04 — How to Play PAUSO (Official Rules)

GOAL: Score the most Points.

COMPONENTS: There are only 2 card types. Fun fact: Points were called Solids in the first print run. Use Board Cards to build your board. Use Player Cards to play and score.

Each game follows the same 2 steps.

STEP 1 — BUILD A BOARD: All players build one shared board together. Arrange any number of Board Cards on an invisible square grid, like pixels on a screen. Gaps are allowed.

STEP 2 — PLAY: Each player picks a color and takes all 12 matching Player Cards. Then, decide who takes the first turn.

ON YOUR TURN: Place 1 Ring onto any unoccupied Board Card. You cannot place a Ring directly on top of another Ring or Point.

PUSHING CARDS: When placing a Ring, all adjacent Rings of any color are pushed 1 space away — vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. All Rings are pushed at the same time. Rings cannot be pushed off the board.

HOW TO SCORE: If a Ring is pushed on top of another Ring, flip the moving Ring to a Point of the same colour and stack it on top. Points are immovable and cannot be pushed further. You cannot push Rings on top of Points. Each Point scores +1 for its color.

END OF GAME: The game ends when the board is fully covered by Player Cards OR when all players run out of Player Cards. The player with the most Points wins. Ties are allowed. In a typical finish, Periwinkle might win with +7 Points vs Apricot with +4 Points.

This is PAUSO: Welcome to the Moshpit. Whether you choose to follow the rules or break them, let me know about your experience.

MODIFY: Modify PAUSO after you are comfortable with the base game.

BOARD CARD MODIFIERS — THE UNIVERSAL LAW: Board Card Modifiers only activate when a Ring is pushed onto them. Placing a Ring directly onto a Modifier does not trigger it.

OFFICIAL MODIFIERS (3): Plus — Points on this Modifier score +2. Minus — Points on this Modifier score -1. Arrow — If a Ring is pushed onto an Arrow, it is pushed 1 space further in the Arrow direction. Each Arrow triggers once per turn.

If multiple Arrows are combined, you can trigger cascades!

COLLISIONS: If two Rings were pushed onto the same Board Card at the same time, their forces cancel out. Both Rings stop instantly in their current positions.

This is PAUSO: Welcome to the Moshpit. Play online at pauso.world, read the interactive tutorial at /how-to-play, or email hello@pauso.world if you have thoughts to share.