How to play Typical: bingo about your own group

Typical is bingo about your own group – made for a trip, a weekend or a long evening. Instead of numbers, the cards hold predictions about how the others will behave: “sleeps through breakfast”, “orders dessert twice”, “gets lost despite the map”. Whoever sees that something has happened ticks it off. The first to fill a line wins.

What you need

Two to thirty people. With four or more, you can also play in teams.
A phone or a computer with a browser. Typical runs right at typical.cloud, with no account and nothing to install. Anyone with the app for iPhone or Android plays in the same round.
Time together. A round can last one evening or a whole week – as long as you're together.

How it works, in six steps

Create a round and invite people. One person taps “New round” and becomes the host. The others join with a six-digit code, a link or a QR code.
Set it up. The host picks the card size from 2 × 2 to 5 × 5, decides whether “One line” or “The whole card” wins, and can set an end date on which the round finishes by itself.
Write predictions. Everyone writes at the same time – about the others, never about themselves. Typical hands out the tasks so that the same number of sentences is written about every person.
Set a prize and start. The host can enter a prize, such as the next breakfast or picking the music on the drive home, checks everything once more and starts the round.
Play. Now you just live. When a prediction comes true, someone taps the square and ticks it off – instantly, no vote needed. The only thing nobody ticks off is a sentence about themselves.
Bingo. The first person with a full row, column or diagonal wins, and the round ends. Then everything is revealed: everyone sees what was written about them – including what never happened.

The one rule: what's written about you stays hidden

You can read everything about the others – after all, you need to notice when something happens. What was written about you, on the other hand, you only see the moment it has happened and someone has ticked it off. Until then, Typical only shows you how many sentences about you are in play.

This rule is the heart of the game. If you knew “falls asleep during the film” was on a card, you'd fight off sleep. This way, everyone behaves completely normally – which is exactly the point. The rule applies on the server too: sentences about you are never even sent to your device.

Writing good predictions

A good prediction describes behaviour you can observe, not a trait. “Is chaotic” can never be ticked off; “looks for the house keys” can. Five rules of thumb help:

No in-jokes. The sentence should make sense to people who weren't on the last holiday.
Spell it out rather than using a keyword. “Orders the spiciest dish on the menu” is clearer than “spicy food”.
Observable. Someone has to be able to see or hear that it happened.
Right for the round. What's likely at the beach never happens at a game night. An end date shows how far ahead a prediction may reach.
With a wink. Typical lives on everyone being able to laugh at themselves. Anything that exposes or hurts someone doesn't belong on the card.

Playing as a team

With four or more people, you can play “As a team”. Each team shares one card; depending on the settings, each member looks after their own section of it. Everything written about your team then stays hidden – otherwise you could warn your teammates. The team that fills a line first wins.

Don't feel like writing? Blitz mode

Sometimes it needs to be quick – on a car journey or during a coffee break. That's what Blitz mode is for: during setup, the host chooses “Blitz” and a category, such as “On the road” or “Chilling & chatting”, and Typical fills the cards with ready-made predictions. Nobody has to type anything, and the round can start straight away. If you'd rather write your own, stick with “Write freely”.

Playing on your own

With “Just for me” you create a bingo card that nobody else sees. You fill it in yourself, bit by bit, and tick off what happens – for your own resolutions, a bet with yourself or just to try it out. The card stays on your device.

Examples to get started

These predictions from Blitz mode come true in almost every round. On the card, each sentence is preceded by the name of a person from your round:

arrives late
tells a story everyone already knows
asks for a charger
suggests what to do next
asks what the plan actually is

You'll find more ideas for particular occasions in the suggestions for travelling, for a game night and for everyday life.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if someone ticks something off unfairly?

Whoever ticked it off can undo it at any time. Everyone else can object: an objection doesn't change the score, but it makes the doubt visible to all. You sort out the rest at the table.

And if nobody fills a line?

Then the round ends on the end date or when the host closes it. Whoever came closest to bingo wins.

Does Typical cost anything?

No. Playing itself is free, in the browser just as in the app.