Silk & Strip

House rules

The pacing

Every completed card earns tension points. Passing with a Velvet Sip earns a third of them. Levels unlock only when the table has earned them together, so the game cannot sprint to the end.

Thresholds scale with the size of the table. A group of six has to earn three times what a couple does, so everyone gets the same slow climb no matter how many are playing.

  1. Level 1 · unlocks at 0 tension

    The Spark

    Wanting, said out loud

    Eyes, words, the first deliberate touch. Shoes come off. Nothing else — yet.

  2. Level 2 · 12 tension for two players

    Closeness

    Hands, mouths, fabric in the way

    Skin through cloth, breath on a neck, and the first things unbuttoned.

  3. Level 3 · 30 tension for two players

    Temptation

    Undressing, slowly

    This is where clothes come off in earnest — yours, and each other's.

  4. Level 4 · 54 tension for two players

    The Ultimate Threshold

    Nothing left in the way

    Bare skin, plain words, and hands that no longer ask permission twice.

The wardrobe

Strip poker deals a finite wardrobe before the first hand, and so does this. Everyone agrees one number at setup — count shoes, socks, every layer, underwear — and the game counts down from it. No card takes more than one thing at a time, so the last layer is reached by playing, not by one instruction. Run out and you are out: you stay on the scoreboard in last place while the rest play on. Pick a smaller number for a shorter, sharper night.

How the game is won

Whoever ends the night wearing the most and having drunk the least wins. That is the whole scoreline: clothing first, sips as the tiebreak.

Which is why backing out is the expensive move. Refusing always costs more clothing than the card itself would have, plus the drinks — so the bold player stays dressed and the shy one ends up bare. Tension points are the table's shared climb through the levels; they do not decide the winner.

The Velvet Sip

Decline a card by taking the forfeit instead — 3 times per player, per game. It still earns a third of the card’s tension.

If you don’t answer, or don’t do it

Refusing is allowed, and it has a price that rises with the level. Take the forfeit on the spot, in front of the table, and the turn passes. Each player may buy their way out 3 times per game; after that it is do the card or say the safeword.

Choosing your own level

You do not have to start at the beginning. Pick a starting level on the setup screen, and change it at any point during the game from Change level under the scoreboard. Moving to a level puts the tension score at the start of that level, up or down; the points each player has already earned are left alone.

Veil down

The safeword, and it is never rationed. Say it, tap it, and the card is gone — no points, no penalty, no explanation owed to anyone. It works on every card, at every level, however many sips you have left.

Consent, always