The Doubloon economy — how the weekend works
Welcome aboard. Over the weekend our fleet runs on one thing: Doubloons. This guide explains the whole economy in plain English — how you earn them, hold them, bet them, and how the standings are settled. No tech knowledge needed.
What this is. The rules of the game — how the economy works and who does what. For the click-by-click "which tile do I tap?", see the Player guide.
New to the words we use? There's a plain-English glossary at the bottom.
1. The big idea — everything is Doubloons
There's one unit of value: the Doubloon. You just hold your Doubloons in two forms, worth exactly the same (1 point = 1 coin = 1 Doubloon):
- Points — your live, public score. What everyone sees on the board, and the only thing you can bet with.
- Coins — Doubloons you've stashed. Coins are secret — they don't show on the board. Turning points into coins hides that wealth away.
The app is the official Ship's Ledger — it tracks your points and your banked coins exactly. (Physical coins in your pocket are the one thing it doesn't track — more in a moment.)
Want to see what's being bet on without signing in? Open the public betting board at
https://gamenight.hsu.mobi/betting-boards— no login needed. Lists every event with its live odds, closing countdowns, and recently settled results.
2. Where your Doubloons live
| Form | On the board? | Safe? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | Yes — your score | Safe (tracked) | Earned from games + winning bets. What you bet with. |
| Virtual coins (in the bank) | No — secret | Safe (tracked) | Stashed Doubloons, out of sight. |
| Physical coins (in your pocket) | No — secret | At risk | Real tokens: ownerless, not tracked, can be lost/traded/stolen — they can also be handed to the Bookie as a betting slip for slip betting. |
Only points show on the leaderboard. Convert points into coins and that wealth goes dark — a secret stash nobody else can see.
3. The Ship's Ledger
Every change to your points or virtual coins is a logged transaction — who, how much, why, and when — so the books always balance. The one exception is physical coins: once they're in your hand they're just tokens, and the app stops tracking them.
4. The four officials
Four roles run the economy, kept deliberately separate:
- 🏁 Event Official — runs games and awards the points you earn playing. Never runs betting or coins.
- 🎲 Bookie — runs the betting. Never enters game results.
- 🏦 Teller — swaps your coins for physical tokens and back, and guards the coin chest. Never runs games or betting.
- 👑 Deputy — holds all three jobs above at once (Official + Bookie + Teller). For a small event run by one or two trusted organisers who need to cover everything themselves.
The super admin is the organiser behind the scenes — they set up the event, its members, and the app itself. They don't appear in the player-facing economy, but they own the corrections panel (/admin) and any weekend-level fixes.
Optional automation. Your super admin can turn two per-event toggles on (off by default): Auto-confirm scores — a host's submitted game is accepted by the server the moment it lands (audit stamped
auto), so the Event Official's score-approval job runs itself for that event; and Auto-settle bets — a game's open bets settle themselves the instant its result is accepted, so the Bookie's settle step runs itself too. With both on, a submit cascades all the way to paid-out bets with no human in the loop. The roles still exist (the Regatta and Fire Ceremony still need an Event Official); the toggles just automate the two repetitive bits.
5. Earning points
Points are your live score, and they come from:
- Playing games — placing well, plus a participation reward, plus the occasional official bonus from the Event Official.
- Winning bets (below).
- The odd super-admin bonus. (Treasure is different — you find physical coins, not points; see §8.)
6. Betting — back who you think will win
You bet on who'll win a game you're not playing in — either an individual player or, in team games, a whole crew. (You can't bet on a game you're in.)
How it runs
- A match starts → its betting window opens automatically, with a live countdown you can see on the event home and the betting screen. (The Bookie can manually close it early, but normally doesn't have to.)
- You bet points on who'll win — in the app, or by handing the Bookie a physical chit (a paper slip). A chit lives only as the slip during the window; the Bookie reconciles it after the result is in (usually at the Fire Ceremony, but any settled match works), entering it then and paying the holder in points in one step. Chits are ownerless until redeemed.
- The countdown hits zero — betting closes. Bets lock, the game is played, winners are paid after. If a game's result is rejected, its open bets are voided. (On events where the organiser turned on Auto-settle bets, the winners pay out the instant the result is accepted — no Bookie tap needed. On a manual-accept event it's the Bookie who taps Settle.)
