How Crosswise Works: the Roll & Write Dice Game, Step by Step

Crosswise is a roll-and-write dice game: one shared roll, four coloured rows, and everyone marks on every roll. Cross numbers off your card from left to right, lock rows to take dice out of the game, and have the best card when it ends. Play online with 2 to 5 people, or on your own against 1 to 4 opponents.

1Your card

Your card has four coloured rows. Red and Yellow run from 2 up to 12; Green and Blue run the other way, from 12 down to 2. That's 11 numbers a row, 44 on the card, and each row ends in a padlock (section 4).

At the end of each row are its marks and the points they're worth so far. Under the rows are your 4 penalty boxes and your total. Everyone has the same card. The other players' cards are above yours: on a phone each one is shown as four row bars, and you can tap it to see the whole card.

2A roll

Each roll is two white dice plus one die for each colour still in play: 6 dice to begin with. The game rolls them for whoever's turn it is, the roller, and the roll passes round the table one seat at a time.

Everyone acts on every roll, at the same time:

Everyone may cross off the total of the two white dice (the white pair) in any one row. Or pass, for free.
The roller may also cross off one white die plus one coloured die, in that colour's own row. The roller can use the white pair, a white and a coloured die, both, or neither. With both, the white pair's mark goes first.
A roller who marks nothing takes a penalty, even when there was nothing they could mark. That's why the roller's button says Pass — take a penalty, and everyone else's says Pass — free.

Your roll. The white pair makes 7, which you could cross off in Red, Yellow or Blue. With a white die and that colour's die you could take Yellow 8 or 9 and Blue 4 or 5. Every cell you could take is ringed.

Tap a ringed cell, then Confirm mark. Once you've confirmed, that's your mark for this roll. Nobody sees anyone else's choice until the roll is over: then all the marks go on at once, and the this roll list says what everybody did. Every mark is judged against the cards as they were when the dice landed, so nothing another player does on the same roll can spoil yours.

The same dice on Wren's roll. The coloured dice are the roller's, so you get the white pair's 7 in one row, or a free pass. Here you've tapped Yellow 7: Confirm mark sends it.

3Left to right

In every row, marks only move left to right. When you cross off a number, every empty cell to its left in that row is burned: it's hatched out and can never be crossed. So a big jump costs you the cells you skip. In the figures above, Red's 2 and 4 were burned when you crossed off 3 and 5.

When the roller takes both marks in the same row, the white pair's mark goes on first, so the coloured mark has to be further along.

4Locking a row

A row's last number (12 in Red and Yellow, 2 in Green and Blue) can only be crossed off once you have 5 marks in that row. Crossing it, or tapping the padlock, which does the same, locks the row:

The lock counts as one more mark in your row, so a locked row has at least 7 marks: 28 points or more.
The row closes for the whole table. Nobody can mark it again; everyone else's marks in it still score, without the extra one.
That colour's die leaves the game, so every roll after it has one die fewer.

You can lock with the white pair on anyone's roll, or with a white and a coloured die on your own. Because every mark on a roll is judged against the cards as they were, two players can lock the same row on the same roll. Both get the extra mark, and it counts as one locked row.

Yellow is locked, so only the red, green and blue dice roll.

5Scoring

Each row scores by how many marks it has, and every extra mark is worth more than the one before. A full row, all 11 numbers plus the lock, is 12 marks and 78 points.

Marks in a row	Points
1	1
2	3
3	6
4	10
5	15
6	21

Marks in a row	Points
7	28
8	36
9	45
10	55
11	66
12	78

Your total is your four rows added up, minus 5 for each penalty. It can go below zero.

A finished card. You locked Red: 6 numbers plus the lock is 7 marks, 28 points. Wren locked Yellow, so your Yellow row closed with 3 marks in it (6). Green 6 marks (21), Blue 3 (6), one penalty: 56.

6How a game ends

The game ends after the roll on which:

2 rows are locked, anywhere on the table (the same row locked by two players on one roll counts once);
any card reaches 4 penalties (20 points gone); or
everyone else has left.

The best total wins. Players level at the top share the win; there's no tie-break. Anyone who left the table doesn't place.

The end screen: each player's marks · points in every row, their penalties and their total. You won with 56, ahead of 44 and 32.

7The clock

Each roll waits up to 25 seconds; the ring at the top counts it down. A roll you miss counts as a pass, so it's a penalty if it was your roll.

Online, miss 2 rolls in a row and Autopilot plays your seat (it plays like a Casual opponent), so the table isn't kept waiting. Make any mark, or pass, to take your seat back. Autopilot only steps in while someone else at the table is still playing, so on your own, nobody plays for you: each roll waits its full time.

8Playing on your own

Choose Solo on the game page, then:

Opponents: 1 to 4 (2 to start). They join in this order: Wren, Sable, Tilly and Ozzy.
Level: Casual or Sharp. A Sharp opponent takes more marks when it isn't its roll.

Tap Take my seat. You roll first. Your opponents mark the moment the dice land, so each roll waits only for you.

It's a practice table: the game itself pays no coins or XP, but your badges and your Crosswise record still count. At the end, Play again starts a new game with the same opponents, or Change setup takes you back to choose. You don't need an account to play, on your own or at a free online table — but only an account keeps the badges and the record.

9Playing online

Open a table from the lobby, or join one: 2 to 5 seats (3 to start). The host chooses a free table or a buy-in (💰100 to start).

Buy-in: everyone puts the same amount into the pot, and the best card takes it; joint winners split it. You get yours back if the table is cancelled or you leave before it starts.
AI opponents: on a free table, the host can fill empty seats with AI opponents, even down to just the host.
Leaving: the table plays on without you. Your card stops where it is and doesn't place, and at a buy-in table your buy-in stays in the pot.
Play again: everyone still at the table can start another game together. It has no buy-in.
Fair dice: every roll comes from a seed that's locked in before the first roll and revealed when the game ends. Open ⏱ History to see it.
A quiet table: if nothing happens for 3 hours, the game ends and the cards are scored as they stand.

Play Crosswise