Blind draw

Picking teams without the part everybody remembers

Two captains picking in turn is the oldest way to make teams and the worst one, because it ranks a group out loud and somebody is always last. A blind draw makes the same teams with none of that: every card looks identical, everybody takes one, and the split is a fact about the cards rather than a judgement about the people.

It is also faster. A room of twelve picks in about fifteen seconds, and nobody negotiates, because there is nothing to negotiate with.

Why the cards turn together

If each card turns over as it is chosen, the last person to pick knows exactly what is left, and the first person picked from a full table. In a turn order draw that is the difference between a fair draw and a draw where going last is worth something. So the cards stay face down until everybody has one, and then they all turn at once.

The other setting is there because some games want the opposite: a prize draw is more fun when each envelope is opened as it is taken. You can have either, and the page says which one is on.

Turn order, and the rest of it

Most board games open with a fight about who goes first, and a blind draw settles it in one move: deal one card per player, first through fifth, and turn them together. If the choice is between named things rather than between people, the wheel reads better in a room, and if you only need one name out of a group, the hat is a shorter way to get it.

This one is for the cases where everybody needs to act at the same time and nobody should be able to react to anybody else. That is a small set of situations, and it is the set this tool is for.

Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for

The tool runs entirely in your browser. There is no account, nothing you make is uploaded, and nothing you type is sent anywhere or put into a link.

The page itself is not silent, though: it carries advertising code and a visit counter that sets no cookie, and the cookie page says exactly what each of those does.

This page remembers your settings in your browser under pph.blind.fill, pph.blind.count, pph.blind.items, pph.blind.flip and pph.blind.muted, and nowhere else. Clearing your site data for papercarnival.com removes it.

Player names are kept under pph.players so every tool with players reads the same list. They stay in this browser and never reach a link.