The odds set themselves — from form in that game
Nobody hand-picks the odds; the app calculates them automatically from each competitor's record in that very game (everyone starts even). It's tracked per game, so you could be the odds-on favourite at Cornhole and a long shot at Ring-Toss.
Here is how the math works: every competitor has a weight that starts at 1 (even). Each time a competitor wins, their weight goes up; losing or not playing keeps it at 1. The line for each competitor is their weight relative to the total weight in the field — expressed as a ratio showing the profit you make per unit staked. A heavier favourite has shorter odds (bet a lot to win a little); a lighter longshot has longer odds (bet little to win a lot). Weighted averages are used when a bet is on a whole crew — each member's weight feeds into the crew's combined line, regardless of crew size.
- Someone winning that game a lot is a short-priced favourite — bet a lot to win a little.
- Someone on a losing run is a long shot — a small bet that mostly loses, but pays big if it lands.
- Backing a crew? The line comes from that crew's players' form combined.
Odds run from even (1:1) out to a capped 1:20 / 20:1. Your winnings come from the house (which never runs dry), paid at your odds; a losing stake is simply gone.
Locked points
The points you stake are locked until that game finishes — you can't re-bet or stash them meanwhile. Bet on two games at once and both stakes are locked (100 on game 1 leaves 0 for game 2 until game 1 settles).
7. Coins, the bank & the Teller
Points are visible and bettable. Coins are your secret stash. Moving between them:
- Points → coins (and back) — any time, 1:1, in the app. Turning points into coins takes that wealth off the board.
- Virtual coins → physical coins — a Teller swaps banked coins for real tokens (if the chest has enough). Physical coins are yours to carry, trade, or lose — the app no longer tracks them, and they carry uses beyond the app. Hand them back to a Teller to bank them again.
Trading in — and the deadline
Trading in = turning coins back into points. You can do it any time — but you must trade in before the weekend is over. Any coins still hidden when the buzzer sounds don't count.
So hoarding is a gamble: a fat secret stash makes for a stunning late surge, but get caught holding at the end — or lose your physical coins along the way — and it's gone.
8. Treasure caches
Every so often a super admin hides a stash of physical coins — a treasure cache — for a scavenger hunt (great for the kids). Whoever finds it simply keeps the coins. Because they're physical coins, the app doesn't track them — there's no ledger record, and finding treasure doesn't move your score on its own. To turn it into score, do what you would with any physical coins: take them to a Teller to bank, then trade in before the weekend ends.
9. Your crew & Team Points
The first time you open an event without a crew yet, you're prompted to pick your crew right there on your Profile tab (the organiser can also move you later if the sides need balancing). Two crews per event — your organiser picks the names and colours in the admin portal (the weekend's default is 🟦 Teal vs 🟪 Purple). Your crew is fixed for the weekend, and you'll see its colour as a small dot next to your name everywhere — the board, a match, the lobby, score sheets.
A crew's score — its Team Points — is the combined points of its members. A stash sitting in the bank does nothing for your crew; it only lands once a member trades it in. So the crew race isn't settled until the final reckoning — the top crew then are the Crew Champions.
🎲 Crew Tokens. Each evening's Fire Ceremony can also hand out Crew Tokens — random daily roles (rolled on a D20) that grant a small bonus for the next day's games. See the Crew Tokens guide for the rolls, roles, and bonuses.
10. The Regatta
The Regatta is the weekend's marquee team event — the two crews head to head.
Points you earn racing are regatta points — still Doubloons, and they add to your overall score. The Regatta itself is decided by the races (not by tallying points), so your overall wealth gives you no advantage on the water.
It runs in two clear phases:
- Time Trial — each racer takes their runs; an Official enters each racer's best time. Ranks also earn points: in a crew of 7, the fastest earns 7 down to 1 for the slowest. Ties are settled off-app before times go in. When the times are in, the Official taps Lock in & award — one atomic action that awards the rank points, locks the Time Trial read-only, and auto-builds the knockout brackets for both crews.
- Knock Out (locked until the Time Trial is locked in) — a progressive bracket. Each crew shows only its current pairing; decided rounds collapse into a one-line history; once a crew has its Top Racer, it shows a 🏆 badge instead of more pairings. Pick a winner by tap to highlight, then Confirm winner (a decided pairing can't be re-decided). Top seed plays bottom seed (with 8 racers: 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5) — if a crew's numbers aren't a tidy power of two, the top seeds get a bye.
