Terms

The rules of using bearoff, and what you can expect back. Last reviewed 4 October 2026.

bearoff is a backgammon game made and run by Christian Brown as a hobby, not by a company. It is free: there is nothing to pay, nothing to subscribe to and no advertising. Using it means accepting what is below.

Your account

• You sign in with an email address, and a four-character code is sent to it. There is no password anywhere in the app, so whoever can read that inbox can sign in as you - that is the thing worth protecting.
• One account per person, please. Nothing stops you making more, but opponents' scores and histories are the worse for it.
• Use a name other players can see without wincing. A display name that is abusive is a reason to close the account.
• You need to be old enough to agree to these terms where you live. bearoff is not aimed at children and asks for no age.

Playing fairly

The hint is part of the game, and using it is not cheating. It is also not private: the server records which turn a hint was given on, and that marker appears in the game history your opponent can read. Asking for advice is fine; the person you are playing gets to know you asked.

Other players

Chat is between two people who have chosen to play each other. Harassment, hate, threats and spam are not welcome, and there is no version of this game where they are worth the trouble.

If someone is a problem, you can remove them as an opponent in the app. That deletes every game and message between the two of you, for both of you, including a game still in play - it is deliberately final, so it is worth being sure. There is no report button today; if something needs a person to look at it, use the contact form linked at the bottom of this page.

What we may do

An account that is used to abuse other people, or to break these terms, can be closed or restricted. For anything ambiguous that will start with a message; for threats or harassment it will not. Because this is one person's hobby project rather than a company with a moderation queue, this is best-effort and not a promise of policing.

What this is not

bearoff comes with no uptime promise of any kind. It is a hobby project on modest infrastructure: it may be slow, it may break, it may change under you, and it may stop existing. Games in progress can be lost. Please do not rely on it for anything that matters, and do not treat it as the only copy of anything you would miss.

To the extent the law allows, bearoff is provided as-is, without warranties, and there is no liability for loss arising out of using it. Nothing here limits liability that cannot legally be limited - death or personal injury caused by negligence, or fraud. If you are a consumer, your statutory rights are unaffected by any of this.

What belongs to whom

The messages you write and the games you play are yours. Running the game means storing them and showing them to the opponent they belong to, which is the permission you are giving by playing - they are not used for anything else. The privacy page sets out what is stored and what happens to it when an account closes.

The game itself - the code, the artwork, the board themes and the name - is not yours to copy or republish. Some parts belong to other people and are credited where they are used: the three computer opponents' portraits are Google's Noto Emoji artwork, used under the Apache License 2.0, whose full text and notice of modification ship with them at /assets/noto-emoji/LICENSE.

Ending it

You can close your account whenever you like, from settings, and it takes effect immediately rather than raising a request with anybody. What that does - and what deliberately survives it, because it belongs to your opponents too - is on the privacy page.

Changes

If these terms change in a way that matters, the date at the top changes with them. Carrying on playing after that is how you accept the new version; if you would rather not, close the account.

Which law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and its courts are where a dispute would be settled. If you are a consumer somewhere else, this does not take away rights your own country gives you.

Getting in touch

Anything at all: use the contact form. It reaches a person, not a queue.