What you need
Each player needs a device with a current browser. One person creates a room and shares its invite link or four-character code. Guests join with only a display name, so nobody needs an email address or an account.
Whoever creates the room joins it as a player, so a teacher or organizer who creates one takes part in the bracket like everyone else.
Privacy-first setup
Ask players to use first names or nicknames as display names, since a display name is the only thing a guest has to enter. Check the rules your school or organization sets for online tools before you use any game with a class.
RPS Royale is a general-audience game that does not check anyone’s age.
Who may agree to the terms of use is set out in the Terms of Service.
Activity: a class or office tournament
Run one bracket for the whole group and let everyone who is out watch the rest. If you want a single clear winner in one sitting, set the room to a single series round before you start.
Sharing the link, choosing the series length, and planning for latecomers are covered in the tournament guide.
Activity: a probability experiment
Pair people off. Each pair throws by hand many times and tallies how often the first player wins, loses, and ties, and how many throws it takes to get a decision when tied throws are replayed. Then pool the tallies for the whole group. The math page expects each outcome 1/3 of the time and 3/2 throws per decision on average. Compare one pair’s tally with the pooled tally and discuss which sits closer to those figures.
Then ask whether people really choose at random, and whether the tallies show any pattern in who repeats a gesture.
The figures are worked out on the math page.
What one laboratory study found about how people choose is in the strategy guide.
Activity: predict the bracket
Before the game starts, ask everyone to predict how many stages and how many matches the bracket will have for the players in the room. A room of 12 players, for example, plays 4 stages with 6, 3, 1, 1 matches, 11 in total, and 1 bye.
Once the game has started, the room shows a Bracket panel with the matches and byes of every stage, so the group can check its predictions stage by stage.
The formula and a table of bracket sizes are on the math page.
Activity: an icebreaker on a video call
Keep the call open and have everyone join the room from their own device, using the call for chat and the room for the match. Players who lose a match become spectators for the rest of that series round, so they can keep talking and pick an active match to watch.
When two players remain, spectators can back the finalist they think will win with virtual points. Virtual points are not money and cannot be bought, sold, or cashed out.
Activity: a game night or a group decision
For a longer evening, set several series rounds. Eliminated players return as full players when the next series round begins, and the server chooses the champion after the last one.
To settle a group decision, such as where to eat, create a room with a single series round and let the bracket decide. The server pairs the players and decides every result, and nobody, including the person who created the room, can change an outcome.