody’s cards. Lay it flat in the middle and leave it alone.
Usually a phone
Join a table
Pick the table by name, then tap the seat number that reads the right way up from where you are sitting. Your hand is yours, and the only thing the table tells the room is which card you are thinking about.
One device
Pass and play
No phones, no radio. The device goes round the table and holds back your hand until you say you are the one holding it. This is also the answer when somebody turns up without the app.
How the game works
The board is a ten by ten grid. Ninety-six of the hundred spaces are printed with a playing card, and every card in a standard deck turns up on exactly two of them. The four corner spaces carry no card and belong to every team at once.
- Your turn is one card Put down a card from your hand, drop one of your team’s chips on a space showing that card, and draw a replacement. That is the whole turn.
- Jacks are wild No space is printed with a jack. A club or a diamond jack puts a chip on any space still open. A heart or a spade jack takes one of the other team’s chips off the board.
- A run is five in a line Five of your team’s chips in an unbroken line, going across, down, or along either diagonal. A line through a corner needs only four chips of your own, since the corner counts for you as well.
- Finished runs freeze Once five are in line, those chips are safe from jacks for the rest of the game. A second run of yours may reuse at most one of them, so it has to carry on past an end or meet the line at a single space.
- A card with nowhere to go If both of a card’s spaces are already covered it is no use to anybody. Show it, trade it for a fresh one, and that is your turn gone.
- Three runs wins it First team to three. At two, four and six players alike.
Two, four or six
| Players | Teams | Cards in hand | Runs to win |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two | Head to head, one each | Seven | Three |
| Four | Pairs, two each | Five | Three |
| Six | Three against three | Five | Three |
An odd number still gets a game. Every chair has to be filled before the deal, and any chair can be given to a bot instead of a person. Three people and a bot make four. Five people and a bot make six.
A bot is dealt a hand like anybody else and sees only that hand and the board. It goes through exactly the same rules a phone does, and the other phones cannot tell which seats are people.
Who deals is decided in front of everyone. The table turns cards face up, one to each seat around the circle, until an ace, king, queen or jack of spades lands on somebody. That seat deals, and the player on their left goes first.
It takes a dozen cards or so and about fifteen seconds. It is the first thing the app does with the room watching, so it is worth watching.
Nothing leaves the room
There is no server. The iPad is the authority on the game and the phones ask it for things, over the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios in the devices themselves rather than through a router. No network to join, no code to type into a website, no account, and no sign-in.
Nothing about you or your game is collected, because there is nowhere to send it. No analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising. What the app keeps is on your own device: your name, and which chair you were in, so it can give you that chair back. See the privacy policy.
The one thing to get right before you go. An app cannot be handed from one phone to another. AirDrop moves a link, not an application, so a phone with no signal cannot install Jackline however much anybody at the table wants it to.
So get everybody installed while you still have bars — at home, at the trailhead, in the car park. After that the game needs nothing. The invite link the table shows opens the app straight into your game if you have it, and lands on a page explaining how to get it if you do not.
Questions
Does everybody at the table have to buy Jackline?
No. One purchase covers the table. Whoever brought the iPad and is running the game is the only person who pays for it; everyone else installs the app and sits down for free.
Does Jackline need an internet connection?
No. The iPad and the phones find each other over their own Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios rather than through a router, so a plane, a car or a campsite with no bars works normally.
The download is the only part that needs a signal, which is why everybody should install before they leave.
Can you play Jackline on one device?
Yes. Pass and play runs the whole game on a single iPad or iPhone that goes round the table. Nobody’s cards are drawn on screen until the person whose turn it is says they are holding the device.
How many people can play?
Two, four or six, split into two teams. Two is head to head, four is pairs, and six is three against three. Seats alternate round the table, so your partner is never the person beside you.
What do you need to run a table?
One device running iOS or iPadOS 17 or later, laid flat where everybody can see it. An iPad is what the board is drawn for. A phone can host, but six people reading a phone across a table is a poor game.
Can you play against the computer?
Any empty chair can be given to a bot, which is mostly how an odd number of people get a game: three players and a bot make four.
A bot is dealt a hand and sees the same board as everyone else, and it plays through the same rules a phone does. It is there to fill a chair rather than to be beaten.
What happens if a phone locks, or a call comes in?
Their seat is kept for them. The phone remembers which chair it was in, and when it comes back the table hands over that seat again along with the hand and the board, so the game carries on from where it stopped.
Can you play online against strangers?
No, and it is not planned. Jackline is built for people sitting round the same table, which is why there is no account, no server and no lobby.
If online is what you want, detroit.games runs free multiplayer euchre in the browser.
What does Jackline collect about me?
Nothing. There is no analytics, no advertising, no account and no server for anything to be sent to. The app stores your name and your last seat on your own device so it can give your chair back. The privacy policy says so at greater length.
Not out yet
Jackline is in testing on real tables. Ask a question or tell us what you want it to do, and we will let you know when it reaches the App Store.