What happens if two players tie for the lowest?

They take a letter each, exactly as ties work in H-O-R-S-E, and the game carries on with both of them a letter worse off.

Can a letter be rubbed out again?

Only with a redemption rule on: a visit of 100 or more, of 140 or more, or a maximum rubs one out. Classically letters only ever accumulate.

Does a big visit save you in the round you go lowest?

Yes, with a redemption rule on. The letter goes out first and the rub-out is applied afterwards on the same card, so a letter taken and a letter rubbed out in the same round is no letter at all, and on the last letter that is a save from elimination itself.

What if everybody goes out in the same round?

Nobody is left standing, so the most points of the players it wiped out takes it, and the winner screen says so rather than leaving the room to guess. Level on points, the higher card on the board takes it.

Does everybody play the lowest-of-the-round rule?

Not in every pub. The other rule is that each visit has to beat the total the player in front just threw, and whoever fails takes a letter the moment they throw it — level is not beating it, and the first visit of the game has nothing in front of it, so it is always safe. Played that way a 140 poisons the next player rather than merely winning the round, and where you sit becomes part of the game. This board plays either one.

Legs rules: the lowest score of the round takes a letter

Legs is darts’ answer to H-O-R-S-E. Every round each player still in the game throws one three-dart visit, and whoever scores the lowest total that round takes the next letter of the word. Spell L-E-G-S and you are eliminated. The last player left in wins.

Play Legs →

How a round is scored

Nothing is decided until everybody has thrown. A round closes when the last surviving player has had their visit, and only then does the letter go out — to the true low scorer of that round, whoever it turned out to be:

One visit each, three darts. Anything the dart hits counts, so the round is a plain three-dart total: 60, 26, 41, 100.
The lowest total takes a letter. Four letters in LEGS, so four bad rounds and your card is spelled out.
A tie for the lowest is a letter each. Two players on 26 in the same round both take one, exactly as ties work in H-O-R-S-E.
Spelled out is out. Play carries on without you, and the rounds get shorter and more dangerous as the field thins.
Everybody out at once still has a winner. Two survivors on their last letter can tie for the lowest and go out together, and then nobody is left standing — so the most points of the players it wiped out takes it.

The rule that hands the letter out is a setting on the card, because two houses play this game two ways. The one above is the H-O-R-S-E rule this game is built on: nothing is settled until every surviving player has thrown, and the lowest total of the round takes the letter — a tie for the lowest is a letter each The other is the one below, on the house-rules list.

That last part is what makes the game: in a six-hander a 41 is usually safe, in a three-hander it is the lowest score on the board. The number you need is not a number at all — it is however much the other players happen to throw, which is why nobody can play a safe evening of Legs.

Any word, and why the word is the clock

The word’s letters are the lives, so the word is the length of the game. LEGS is four rounds of trouble; DARTS is five, and OCHE is a quick one for a group that wants to play something else afterwards. Any word up to eight letters can be typed on the setup card — a house word, a nickname, whatever is written on the chalkboard — and the board spells it out one letter at a time under each player’s name.

House rules this board plays

The part no other rules page has, because no other site implements them. Each one opens the setup screen with that rule already set.

Spell DARTS instead Five letters, five low rounds — the longer evening, and the one to play when the field is small enough that letters come round quickly. Set it up →
Spell OCHE Four letters that go faster than they look, because the word is short enough to keep everybody nervous from the first round. Set it up →
Redemption at 100+ The H-O-R-S-E house rule, and the one that changes the game most: a visit of 100 or more rubs a letter out again. It is applied after the round’s low scorer has taken theirs, so a ton can save the player who threw it in the same round — and two early letters stop being a death sentence. Set it up →
Redemption at 140+ Rare enough that a letter still means something, common enough that a strong player has a way back. Set it up →
Beat the one in front The other way the pub plays it, and it is a different game rather than a tweak of this one: the pub rule: each visit has to beat the total the player in front just threw, and whoever fails takes a letter the moment they throw it — level is not beating it, and the first visit of the game has nothing in front of it, so it is always safe The mark carries across the round, so the first player of round two is throwing at the last player of round one. Set it up →
Beat the one in front, spelling DARTS, with redemption The long version of the pub game: five letters, a mark to pass every visit, and a ton to rub one out when the seat in front of you throws a 140. Set it up →
Only a maximum saves you A 180 rubs one out, and nothing else does. Everybody in the room knows exactly what one is worth, which is the point. Set it up →

Classically there is no redemption at all: letters only ever accumulate, which is why two early ones leave a player dead on their feet for the rest of a long word. That is what the board plays unless you turn one of the thresholds on, and a rubbed-out letter never takes a card below zero or brings a spelled-out one back to life.

Common questions

How do you play Legs darts? Every round each player still in throws one three-dart visit, and whoever scores the lowest total that round takes the next letter of the word. Spell it out and you are eliminated.
What happens if two players tie for the lowest? They take a letter each, exactly as ties work in H-O-R-S-E, and the game carries on with both of them a letter worse off.
Can a letter be rubbed out again? Only with a redemption rule on: a visit of 100 or more, of 140 or more, or a maximum rubs one out. Classically letters only ever accumulate.
Does a big visit save you in the round you go lowest? Yes, with a redemption rule on. The letter goes out first and the rub-out is applied afterwards on the same card, so a letter taken and a letter rubbed out in the same round is no letter at all, and on the last letter that is a save from elimination itself.
What if everybody goes out in the same round? Nobody is left standing, so the most points of the players it wiped out takes it, and the winner screen says so rather than leaving the room to guess. Level on points, the higher card on the board takes it.
Does everybody play the lowest-of-the-round rule? Not in every pub. The other rule is that each visit has to beat the total the player in front just threw, and whoever fails takes a letter the moment they throw it — level is not beating it, and the first visit of the game has nothing in front of it, so it is always safe. Played that way a 140 poisons the next player rather than merely winning the round, and where you sit becomes part of the game. This board plays either one.

Play it

Legs is one of the twenty modes in Friendly Fire Casper, a free darts scoreboard that runs in a browser and keeps working when the wifi drops. It scores the round, works out who was lowest, spells the word for you, undoes the visit you typed wrong, and can put the board on a TV while everybody scores from their own phone.

Play Legs →