How to play SMOOCH
You do not need to read this to start. SMOOCH walks you through the night as you play. This is the full reference if you like knowing the rules first, or if you want to settle an argument mid-game.
What you need
Two people, one browser each or one shared screen, and 45 to 90 minutes. Nothing to download and nothing to print.
1. Pick your mood
Choose Romantic, Flirty or After Hours together. Your mood sets the tone for the night, and every challenge you draw stays inside it.
- Romantic: Sweet words, slow dances, and memory lane.
- Flirty: Compliments, whispers, and playful dares.
- After Hours: The boldest challenges, saved for late night.
2. Enter the story
Pick a storyline and you both get a premise, and you assume aliases for the date. The story runs in chapters, and every chapter has its own scene and its own set of challenges. The night ends when the last chapter resolves, so there is no clock to watch.
The chapter counter is the real clock. It fills as you play, and with five chapters to go it starts counting down instead of up. The last one arrives as The final chapter.
3. Roll and move
Take turns rolling. You both start with the same cash, and passing Start pays you again each lap. Where you land decides what happens next.
4. Claim your spots
Land on an unclaimed date-night spot and you can buy it or leave it. Your partner gets served a First Move card right then: a quick, easy challenge. They do it, or back out for a small fee into the Date Pot. The more spots you own, the more power you have over your partner. Short of cash for a spot? Nothing happens and play moves straight on.
Own both spots of the same colour and the cover charge on them doubles. Need the matching one? Make a deal. Cash and spots can change hands at any point in the night, so trade, charm or bargain for it.
5. Pay up or smooch up
Land on a spot your partner owns and you choose. Taking a challenge does not get you out of the cover charge, it halves it, so the spot earns its owner something whichever way you go:
- Pay the cover charge. The full amount, straight to your partner. No card, no challenge.
- Draw a Tease card. Pay half the cover, then do the challenge.
- Draw a Go Bold card. Pay half the cover, then the house pays you the whole thing back from the Secret Stash. Do it and you come out ahead.
Holding a Free Pass? It takes the place of paying rather than sitting alongside it: the whole charge is waived, doubled or not, and nobody pays anything. You earn one by landing on the Free Pass corner, and they stack, so you can save them for the expensive spots.
Peeked at a card and changed your mind? You can back out, but you pay your partner the half you still owe plus a fee into the Date Pot. Chickening out always costs more than just paying would have.
6. Landing at home
Land on a spot you already own and the moment is yours to spend. There is no sitting it out:
- Draw a wildcard. Let the deck decide. It costs you nothing.
- Hand your partner a Tease. Free for you, and they take the challenge.
- Hand your partner a Go Bold. You ante half the cover into the Date Pot and they take the bolder card.
Heat goes to whoever actually does the challenge, so putting your partner on the spot is generous as well as fun.
7. Wildcards
Some spaces and both wildcard corners draw from one shared Wildcard deck: windfalls, sudden moves, and dares. Every wildcard happens right away and the prompt stays a surprise until you draw it. Do not like the one you got? Skip it for a fee into the Date Pot.
Some wildcards hand your partner a Favor Token. It skips any one challenge outright, at no cost and with no heat. Tokens stack, the same way Free Passes do.
8. Skipping is always allowed
Every challenge in SMOOCH is optional. Either of you can skip at any time, no explanation needed. The game keeps moving and the cost goes into the Date Pot. Comfort beats the scoreboard, always.
9. The Date Pot
A shared pot fed by fees, back-outs, skipped wildcards and the ante when someone hands their partner a Go Bold at home. Some wildcards raid the pot too. Otherwise it leaves in one of two ways:
- Land exactly on Start and it is yours immediately.
- If nobody does, the bolder player takes it when the last chapter resolves. The chest opens, the heat you have both been hiding all night counts up, and the money slides to whoever was bolder.
Whatever you win is yours to spend on the next real date.
10. Who was bolder?
Every challenge you actually complete quietly earns heat: a little for a Tease, more for a Go Bold. Paying the cover charge or backing out earns nothing, and neither of you sees the tally during the night. It decides who takes the Date Pot at the end.
11. Winning the night
When the final chapter ends, the bolder player takes the Date Pot first. Then add up each player's net worth: cash plus the value of the spots they own. Highest total wins the night and calls the shots. The pot lands before the count, so a bold night can steal the win. You will also get a couple title based on how the two of you played.
Playing long distance
SMOOCH works in the same room or over a private video call from wherever you each are. Stories that support it ship a separate long-distance version, written so every challenge works across a screen. Start a game, send your partner the link, and you play the same board together.
Comfort runs the whole night. Skipping is free of judgement and built into the rules, and the After Hours mood asks you both to opt in before it opens. See our After Hours policy for more.