Rock crushes scissors, scissors cut paper, and paper covers rock. This wheel throws one of the three for you with equal chance, so you can play against the computer, pick a throw when you cannot make up your mind, or let two friends spin in turn and compare hands.
When to use it
Siblings arguing over the front seat or the last cookie can each spin once and compare. It is the same classic hand game, but nobody can be accused of throwing late or reading the other person's fingers.
When you play alone against the screen, decide your own throw first, say it out loud, then spin. Count wins mode keeps a running total of the computer's throws, so keep your own score on paper for a best-of-five or best-of-nine match.
Teachers use the game as a brain break between lessons. Students stand up, choose a hand shape, and the projected wheel reveals the computer's throw. Anyone who loses sits down, and the last student standing wins the round.
People who play in real life sometimes fall into habits, like opening with rock. Spinning the wheel a few times is a simple way to show how a truly random player behaves, with no favorite move to exploit.
Ideas
- Classroom tournament: pair students up, let each pair spin on a tablet, and record winners on the board in a bracket.
- Chore tiebreaker: when two people both refuse to take out the trash, three spins each decide it.
- Road trip game: the passenger spins for the car, the driver calls a throw aloud, and the first to ten points chooses the next song.
Variations
- Add Lizard and Spock as extra slices for the popular five-way version, where each throw beats two others and loses to two.
- Give each player a separate copy of the wheel through the share link, so both throws are made at the same moment on different phones.
- Write Rock*2 to build a computer opponent that favors rock, then try to work out the pattern by watching the tally.
Tips
- Agree on the match length before the first spin. Best of three is quick, while best of seven feels like a proper contest.
- Press Start over to reset the count between matches, so the totals always belong to the current game.
- In full screen, Space spins the wheel, which keeps a fast-paced classroom tournament moving without anyone reaching for the mouse.
Make it yours
Change any entry, weight or color above, or open a copy of this wheel to edit and share as your own. This page always keeps its original entries.