THE GAME
How to play hook & ring
The tabletop game with a hundred names - Hook & Ring, Battle Hooks, Hook & Ring Battle, and sure, some people call it ring toss. Whatever your box says, these are the rules being played at bars, basements, and kitchen tables.
AT A GLANCE
- 2 players, facing each other
- Swing your ring, land your hook
- First to the target - or the peg off the track - takes it
- A game runs about two minutes
Set up
- ·Face each other across the game. Your side has a ring on a string and the hook in front of you.
- ·The ring on your side is yours for the night.
- ·Agree on the win before the first swing. It saves the argument later. (See Scoring.)
The hook
- ·Pull the ring back and let it swing on its string toward your hook. Rhythm beats force.
- ·Land it and it's a ringer - that's one. Rim-outs, bounces, and almosts count for nothing.
- ·Both players swing at will - there are no turns. Pace is the pressure.
Scoring - two conventions
The peg. The way the game ships. Most battle sets come with a scoring ladder and a peg down the middle. Start it dead center; every ringer walks it one space toward your opponent - push it off their end of the ladder and you win. Tug of war, one ringer at a time.
The count. No ladder on your set - or you'd rather race? Count instead. Every ringer is a point, first to 10 or 21 or whatever you agreed takes the game. Simple, fast - and the source of every scorekeeping argument at the table.
Making a night of it
- ·Single games are warm-ups. Most tables play best of 3, 5, or 7 - first to the majority takes the match.
- ·Swap sides between games. Every game sits a little differently, and blaming the setup is tradition.
Your game is missing its best part.
That wooden set is a great start - it just can't hold a clock, keep a code, track a possession, or know more than one game.
HO●KY is the other half - up to 6 more game modes on the set you already have: sprints, steals, a co-op code crack, nine holes of golf. You've owned the controller all along. This is the console.
