Season OneAnnouncementLaunch
Orion is out, and Season One opens 1 September
Orion Backgammon is out, and Season One, The First Crossing, opens 1 September 2026. What that means for trophies, the ladder and the Founding 1000.
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News and notes
What we are building, how Orion’s provably fair dice work, and what changes as we approach launch. Written by the team, first-hand.
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How to play backgammon
New to the game, or to the international rules? The complete rules in one page: the board and the setup, moving with the dice, hitting and the bar, bearing off, the doubling cube, and how a match is scored.
Read the rules- fairnessrulestrust
Is backgammon gambling?
Backgammon is a skill game played with dice, and it is only gambling when money is staked on it. What that distinction means, and how Orion is arranged.
Read the note - fairnesstrustbeginners
What to check before you install a backgammon app
Nine things worth checking in any online backgammon app: dice fairness, what happens when you run out, ads, real money, bot detection and offline play.
Read the note - rulesbeginnerssetup
Backgammon setup: where every checker goes
How to set up a backgammon board: the exact starting position, which way each player moves, the ten second check that proves it, and four common mistakes.
Read the note - rulesstrategybeginners
Bearing off in backgammon: rules and technique
When you may start bearing off, the exact rule for a roll higher than your highest checker, what happens if you are hit, and how to avoid wasting pips.
Read the note - strategyintermediate
The four backgammon game plans, and how to spot yours
Priming, the blitz, the holding game and the back game: the four shapes a backgammon game settles into, what each one wants, and how to recognise yours.
Read the note - rulesdoubling cubestrategy
Match play and the Crawford rule, explained
Why serious backgammon is played as matches, what the Crawford rule is and why it exists, what post-Crawford means, and how the score changes the cube.
Read the note - culturebeginners
Is backgammon good for your brain? An honest answer
What the research on board games and cognition actually supports, what it does not, and which specific mental skills backgammon genuinely exercises.
Read the note - beginnersculturerules
Teaching a child backgammon, in the right order
Which rules to leave out at first, the order to add them back, what age it clicks, and how to handle the losing so a child wants a second game.
Read the note - rulesculturetavla
Backgammon variants: plakoto, fevga and acey-deucey
Portes, plakoto, fevga, acey-deucey, nackgammon and narde: how the world's backgammon variants differ, and which one the international game is.
Read the note - fairnessprovably fairdice
Can online backgammon be rigged?
Yes, it can be. A closed server can rig dice and results alone cannot prove it. What rigging looks like, and how commit-reveal dice make it detectable.
Read the note - provably fairdiceguide
How to verify your backgammon dice were fair
Every Orion game commits to its dice with SHA-256 before the first roll. Paste the game ID at orion.arthea.ai/verify and your browser rechecks every roll.
Read the note - provably faircertified RNGfairness
Provably fair vs certified RNG: what protects you
Certified RNG asks you to trust an audit. Provably fair hands you a per-game receipt you can check yourself. Here is the difference, in plain terms.
Read the note - fair diceprovably fairbackgammon apps
Do backgammon apps cheat? What players can actually check
Mostly no: doubles land one roll in six and memory keeps a biased score. The real question is whether an app can prove its dice. Here is how to check.
Read the note - fair playengineeringprovably fair
Why a fair game server trusts no one, including us
What server authoritative means: the server holds the board, validates every move at source, and commit-reveal dice keep even the house honest.
Read the note - doubling cubestrategyrules
The doubling cube, explained properly
Doubling cube rules in plain language: who may double and when, take or drop, redoubles, the 25 percent take point, and the mistakes beginners make.
Read the note - luck vs skillstrategyratings
Is backgammon luck or skill? Both, and that is the point
Both. One game is noisy, but across many games skill dominates: better players measurably win more. Why dice make backgammon better than pure-skill games.
Read the note - StrategyBackgammon
Backgammon opening rolls: what to play and why
The standard play for all fifteen backgammon opening rolls: the point makers, the split or slot choices, and the runs, plus the principles behind them.
Read the note - strategybasics
How to read a backgammon position like a player
Three questions strong players ask every turn: what kind of game is this, where are the blots, what does the pip count say. Learn to read structure.
