Questions before the first question

Steal the Round is a team trivia party game for two to six teams in one room, played on phones with a TV as the shared Big Screen. Each team picks three categories, but two of those picks are dealt to rival teams, so you play mostly on subjects your opponents chose for you. Miss a question and every rival can steal it; a Host runs the room, rules on answers, and settles disputes.

Two to six teams, with up to 12 players on each team. Teams can be any size and do not have to match, but keeping them close in size makes the room feel fairer.

No. Players open a link, scan a QR code, or type a six-character room code in a phone browser and enter a name. There is nothing to install and no sign-up.

No. Steal the Round is free to play in the browser, with no ads.

There is no fixed length: it depends on team count, how many tiers you play, your timers, and how many steals happen. The setup screen estimates the length from your choices. Quick is 6 questions per team and Classic is 16, plus any steals along the way.

You pick categories you know, and rivals have to play two of them. Steals mean you can score on questions that were never yours, and the Host can accept a defensible answer that is not on the list. Nobody has to know a bit of everything; a team needs only a few subjects it knows well.

Scan the QR on the Big Screen, open the link the Host shares, or go to the Join page and type the six-character room code. Enter a name, then join an existing team or found a new one (the founder becomes Captain).

Each team’s Captain privately locks exactly three distinct categories in a 90-second window (the Host can add one 45-second extension). The game then deals every team two categories written by rivals and one of its own, so a strong pick you keep is also a strong pick a rival might get.

A miss, a Pass, or a timeout opens a steal window (25 seconds by default) for every rival team that has not finished its own board. Each of those teams can lock one private steal answer; the Host rules them in the order the server received them, and the first correct one takes the full tier value.

Yes. Each steal the Host actually rules wrong costs that team one point, whatever the question was worth. If an earlier steal is ruled correct before yours is reached, yours is never judged and costs nothing.

The Host, every time. AI verification and fuzzy matching only suggest a match; the Host sees the submitted answer beside the expected one and can accept a defensible answer that is not on the list.

The Host is the final authority and can accept an alternative, correct a ruling, or void the question. Each team also holds one challenge flag: if your own answer or steal was rejected, you can challenge; success restores the credit at normal value and keeps your flag, failure retires the flag and costs nothing by default (a setup option adds a flat one-point penalty).

Sudden death for a tie. Every tied leader sees the same fresh question in one shared window and answers privately; speed gives no advantage, and there are no steals or challenges. If exactly one team is correct it wins; otherwise the round repeats with fresh content.

An optional setting, off by default, that gives each team one use of three powers: Time Boost (add 30 seconds to your own clock), Time Squeeze (cut a rival’s running clock to 10 seconds), and Raise the Stakes (double the question, including any steal on it). A power spent on a question that is later discarded or voided is refunded.

Yes. Base points describe what a team can earn on its own board; steals can push a score above that, and wrong-steal penalties (or the optional failed-challenge penalty) can push it below zero.

Reopen the same room in the same browser and the saved seat comes back: same name, team, and role, no re-join. While offline the last confirmed state stays visible but the controls lock, and the recovery record lasts 12 hours. Deadlines are set by the server, so a slow phone does not lose time to its own clock.

If the Captain or nominated answerer drops during a timed answer, the game pauses automatically and every screen says why. The Host can reassign Captaincy while paused, and resuming is always the Host’s manual call. Steal windows do not pause for one missing player because any teammate can lock the steal.

Reopen the private Host link in the same browser and the Host role is restored. Keep that link private: anyone who has it controls the match.

Reopen it. The Big Screen is read-only, so no seat or role is lost, and it catches up to the current state as soon as it loads.

Rooms expire on a rolling 12-hour window, so an old code will not work. Codes never use easily confused letters such as O, 0, I, 1, or L; if it still fails, check the code with the Host or scan the QR instead.

Browsers block sound until you interact with the page, so press the music control in the header once. If the control says music is unavailable, your browser does not play OGG audio; the game runs the same without it.

During a match, use “Report a problem” at the bottom of the Host screen or your team’s phone. It attaches the room, the phase, your device, and the surrounding event history on its own, and hands you a report ID — you do not have to describe any of it. Anywhere else, including to follow up on a report ID or to ask about your data, write to support@stealtheround.com.