bearoffQuestions
What bearoff costs, what it needs, and how a game played a turn at a time works.
What is bearoff?
bearoff is a free backgammon game you play a turn at a time, in a web browser, against friends or against the computer. It is built for games that run over days rather than in one sitting: you take your turn whenever you have a minute, and your opponent takes theirs whenever suits them.
Is bearoff free?
Yes, completely. There is nothing to pay, nothing to subscribe to and no advertising anywhere in it. bearoff is one person's hobby project rather than a business, and there is no paid tier waiting behind the free one.
Do I need to download anything?
No. bearoff runs in any modern browser, on a phone as happily as on a laptop, and the board is drawn to fit whatever it is on. You can add it to your home screen for an icon, a full screen and a notification when it is your turn. Native iPhone and Android apps are on their way, and nothing you can download today is ours.
Do I need an account?
Yes, so that your games and your opponents are still there when you come back - but there is no password to invent or forget. You give an email address and a four-character code is sent to it, or you sign in with Google or Apple.
What is correspondence backgammon?
Correspondence backgammon is backgammon played a turn at a time instead of in one sitting, the way people once played chess by post. Nobody has to be online at the same moment: you move, your opponent moves when they next pick up their phone, and a game runs over hours or days. It is the same game with the same rules, spread out.
How long do I have to take my turn?
As long as you like. There is no clock, no timer and nothing that forfeits a game you have left alone. If a turn has been sitting with you for a week bearoff sends one reminder by email, and does not send another until you have moved.
Can I play backgammon with a friend?
Yes, and it is what bearoff is for. You invite someone by email address, whether or not they have used bearoff before, and they get one email with a link into the game. You can have several games running against different people at once.
Can I play backgammon against the computer?
Yes. There are three computer opponents - a panda, a grizzly bear and a polar bear, in that order of difficulty - and a game against one of them runs alongside your games against people rather than instead of them.
Is there a doubling cube?
Yes, if you both turn it on. A game has one only when you and your opponent both have Play with a doubling cube on in settings, and the invitation says so before it is accepted. Games without it are worth one point for an ordinary win, two for a gammon and three for a backgammon; the cube multiplies whichever of those you end on. There is no match play either way. The computer opponents play with a cube as well, and each is as good at it as it is at everything else: the panda misjudges a double fairly often, the polar bear hardly ever.
Who rolls the dice, and are they fair?
The server rolls them, one throw shared by both players, drawn from the same randomness a computer uses to make encryption keys. In the phone apps with no signal, a game against the computer or on the virtual game board is rolled on the phone, from its own secure source of randomness, and a game against the computer is checked move by move by the server once it is uploaded. Nothing looks at who is winning and nothing adjusts the odds: doubles turn up one time in six here as they do on a table, and a run of them either way is what that actually looks like over a short game.
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