Privacy

There is no sign-up, no email address, no password, no advertising and no analytics. A game on your own runs entirely on your device and sends nothing — unless you seat an AI connection you chose, which has to receive the position to play it. A game with other people sends what a game with other people has to.

Two kinds of game

On your own, or passing one device around: everything happens in this browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, because there is nothing to send it to.

Online: your moves go to our table service, which is what holds the game and deals the cards. A section below says what that involves.

Playing against an opponent outside the browser: an AI connection you choose may run on your computer or with a provider. The game sends the position so that opponent can choose a move. Each connection is described below. The game’s own opponents, Robber Baron included, play inside this browser and are not one of these.

An online table also has a chat, may have a voice call, and lets you block or report another player. Each has its own section below, because each one sends or keeps something the rest of the game does not.

There is still no account

You are never asked for an email address or a password, and there is nothing to sign up for. Playing on your own asks nothing of you at all.

Playing online creates one thing: a random identifier, kept in your browser, so that a rating and a block list can mean something between visits. It is not tied to your name, your email or your device — it is a string of letters this game made up. You choose a display name, which the other players at your table see; it does not have to be your real one and we would gently suggest it isn’t.

A picture is as public as a name. If you choose one, it is drawn in this browser from a short piece of text, and it goes wherever your name goes once you play online: to the other players at your table, and to anyone who opens the leaderboard once you are on it. A picture you give a bot goes with the bot when you publish it, and anyone who opens the gallery sees it. A picture that is reported can be taken down by the person who reads the reports. Until you play online or publish a bot, a picture you chose stays on this device.

Clearing your browser storage deletes that identifier, and neither we nor you can get it back. You would keep playing; you would simply start again with a new one, and a fresh rating.

What the game keeps, and where

At most the following, all of it in your own browser, on this device. Some are created only if you play online, or build a bot:

