Arcade · Rules

How to play Paperball

Football on a school desk. Each side has a few folded paper squares, there is one ball and two goals, and you take turns flicking one piece at a time. Flick a square through the middle and it goes straight. Catch it on the corner and it spins.

Players
2
A side
3 to 5
To win
3 goals
Each turn
1 flick
The pitch

A desk with two gaps in the ends.

  • One side
  • The other
  • The ball
  • Corner spots
  • Halfway and goal-kick lines
Five a side, both in a 2-2, before kickoff. The keeper starts in front of his own goal. The long sides are walls. Each goal is the middle three tenths of its end, and the posts are solid.
The rules

Nine things. The second and third are most of it.

  1. Pick a formation

    Before kickoff each player chooses how their outfield pieces line up. Five a side offers 2-2, 3-1 and 1-3. Four a side offers 1-2, 2-1 and 3-0. Three a side offers 1-1, 2-0 and 0-2. The keeper always starts in front of your own goal.

  2. One flick, then the turn passes

    On your turn you flick one of your own pieces, once. Everything runs until it stops, and then it is the other player's turn. There are no second touches for hitting the ball, and a flick that misses everything still uses your turn.

  3. A flick is a line, a power and a touch point

    You choose the direction, how hard (1 to 100), and where on the piece your finger lands, from the left edge through the centre to the right edge. Through the centre, the piece slides straight. Off centre, it spins as it goes, and it travels slower, because part of the flick went into the spin. With paper you can also pin one point of a square and flick another, so it swings round the pin. Corks cannot be pinned.

  4. Spin decides how the ball comes off

    A spinning square drags the ball sideways when it arrives and puts spin on it. The pieces themselves always travel in a straight line. The ball does not: a spinning ball curves. The ball is also a wad of paper with a lump on one side, which you can see, and it comes off a little crooked when the lump is to one side of the hit.

  5. No fouls

    You may flick a piece into an opponent's piece on purpose, to clear a lane or to knock the keeper out of the goal. The keeper is an ordinary piece. You can flick your own keeper too. He is just not in the goal afterwards.

  6. The sides bounce

    The long sides are walls. The ball and the pieces come back off them and play goes on. Pieces cannot leave the pitch at the ends either. Only the ball can.

  7. Off the end: corner or goal kick

    If the ball crosses an end line outside the goal, look at which side touched it last. Off a defender, the attackers get a corner from the corner spot on that side. Off an attacker, the defenders get a goal kick from the dashed line, level with where the ball went out.

  8. Restarts are set plays

    At a kickoff, corner or goal kick the ball is placed for you. You choose which of your pieces takes it and which way it goes, and that piece is put down touching the ball, directly behind it. Then you flick it with whatever power and spin you like. Opposing pieces too close to the ball are moved back first. Before a corner, the defending player may also rearrange their own pieces, as long as they stay clear of the corner.

  9. Goals, and how it ends

    The ball crossing a goal line between the posts is a goal for the side attacking that end, whoever knocked it in. Every piece goes back to its formation, the ball goes to the centre and the side that conceded kicks off. The first player to reach the target wins at once. Any game that reaches 500 flicks stops there: the higher score wins, and level is a draw.

One turn

A flick, start to finish.

The ball has stopped a little way outside their goal area, and one of your squares is behind it and off to one side. You pick that square.

A straight flick through the centre would push the ball wide of the far post. So you aim at the ball and land your finger towards one edge of the square. It leaves slower than a clean flick would, turning as it goes. When it reaches the ball its face is sweeping sideways, and the ball comes away across the goal, not along the line you flicked.

Everything rolls to a stop. If the ball crossed the line between the posts, that is a goal, the pieces are reset and your opponent kicks off. If it stopped short, it stays where it is and your opponent flicks next, probably with their keeper still in the way.

Table options

What whoever opens the table decides.

Team size
3, 4 or 5 a side, keeper included. Five unless you change it.
Pieces
Folded paper, or corks. Paper unless you change it. Both sides play with the same kind.
Ending
First to 3 goals, or first to 5. Or a timed game: a set number of flicks between you, 120 unless you change it and anywhere from 20 to 500, after which the higher score wins and level is a draw. On a table played for a stake the target is always 5.
Corners
On unless you change it. With corners off, the end lines either side of the goal become walls and only the goal itself is open.
Throw-ins
Off unless you change it. With throw-ins on, the long sides stop being walls for the ball. When it crosses one, the side that did not touch it last restarts from that sideline as a set play.
People ask

The arguments this page is meant to settle.

How do you win Paperball?
Score goals. A table plays first to 3 unless it is set to first to 5. A timed table runs for a set number of flicks instead, 120 unless the table changes it, and the higher score wins. Level at the end of a timed game is a draw.
Can you flick twice in a row?
No. It is one flick and then the other player's turn, whether you touched the ball or not. The one exception is a restart after the ball goes dead: the side given a kickoff, corner, goal kick or throw-in takes it, even if that side flicked last.
Are there fouls in Paperball?
No. Every flick costs one turn whether it finds the ball or not, so knocking an opponent's piece out of the way is a legal move. That includes bumping the keeper out of the goal.
What happens when the ball goes off the end?
If it crosses the goal line between the posts it is a goal. Anywhere else on the end line, it depends who touched it last. Off a defender, the attacking side gets a corner. Off an attacker, the defending side gets a goal kick.
What is the difference between paper and corks?
Paper squares stop quickly and grip the ball, so a spinning square bends it. Corks are round, heavier and glide much further, and they take the ball along the line between the two centres, the way one pool ball takes another. Both sides at a table use the same pieces.
Is it free to play?
Yes. Tables against other people are free.
Where it comes from

A school desk and a torn-out page.

This is a children's game, played on a desk with squares of folded paper and a wad of paper for a ball. Some played it with corks, weighted with candle wax and sanded on the floor so they would glide. Eleven a side was played too. These tables stop at five because twenty-two pieces do not fit under a thumb on a phone.

It did not have one name, and the next town did not play it quite the same way. Paperball is what these tables call it, and the rules above are the ones these tables play, so that two people from different schools can sit down and agree.

Now a person

The rules are the short part. The flick takes practice.

Free tables
Open one, send the link, play. No stake needed to sit down, and no download for whoever you invited.
Two minutes a flick
Each of you has up to two minutes for every flick. Go past it and your opponent can claim the game.
Talk while you play
Voice at the table, for everything that gets said after a goal.
Open a Paperball table

Paperball is one of the games in the Arcade.