How to play MVP Coup

Preet Shah
5 min readMay 16, 2020

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Welcome to MVP Coup, the online card game based on the real game Coup created by Rikki Tahta.

Original Cover for Coup Card Game

Coup is one of the games my roommates and I love to play. We were really excited to be back together in the summer for our next school term but due to the current situation, we realized this was not going to happen. So, we took matters into our own hand and decided to spend our time together by building an application. After skipping through some initial ideas, we decided to go back to our roots and build the game Coup that could be played online. This was a great option for us because we understood the logic of the game and this made coding the application a bit easier. Furthermore, we knew this would be a project where we could all learn something new from and enjoy playing it once finished.

After two months of quarantine, 15k+ lines of code, and countless effort, we are excited to bring you MVP Coup 1.0 release! However, before you and your friends can begin to play, we wanted to provide a guideline on how to play this version of Coup.

We will not be talking about the main game play/rules of Coup. Instead, this article will help you understand how we set up the game so it is easier for you to understand our mechanics. If you do not know how to play Coup, please watch this video before continuing.

Now that you are ready to play the online version, press this link to be directed to our online version. You should see this screen:

Home Screen Display

This is the home screen where you get to pick your player name, and either create a new room or join an existing one.

NOTE: You cannot create a room that already exists, and you cannot have the same name as another player in the same room.

Please only play with a max of 6 people. This version does not enforce it but 6+ players will result in a bad experience due to the current card deck size. On a positive note, we are working on a solution to scale the application and allow a higher number of players, but this will be part of the next patch update so stay tuned!

If you are the host (the person who created the room), share your room name with your friends so they can join you.

NOTE: Room names are case sensitive. So, Coup1 is a different room than coup1.

After two or more players are in the room, the host can start the game. You should see this screen if it is your turn. If it is not your turn, the screen will be slightly different.

Player Screen if it is your turn

This is the game screen where the rest of the game will be played out. If it is your turn, choose a role to play from the list. If you forget what each move does, there is a moves button in the bottom right corner of the screen. Click it to view the specifics of each role.

This web page is broken down into three components. The left-hand side is information on your cards and coin count, as well as the other players. Click the names of the other players to open a drop down to see their information in detail.

The middle screen is the options screen. This is where all the options and buttons will show up if it is your turn, or if a move requires your input.

The right-hand screen is the past moves screen. This is where you can see a list of all the moves that were made and their outcomes.

When a move is made, a list of options will show up for the player(s) involved. The Confirm option means you agree to allow the move to go through. The Block option means you would like to block the move made with a certain role. Finally, the Bluff option means you believe the move called is a fake. If the move is an exchange between two players, such as Assassin or Captain, then only the selected player will see these options. Pick what option you believe in, and let the code handle the rest!

Some helpful advice to be aware of while playing:

DO NOT REFRESH THE PAGE. We are currently implementing a cache feature that will save your information if you refresh. However at the moment, if you refresh, it may continue to work, or it could bug out so please be careful. If it bugs out, you and everyone in the room will have to leave the game and start again.

DO NOT LEAVE THE GAME UNLESS EVERYBODY IS DONE PLAYING. If a player leaves the game, then it will prevent the rest from playing. Please finish the game or ensure everybody is OK with stopping the game. To leave the game, you will have to close the tab.

BE PATIENT. We are continuously working on improving performance but if things are not updating (for example, you do not see the list of moves when it is your turn), please be patient. It could be the connection between the database and your computer, or just inefficient code that is causing this delay.

Thank you for trying our MVP Coup 1.0 release! We would love to get your feedback from the game. If you noticed any glitch/bug, or just want to compliment us, please DM any of us tagged or email me at p46shah@gmail.com!

Have a great time playing! We hope this game helps break some barriers of social distancing and quarantine. Stay safe and remember to play the game at least 6ft apart from one another :D

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