Play a quiz in Pirate Plunder

Press Host on a set and choose Pirate Plunder from the game modes. Its own rules appear under Game settings. Timed ends the game when the clock runs out, and the most coins win; set the minutes, from 1 to 60, with 7 to begin with. Race to coins ends it the moment one player reaches the target you set, a million to begin with. Leave Show instructions on for a class that has not played before: their phones explain the game before it starts. Randomize questions starts on in this mode, so every game asks the set in a new order.

Press Start hosting and the lobby appears, the same one as in a Classic game: the room code, the QR code and the join address, with each player’s name and robot arriving as they come in. When everyone is in, press Start.

With Show instructions on, every phone opens on How to play: answer right to open one of three treasure chests, a Plunder takes coins from a player you choose, a Mutiny swaps your coins with someone richer, beware the Kraken, and a wrong answer means a short wait. The Set sail! button unlocks after five seconds, so nobody skips it without a glance, and the phone moves on by itself after a minute.

Then the questions start, on the phone itself: the question, any picture, and the answers in the usual colours. Each player moves on as soon as they answer, so a quick reader and a careful one both stay busy, and when they reach the end of the set it starts again from the top. The bar along the top shows the player’s coins, their place in the room and the time left, and the trophy opens the leaderboard.

A wrong answer opens no chest. The phone says Not quite! and marks the right answer (a typed answer is written out instead), so the player leaves knowing it, and a ring counts down three seconds before the next question: long enough to make guessing slower than thinking.

A right answer brings up Choose a Chest!: three closed chests, and nobody can tell what is inside until they pick. Once the Kraken holds any coins, its Hoard is shown above the chests too, so everyone can see what the rarest chest would pay.

The chest opens and says what it did. Most hold coins, from 10 to 100. Double Loot and Triple Loot multiply everything the player has, which is where the big jumps come from. Some hold a Plunder or a Mutiny, some belong to the Kraken, and now and then one is empty. Underneath, the other two chests open too, faded, so the player sees what they might have had. A tap anywhere moves on to the next question.

A Plunder chest takes 10% or 25% of another player’s coins. The phone lists everyone who has coins, richest first, each with how much the plunder would take from them, so choosing is a quick sum. A Mutiny swaps the player’s coins with a classmate’s, and lists only those who have more, so a mutiny always pays; the player in first place never finds one.

The player who was plundered sees a banner across the top of their phone, such as Zoe plundered you!, with the coins they lost; after a mutiny it names who started it. The banner does not stop the game: they carry on answering, and it goes after a few seconds. Every plunder and mutiny also goes up on the room screen.

Some chests belong to the Kraken. It takes a share of what the player holds, 10% or 25%, and adds it to the Kraken’s Hoard, which grows all game. A rare chest, Kraken’s Hoard!, gives the whole Hoard to the player who opens it and leaves it empty again. While the Hoard is empty, that chest never comes up.

While the students play, the screen at the front shows the race: the top ten players with their coins, and an icon for what each one is doing at that moment, such as answering or picking a chest. Captain’s Log lists the plunders, mutinies, triples and the Kraken’s catches as they happen, and Kraken’s Hoard below it shows what the Hoard would pay. The clock counts down at the top (or the target is shown, in a race), beside the join address. To stop early, press End game and confirm.

When the clock runs out, someone reaches the target, or you end the game, the room screen shows the Final Standings: third, then second, then the winner, with their coins. Each phone says Land ho! Game over and points the player to the big screen, then shows their own place, how many questions they got right, and the treasure they finished with.

Press See results under the podium for the full results: every player with a bar of right and wrong answers, how many they got right out of how many they answered, and their coins. The Questions tab turns it round: how often each question was answered right across the whole room, which shows at a glance what the class has not yet understood.

If you are signed in, the game is saved in Reports when it ends. Each student’s row shows the share of their answers that were right, with their coins beside it, and By accuracy puts the list in that order, since coins also depend on the chests. Pick a student to see every question: the first answer they gave, and, when the question came round again, how many times they answered it and how many of those were right. The Questions tab shows how often each question was answered right across the room.