Read the note - strategypip countbasics
Pip counting: the skill that changes everything
A pip count is the total pips needed to bear off every checker. Both sides start at 167. Learn the direct method, the shortcuts, and when to race or hold.
Read the note - rulesscoringcube
Gammons and backgammons: how scoring really works
Gammon doubles the game, backgammon triples it, the cube multiplies on top. Plain rules, worked examples, and why gammons move the cube.
Read the note - strategybeginners
Seven backgammon mistakes that cost beginners games
The seven habits that lose beginner backgammon games, from buried checkers to a silent doubling cube, and the fix for each one.
Read the note - glossaryruleslearn
Backgammon terms, from anchor to the bar
A working backgammon glossary: point, pip, blot, anchor, prime, the doubling cube and more, each defined in one or two plain sentences.
Read the note - backgammonchessstrategy
Backgammon vs chess: which should you learn?
Chess is harder to study, backgammon is harder to judge. We compare difficulty, learning curves, upsets, the cube, and which game fits your life.
Read the note - basicsgame lengthmatch play
How long does a backgammon game take?
A casual game takes 5 to 10 minutes, a match to 5 or 7 points 20 to 45. What stretches games, what shortens them, and why the loop suits a phone.
Read the note - etiquettetraditiononline play
Backgammon etiquette, at the table and online
The unwritten rules of backgammon: which side to roll on, how to offer the cube, how to concede, and how the same manners translate online.
Read the note - historyorigins
Five thousand years of backgammon, briefly
From the Royal Game of Ur around 2600 BCE to the 1920s doubling cube: backgammon's real history, honestly dated, and what never changed.
Read the note - culturetavlatradition
The cafe tradition: where backgammon lives
Backgammon lives in cafes: tavla in Turkiye, tawla in the Levant, shesh besh across the region. Tea, kibitzers, and boards handed down explain why.
Read the note - destinationsvoyageworlds
Twelve tables: the destinations of Orion's first voyage
Every destination in Orion Backgammon, in voyage order: Tangier cafe to the celestial table, and how you reach each board by playing, not paying.
Read the note - DesignBehind the game
Why Orion is landscape first
Orion is landscape first because the board is wide. What turning the phone buys: the full board, both home boards, and the cube where hands expect it.
Read the note - seasonsleaguestrophies
Seasons, leagues and trophies: how the ladder works
Trophies come from rated play only. Everyone starts at zero and climbs ten leagues, Driftwood to Orion, in quarterly seasons. Nothing you buy helps.
Read the note - season passfair playdesign
A season pass without the dark patterns
How Orion designs its season pass: cosmetics and pace, never power. No anxiety timers, no pay-to-win tier, and a free track worth playing on its own.
Read the note - localizationRTLengineering
Shipping backgammon in 43 languages
How we shipped a backgammon game in 43 languages: 884 strings per locale, RTL mirrored by the layout system, a CI guard for gaps, fonts tested per script.
Read the note - Season OneAnnouncement
The First Crossing
Season One, The First Crossing, opens on 1 September 2026. Twelve destinations across the Mediterranean and beyond, one board, one long voyage.
Read the note - Season OneFounders
The Founding 1000
There is only one first crossing. The first thousand players to join Orion keep a permanent mark of the season they arrived in.
Read the note - Provably fairHow it works
How Orion proves every dice roll is fair
Orion commits to the dice before a game starts and reveals the seed when it ends, so any player can recompute every roll and prove it was never changed.
Read the note - AnnouncementBehind the game
What we are building: Orion, a backgammon voyage
Orion is a premium backgammon game built as a voyage across twelve destinations, with provably fair dice, leagues and clubs. Here is what exists today.
Read the note - Behind the gameThe world
One board, many names
Tavla, tavli, nard, shesh besh, gamao, backgammon. The same twenty-four points, carried across empires and languages. Orion ships in 43 of them.
Read the note - Behind the gameDesign
The board remains sacred
We changed much around backgammon and nothing inside it. Fifteen checkers, twenty-four points, two dice, and a cube that still ruins comfortable positions.
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