Split Decision: perks between rounds

Built 2026-10-05 as drawn, with these answers to the decisions below: Extra Life is in the pool; points replace cards cleared as the score, with the best kept on points under its own key; a one-deck run offers Hot Streak as its third perk; a pick comes at every diamond. Each perk is offered once a run.

A round is one diamond: five clean cards. When a diamond fills, the run pauses for one pick from three perks, and the perk changes how the next cards score or what a miss costs. The cards and their answers never change. Every number on this page is a draft.

11:46●●● 89

MIX▼

COLON / NO COLON

40POINTS4 CLEARED

NO PERKS YET · ONE MORE FOR A PICK

We visited three cities^ Paris, Rome, and Madrid.

No colon

Colon

11:47●●● 89

MIX

ROUND ONE · CLEAN

50POINTS5 CLEARED

TAKE ONE

It lasts the rest of the run.

TAP A CARD · THE NEXT CARD WAITS

11:48●●● 89

MIX▼

COMMA / SEMICOLON

130POINTS8 CLEARED

HARDER DEAL · ×2

The storm knocked out power^ the generator…

+40

HARD

The museum, which had been closed for repairs^ reopened in May.

Comma

Semicolon

11:49●●● 89

MIX▼

COLON / NO COLON

80POINTS7 CLEARED

EXTRA LIFE

The reason was that^ the bus never came.

YOU CHOSE~~Colon~~

ANSWERNo colon

RULE

no colon after ‘that’

EXTRA LIFE SPENTThe run goes on. This card scores nothing.

KEEP GOING

11:52●●● 89

Points

260

CLEARED14BEST310

THE RUN ›

PERKS THIS RUN HARDER DEAL · ×2 EXTRA LIFE

AGAIN

This state

How the run works

Moment	What happens
Card cleared	10 points, 20 on a hard card, with the stamp and the amount on the card as it leaves.
Diamond fills (5 clean)	The run pauses: three perks, take one. A perk lasts the rest of the run. Perks stack.
Miss	The card flips as it does today. The run ends, unless Extra Life is live.
Run over	Points is the headline; cards cleared sits beside it. Best is kept on points.

Decisions for you

Is Extra Life allowed at all? It's the one perk that changes the core game. Today a miss ends the run, and that's the whole pressure. With a life, the player sees the rule and plays on, which helps learning and softens the game. The other option is to keep it out of the pool and treat a miss as final.
Does points replace cards cleared as the score? Perks need something to multiply. The mockup puts points first and keeps cleared as a second number, so the existing best (cards) would restart under points.
What a single-deck run offers. A group double means nothing in a one-deck run, so the pool there is safety and risk only, and a third slot needs another perk (a "Hot Streak" that adds 2 a card per clean card in a row is one candidate).
How many picks a run holds. At five per diamond, a 25-card run picks five times. That may be too many interruptions for a game whose pace is the point; one pick every other diamond is the fallback to test.

What to watch in play

Whether testers read the card or skim it to get to the next pick.
Whether Harder Deal gets taken (risk perks only work if they're sometimes worth it).
Whether a perk pick after five feels like a reward or an interruption.

Your tester's idea, adjusted

He suggested perks "completely independent of getting questions right." In this game that can't happen: a miss ends the run, so a pick always follows five clean cards. Points stay tied to clean cards, and perks change how they score.

TAKE ONE

Extra Life

Harder Deal

Punctuation ×2