Once both crews have a Top Racer, the Team Regatta Final appears between them — the two Top Racers race, and the winning crew lifts the Regatta Cup (name engraved on the perpetual trophy, bragging rights till next year). The moment the Final is decided, the knockout-win + Final-win + Cup points post to the ledger automatically — no extra step.
Two crews only. The Regatta supports exactly the two crews on the event, so the admin portal caps you at two (you can rename/recolor them, but not add a third). If a crew has a single solo racer, their Top Racer is set by default and the Team Final is still a real 1v1 race between the two crews.
🚤 Need a do-over? Your admin can Reset Regatta from the control room — it clears the times, the bracket, the Cup, and the time-trial lock, but leaves any already-awarded points in the ledger untouched.
11. The Evening Fire Ceremony
Each evening the fleet gathers round the fire — part tradition, part the day's official accounting:
- The Bookie reconciles the day's betting.
- The Event Officials confirm results.
- The Teller counts the coin chest.
- Players may trade in coins, and the books are checked to balance.
A few nightly nods are called (the day's leader, biggest bet win, top treasure-hunter) before the day is closed — everyone carries their totals into tomorrow. The Fire Ceremony can also hand out the nightly Crew Tokens for the next day (see the Crew Tokens guide).
The Fire Ceremony is opt-in per event — your super admin turns it on from the control room. If it's off, the day's books are simply carried forward without a formal ceremony. The big trophies are the weekend finale, not nightly.
12. The Weekend Awards
At the close of the weekend, the honours are handed out:
The headline trophies:
| Award | Goes to |
|---|---|
| 💰 High Roller (Overall Champion) | The highest final total — points only. Coins count once you trade them in; still banked = worthless. The top individual honour. |
| 🏁 Top Racer | Each crew's bracket winner from the Regatta (the two crews). |
| ⚓ Regatta Cup Champions | The crew that wins the Team Regatta Final — engraved on the perpetual trophy. |
| 🤝 Crew Champions | The crew with the most cumulative points — every member's total added up. |
| 👕 Best Dressed Crew | Best embodies the "I'm on a Boat" theme — creativity, coordination, spirit. Judged by the super admin. |
And eight more, dug out of the weekend's own records — the betting book and the match sheet. Nothing here needs anyone to keep score by hand:
| Award | Goes to |
|---|---|
| 🏆 Trophy Hoarder | Most wins. A team win counts for every member of the winning team. |
| 🥈 Silver Liner | Most 2nd places — from host-scored singles games only (see the note below). |
| 🦾 Iron Man | Most games played. Turning up counts, even in a guessing round you never guessed in. |
| 🎯 Risk Taker | Most points staked across the weekend, win or lose. |
| 🔮 The Oracle | Best betting accuracy — bets won ÷ bets placed. One lucky call at 100% can take it. |
| 💼 The Venture Capitalist | Best return on everything staked. A tiny stake at long odds can win this outright. |
| 🤝 Bookie's Best Friend | Most points handed to the book. Somebody has to fund the winnings. |
| ⭐ Fan Favourite | Most points other people staked on you. Bets on your crew don't count — only on you. |
Level pegging? You both get it. Every one of these is shared between everyone tied on the top figure — the card reads "shared" and names all the holders. Nobody loses a trophy to alphabetical order.
Why 🥈 Silver Liner skips some games: in a guessing round everybody gets a placing, including people who never entered a guess — so a "2nd place" there could be won by sitting out. Team games are out too, or a team's 2nd place would hand a silver to every member. It counts only the games where a host scored individuals against each other.
A few of these will land on the same person, and that's on purpose — the awards are a scoreboard, not a raffle. If one player bet the most and lost the most, they've earned both.
The Awards are opt-in per event — your super admin turns them on from the control room. When they're off, the closing ceremony screen simply doesn't appear, and players look to the live board instead.
The reveal: the live board is a points race all weekend — but the winner isn't settled until everyone trades in their secret coin hoards at the end. A quiet stasher can leapfrog the visible leader in the final reckoning.
Frozen for the ceremony: an Event Official can lock the awards just before reading them out, so a late score correction can't change a trophy halfway through the announcements. Once locked, the screen shows the time it was locked, and these figures stop moving even though the live boards carry on. If something genuinely needs fixing, the Official corrects it and locks again.
