Waving Hands

Wizards duel with their hands, and the right run of gestures is a spell.

Richard Bartle's 1977 pencil-and-paper duel, free in your browser. Each turn every wizard chooses a gesture for each hand, and all are shown together. A Fireball is F-S-S-D-D on one hand, and a Shield is a single palm. Play the bot, or open a table for up to a dozen wizards and play by turns.

{#if local} {:else} {/if}

or join one

With a code you can take a seat if one is free, or watch from the Peanut Gallery.

or bring a seat from another device
{#if error}

{error}

{/if}
{#if seats.length || local}
your duels
{#if local}
here offline · your move · turn {local.turnNumber} · against {local.foe.name}
{/if} {#each seats as held (held.roomId)}
{held.roomId} {status(held)}{#if unread(held) > 0} · {unread(held)} new {unread(held) === 1 ? 'line' : 'lines'} of talk{/if} {#if forgetting === held.roomId} This browser may be all that holds your seat. {:else} {/if}
{/each} {#if reports.length}
your reports to the keeper
{#each reports as r (r.id)} {@const last = r.thread[r.thread.length - 1]}
{r.roomId}

“{r.happened}”{#if r.image} (with a picture){/if}

{#each r.thread as line, j (j)} {#if line.from === 'player'}

you: {line.text}

{:else}

{line.status} {line.text}

{/if} {/each} {#if !last}

the keeper is studying the moment

{:else if last.from === 'player'}

your word is with the keeper

{/if} {#if r.thread.some((l) => l.from === 'desk')}
{ e.preventDefault(); void answer(r); }}>
{/if}
{/each} {#if answerError}

{answerError}

{/if} {/if}
{/if} {#snippet aboutGame()}

Waving Hands is Richard Bartle's game from 1977, played with pencil, paper and two hands. It was later known as Spellbinder and Spellcaster, and Andrew Plotkin's Spellcast brought it to university X terminals in 1993, which is where the maker of this page first met it.

This version keeps the game as written, with all forty spells, the same simultaneous turns and the same ledger of letters. The rules text it follows is the fanzine transcription, kept in full on the rules page. The bot reads your gestures as you would read its. The hand silhouettes on the buttons are adapted from Plotkin's bitmaps, with his notice retained.

It is free and keeps no accounts. An offline duel stays in your own browser. Every other duel, against the bot or between people, lives on a small server as an append-only ledger of moves, so it can be replayed from its first gesture, and each wizard is shown only what the rules let them see.

{/snippet} {#snippet aboutTally()} {#if told} {:else}

Counting…

{/if} {/snippet} {#snippet aboutFamily()}
{#if family.length}

More games in {#if hall}Kestrel's Hall{:else}Kestrel's Hall{/if}

    {#each family as g (g.slug)}
  • {g.name}: {g.pitch} {g.players} players; {g.origin}.
    • {/each}
{/if}

The games of Kestrel's Hall are free and will stay free. They run on small servers that cost a few dollars a month, and anyone who wants to chip in toward the hosting can do so at ko-fi.com/kestrelsnest. Chipping in unlocks nothing, and the games are the same for everyone.

Waving Hands is Richard Bartle's, 1977.

{/snippet} {#snippet aboutWord()}

If a rule reads wrong, something breaks, or you have a duel to tell of, write to eric@ericwagoner.com, @kestrelsnest.social on Bluesky, or @eric@toots.kestrelsnest.social on Mastodon. The keeper of this hall roosts at kestrelsnest.social.

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