• The table you are playing, so you can close the tab and come back to it. Kept in your browser’s local storage under robber-barons-gamelab-save-v1. It holds the board, the moves so far and which seats belong to whom.
• Your sound and display preferences — whether music and effects play and how loud, and the display name and picture you chose. Kept in your browser’s local storage under rbsettings. It also keeps the human table figure you selected, and how much detail the board draws. If you have closed the notice that the board is shown flat on a device that cannot run 3D, that choice is kept under rb-flat-board-notice.
• Which tips you have been shown, so the ones that appear during a first game appear once and then stop. Kept in your browser’s local storage under robber-barons-guide-v1. It holds a list of which ones you have seen, and whether you asked for no more of them.
• Who you are online, once you have played online, under robber-barons-identity-v1. The random identifier described above and the key that proves it is yours. Playing on your own never creates it.
• Your seat at an online table, while a game with other players is unfinished, under robber-barons-online-seat-v1: the table’s code, your seat, the key the table service gave you for that one seat, and the address of the service. It is what brings you back to your game if the page reloads or the tab closes. It is removed when you leave the table or the game ends, and it is ignored after six hours.
• How far you have read a table’s chat, once you have opened the chat at an online table, under robber-barons-online-chat-read-v1: for each of your last sixty-four online seats, the table service’s address, the table’s code, your seat and the number of the last message you have seen, so a reload does not mark old messages as new. It holds no message and nothing you typed, and it is ignored after six hours.
• Who you are at friends’ tables, once you have opened or joined one through an invite link, under honestybot.identity.v1: a random player number, the key that proves it is yours, and a pair of keys for sealed invitations. Our relay’s directory holds the matching record while it runs: that number, the display name you chose, a short code friends can find you by, and the public half of the key pair. It is kept in the relay’s memory, not written to disk, and is gone when the relay restarts.
• Your seats at friends’ tables, under robber-barons-friends-seats-v1: for each of the last twenty such tables, its code and a random key that lets this browser take the same seat back after a reload. The key travels only inside the table’s sealed messages, which our relay cannot read, and it is replaced each time it is used. Each key also holds the name you sat down under, so two people sharing one browser each get their own seat back.
• The friends’ table you are at, while you are at one, under robber-barons-friends-table-v1: the table’s code, the key from its invite link and the name you sat down under, so opening the game again after the tab closed takes you back to your seat. It is removed when you leave the table, and it is ignored after six hours.
• How far you have read a friends’ table’s chat, in that tab only, under robber-barons-friends-chat-read-v1: the table’s code and the number of the last message you have seen there, so a reload does not mark old messages as new. It holds no message and nothing you typed, and it goes when the tab is closed.
• A saved table that could not be opened, if that has happened, under robber-barons-gamelab-save-v1-unopened: the same saved game as above, kept apart so a new table does not write over it. It is removed when you restore it or let it go.
• That the game has just reloaded itself, under rb-reloaded-for-update, for the length of the tab: when a new version of the game replaces a part this page still needs, it reloads once, and this mark keeps it from doing so again. It holds nothing else and goes when the tab is closed.
• The bots at your last face-off, if you have sat one, under robber-barons-faceoff-v1: the names, authors, pictures, instructions and search depth of the published bots you sat down with, so the table still shows their names if the page reloads. All of it is already public in the gallery. Starting another face-off replaces it.
• The seats of your last table, once you have set one up, under robber-barons-last-table-v1: which seats were you and which were bots, and the table’s house rules, so Play can offer the same table again. Setting up another table replaces it.
• The names at a table you share with others on this device, once you have set one up, under robber-barons-table-names-v1: the name each of the other people gave beside their seat, so the table calls them by it after a reload. Setting up another table replaces it.
• A table you are setting up for friends, while you set it, under robber-barons-held-lobby-v1, in this tab only: the seats you chose and your place in the table’s room, so a reload comes back to the same table and the links you already sent still work. It goes when the table starts, or when you close the tab.
• The people you blocked at friends’ tables, if you have blocked anyone, under robber-barons-friends-blocks-v1: the table’s code, the seat and the name the person sat down under, so what they say stays hidden after either of you reloads. It never leaves this browser, and the person is not told. Unblocking removes the entry; only the last hundred are kept.
• Your record, once you have finished a table or met a challenge here, under robber-barons-record-v1: for each table you finished on this device, with friends or strangers too, when it ended, whether it was played online, with friends or on this device, the names everyone at the table went by, which bots sat at it, the format, your points at the end, whether you held Longest Road or Largest Army and whether you won; and the date each challenge was first met. Your profile counts your record and stats from it. It is counted here and shown to nobody else.
• Your challenges, once you have tried one, under robber-barons-challenges-v1: for each challenge, the date you first finished it and your best result, which decide the sets that are open to you. It stays in this browser.
• Your AI connections, if you add one, under robber-barons-ai-connections-v1. This stores the provider and model you chose, the API key you entered, or the pairing token for Claude Code or Codex. The key is sent from this browser only to the provider you selected. A subscription connection sends the position to the command-line program on your computer through its local bridge. A local Ollama or LM Studio connection also receives the position on this computer. The position includes the public board and scores, the legal moves, and only the AI seat’s own cards; it does not include other players’ hidden cards or points. You can remove a connection on this page.
• Bots you have built, if you have built any, under robber-barons-bots-v1. Their names and pictures, what you told each one to value, its search depth, the result of the last time you measured it, and which published bot it was copied from, if any. They are on this device only unless you publish one (below) — there is no account to attach them to, so clearing this site’s storage deletes them and no copy exists anywhere for us or for you to restore.
• Parts you have saved in the workshop, if any, under robber-barons-bot-parts-v1: the name and text of each piece of formula you kept to use again. On this device only, like your bots.
• Pictures of built avatars, once one has been shown to you, each under robber-barons-portrait-v4: followed by the avatar it shows: a small picture of the head of a built avatar, yours or anyone else’s, drawn once in this browser so that it does not have to be drawn again each time it appears. Only the most recent twenty-four are kept, and none of them leaves this device.
• The game itself, so it opens without a connection. Kept in your browser’s offline store, the same way any installed web app keeps its own files.

No cookies are set. Nothing above leaves your device except where it says so, and what stays in your browser is not readable by us.

Deleting it

Clearing this site’s storage in your browser removes all of them from this device, and there is no way for us or for you to recover a table once it is cleared.

One thing is not in your browser. If you have played online, the record described in the next section is on our table service, and clearing your browser does not remove it. Write to the address at the bottom of this page and we will delete it.

What an online game involves

An online table is different in kind from a game on your own, and this is the honest description of it. Your moves go to our table service, because that is what holds the game and deals the cards — it has to see what you do in order to be the referee. It keeps, for as long as the table lives: the board, the moves, who sits where, and the display name you chose.

Alongside it we keep a record for your identifier: the display name you chose, your picture if you chose one, your rating, and how many rated games you have played. That record outlives the table. Nothing deletes it automatically, and clearing your browser does not reach it — it stays until you ask us to delete it.

Your profile, as other players see it, is that record: your name, picture and table figure, your rating and rank, and how many rated games you have played and won. Anyone who sits at an online table with you, or finds you on the leaderboard, can open it. Your games with friends and on this device are not part of it; they stay in this browser.

What other players are shown is only ever what the rules allow. Your hand is not sent to them, and the deck order is not sent to anyone. That is enforced where the game is held rather than in the page you are looking at, so a modified copy of the game gains nothing.

Games with friends on a shared link run between the players’ own browsers. Our relay passes sealed messages between them that it cannot read.

When a host shares a table through a quick tunnel, Cloudflare carries game pages and table messages between the host and invited players.

