Make your choice!
| Tap your choice | Pick rock, paper or scissors. |
| Mode | Play the computer or pass the device to a friend. |
| Reset | Clear the running score. |
Rock Paper Scissors settles arguments in playgrounds all over the world, and the rules take five seconds to learn: rock blunts scissors, scissors cut paper, paper wraps rock. Both sides choose at the same moment and the winner is decided instantly. It is the simplest fair coin toss ever invented that still lets you feel clever.
Against a person there is genuine psychology in it. Human beings are famously bad at being random, and players fall into patterns without noticing, favouring rock when they are losing or repeating whatever just worked. Spotting those habits is the whole game at a competitive level, and there really are world championships.
Against a person, watch for repetition. Most players unconsciously avoid throwing the same thing three times in a row, so after two rocks their next throw is very unlikely to be a third. Small habits like this decide long matches.
Notice what your opponent does after they lose. A large proportion of players switch to the throw that would have beaten the one they just lost to, which makes their next move surprisingly predictable once you spot the pattern.
Do not try to be random by feel. Human beings are poor at generating randomness and end up cycling in patterns. If you genuinely want to be unpredictable, decide your next few throws in advance rather than choosing in the moment.
For young children, play it slowly and say the rules aloud each round. Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, paper beats rock is a small logical loop, and hearing it repeated is how the idea sticks.
Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock. Matching throws are a draw.
Yes. In two-player mode you pass the device between turns so each player chooses in private.
Against a computer, no. Against a person, yes, because humans fall into patterns and predicting them is a genuine skill.
The running total is kept in your browser so it is still there next time on the same device.
No. Rock Paper Scissors runs entirely inside this page, so it starts the moment the page opens. There is nothing to download, no plugin, and no account to create.