13. Score corrections — the blast-radius preview
Sometimes a result needs to change after it's been accepted — perhaps a score was entered wrong, or the host made a typo. When an Event Official opens an accepted game and taps Modify (re-score), the app now shows a blast-radius preview before saving, so the official can see exactly what will move:
- Placements — before vs after, with the point delta per player.
- Event points — each affected player's current total and projected total.
- Awards — which existing award ledger entries shift (placement points are re-minted automatically, so the ledger stays correct).
- Bets — how many open bets will settle, and how many previously-settled bets will be voided because the winner changed.
The official can Confirm & Save to apply the correction, or Cancel.
The preview is read-only — it doesn't change anything until you confirm. The audit trail on the game records who corrected what and when.
How to do it in the app? The Player guide walks through every tile and button — Wallet conversion, betting, Regatta, Bookie portal, Teller portal, and more. This guide just explains the rules.
The words we use
| Word | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Doubloon | The one unit of value. You hold Doubloons as points or coins. |
| Points | Your live, public score. Earned from games + winning bets; the only thing you bet with. |
| Coins | Doubloons you've stashed. Secret — off the board. |
| Virtual coins | Coins kept safe in the bank (tracked). |
| Physical coins | Real tokens in your pocket — ownerless, not tracked, riskable; can be handed to the Bookie as a chit. The chit is reconciled shortly after the game is accepted (often at the Fire Ceremony, but any settled match works), and the holder is paid in points. |
| Bank | Where virtual coins sit, safe. |
| Teller | The official who swaps coins for physical tokens and back, and guards the chest. |
| Trade in | Turn coins back into points. Allowed any time; must be done before the weekend ends or they don't count. |
| Ledger | The app's official record of every points/coins change. |
| Betting line / odds | How much a bet pays, set automatically from a competitor's record in that game (even up to 1:20 / 20:1). |
| Treasure cache | Physical coins a super admin hides for a scavenger hunt; finders keep them (untracked) — bank + trade in to score them. |
| Locked points | Points tied up in an open bet — unavailable until that game settles. |
| Bookie | Runs betting. Never enters results. |
| Event Official | Runs games and awards points. Never runs betting/coins. |
| Admin | The organiser who set up the event and the app — runs /admin, sets up profiles, templates, crews, and corrects scores. In the player-facing economy the four event roles are Official, Bookie, Teller, and Deputy. |
| Deputy | Holds Official + Bookie + Teller all at once — for small events run by one or two trusted organisers. |
| Crew | Your team for the weekend, picked from your Profile tab — shown as a coloured dot next to your name. Two crews per event. |
| Crew Token | A random daily role rolled each Evening Fire Ceremony (D20), granting a small bonus for the next day's games. See Crew Tokens. |
| Team Points | A crew's score = its members' combined Doubloons. |
| Regatta | The marquee two-crew team event: Time Trial (lock in & award) → seeded Knock Out → Top Racer → Team Final → the Cup. |
| Top Racer | A crew's Regatta bracket winner. |
| High Roller | Overall Champion — highest final total (points only; coins have to be traded in to count). |
| Fire Ceremony | The nightly gathering where the day's books are settled (opt-in per event). |
| Auto-confirm scores | Per-event toggle (off by default). On = a submitted game is accepted by the server automatically; the Event Official's approval job runs itself. Audit stamped auto. |
| Auto-settle bets | Per-event toggle (off by default). On = a game's open bets settle themselves the instant its result is accepted; the Bookie's settle step runs itself. |
Quick rules — the short version
- Everything is Doubloons. You hold them as points (public, bettable) or coins (secret stash). 1 point = 1 coin.
- Only points show on the board. Stash points as coins to hide wealth; trade back to points before the weekend ends or it doesn't count.
- Physical coins aren't tracked — carry them, trade them, lose them; you can also hand them to the Bookie as a slip bet.
- Bet on who wins a game you're not in — a player or a crew. Odds set themselves from each competitor's form in that game.
- Staked points are locked until that game settles. The house pays winners.
- Coins ↔ physical only via a Teller; the chest is finite.
- Officials stay in their lanes — results, betting, and coins are four separate jobs.
- At the weekend's end: trade in first — every award counts points only — then 💰 High Roller, ⚓ Regatta Cup, 🤝 Crew Champions, 🏁 Top Racers, 👕 Best Dressed Crew.