Bots you publish

Publishing a bot is the one way a bot you built leaves this device. Its name, its picture if it has one, what it values, its search depth and the display name you chose are sent to our table service and kept there, and anyone who opens the gallery is shown them, together with what the game server measured the bot doing. Anyone can copy a published bot into their own. A published bot also plays rated games against other published bots on the game server, and anyone can see its rating and those games, with the bot’s name and your display name. Withdrawing it takes it out of the gallery and removes what it values and its picture from the service; asking us to delete your record removes the rest, as described under Deleting it.

Reporting a bot’s name works like reporting a player: the report holds your identifier, the bot and the reason, and is read by a person. A bot reported by three different players leaves the gallery until it has been looked at.

Chat, blocking and reports

Chat. What you type at an online table goes to the table service and is shown to the other people at that table. It is kept with the table, for as long as the table lives.

Blocking. When you block somebody, their identifier is added to a list kept beside your record on the table service, so the block holds at every table and not only the one you were at. Unblocking removes it.

Reporting a player. A report is read by a person. It holds what you wrote, your identifier and theirs, which table it was, and the last 25 lines of that table’s chat, so that whoever reads it can see what was said rather than take anyone’s word for it. Nothing deletes a report automatically; we delete them by hand, and will delete one you made if you ask.

Report a problem, in the menu, is different: it writes an email in your own mail program. Nothing is sent unless you send it.

Voice

Where a table offers a voice call, the sound travels directly between the players’ browsers. It does not pass through us and it is not recorded. The microphone is asked for when you join a call, and not before.

A direct call has two consequences worth knowing. To connect, each browser first asks a public address-finding server what its own internet address is; the game uses ones run by Google and by Cloudflare, and they see your IP address and nothing about the game. And the other people in the call can learn your IP address, as they can in any direct call.

What playing Robber Baron involves

Nothing beyond the game itself. Robber Baron plays inside the game on your device, in the same rules engine as the board and the other house bots, so seating him sends nothing anywhere. He sees what any player in his chair would see.

What connecting an AI involves

AI Connections lets you choose Claude Code, Codex, an API key for a model provider, Ollama, or LM Studio, or send your AI a link. Nothing connects until you choose one. A key is stored in this browser and sent only to the provider you selected, directly from this page: Anthropic at api.anthropic.com; OpenAI at api.openai.com; Google at generativelanguage.googleapis.com; OpenRouter at openrouter.ai; Mistral at api.mistral.ai; Groq at api.groq.com; xAI at api.x.ai; DeepSeek at api.deepseek.com; Together AI at api.together.xyz; Fireworks AI at api.fireworks.ai; or the address you type for another provider. The provider receives the position when the AI takes a turn and returns a move. Testing an API model sends a separate short prompt without game information and may count toward that provider’s usage. A link you send your AI is kept by the game server with the name you gave it, when it expires, when the AI last used it and the name the AI’s software gave itself, so you can see it in your list. Removing the link deletes it. For Claude Code or Codex, the command-line program runs on your computer and receives each position through a local bridge. Ollama and LM Studio receive it on this computer. The position includes the board, public scores, the legal moves and the connected seat’s own cards. It excludes other seats’ private cards and hidden points. If the connection does not answer or returns a move the game cannot play, the table pauses; no other opponent takes its place.

What the website sees

To open the game your browser asks our web server for its files, the way it does for any website. The website is served for us by Cloudflare, a hosting company, so that server is theirs. The request reaches it with your IP address and the name of your browser in it, and web servers keep short-lived logs of such requests to stay working and to see when something is broken. We do not build a profile from them, do not connect them to anything you do in a game — we cannot, because the game tells the server nothing — and do not pass them to anyone.

Once the game has loaded, a table without an online service or connected provider can be played with the connection off. A local AI connection needs its program running on this computer; a provider connection needs that provider’s service.

Who else is involved

The game loads every file it uses — its code, its board, its rules engine and its music — from our own address and from nowhere else. There is no advertising network, no analytics service, and no font or script loaded from another company.

Cloudflare serves the website, as described above. And if you join a voice call, the address-finding servers run by Google and by Cloudflare are asked one question each, as described under Voice. If you connect an AI provider, that provider also receives the position and model request described above. Nobody else receives it from the game.

What the game does not do

• No advertising, and no advertising identifiers.
• No analytics or tracking, first-party or third-party.
• No selling or sharing of anything we receive. A provider you choose to receive AI moves sees the position needed to answer them.
• No location, no contacts, no photos, no files.
• No camera. The microphone is used only while you are in a voice call you chose to join.

Children

The game is not directed at children under 13. There are no accounts. A child who plays online gets the same random identifier and record as anyone else, described above, and nothing in it says who they are or how old.

Security, honestly

Connections to the website are encrypted in transit. Beyond that there is little to secure: what the game keeps is on your device, under your browser’s own protection, and anyone with access to your unlocked device can read a saved table. We are a very small operation and we do not claim more than that.

Changes

If what the game keeps changes, this page changes on the same day.

Contact

[email protected]