November 6, 2026

How to play Midgard Derby: a free online piglet-racing board game for 2–8

Play now Free · 2–8 players · no download, no sign-up

Midgard Derby is the third game on the site: a short party board game for 2 to 8 players. Five piglets race round a fairground, but you are not a piglet. You are a bettor. You take turns betting on the piglet you think will lead, and whoever has the most coins at the end wins.

How do I start a game with friends?

Open the site, pick Midgard Derby on the home page and create a room. Tap Invite to copy the room link, share it, or show a QR code for a friend to scan. Your friends open the link and they are in: no app to install and no sign-up, just a name. A room holds up to 8 players, and the host can start as soon as there are 2.

The Midgard Derby lobby with the "Invite friends to this room" window open: buttons to copy the room link, share the link and show a QR code — Inviting friends: send the link or let them scan the QR code, and they join straight from the browser

Before the start, the host chooses whether each turn has a timer. When everyone is sitting together and chatting, no timer works fine.

What can I do on my turn?

Everyone starts with 3 coins. On your turn you do one of these four things:

Take a lap ticket for the piglet you think will finish this lap in first place. If you are right, the first player to bet on it gets 5 coins, and the next get 3, 2 and 2 (the tickets run 5 · 3 · 2 · 2), so betting early pays more.
Roll the dice to move one piglet 1–3 spaces. You get a token worth +1 coin at the end of the lap.
Place a cheer drum or a mud pit on the track. A piglet that stops on a drum moves on 1 space; one that stops in mud slips back 1. You get +1 coin every time a piglet stops on yours.
Lay a Winner or Loser card face down: guess which piglet wins the whole race, or which one comes last.

The Midgard Derby phone screen with the lap tickets open: all five piglets in race order, each row showing ticket values 5 3 2 2 and a Bet button — Lap tickets: the piglets are listed from the leader down; tap Bet to take the top ticket of that piglet

How do the piglets move?

A piglet that moves carries everyone stacked on its back and lands on top of the space it reaches, so a piglet riding a stack can jump into the lead. Two backward runners (Shadow and Frost) also run the other way. They are not ranked, but a racer riding on one gets dragged back with it.

How are coins counted at the end of a lap?

After 5 rolls the lap ends. Tickets on the first-place piglet pay their value, tickets on second place pay +1, and tickets on any other piglet cost 1 coin. The tickets then go back to the piles and a new lap begins, with fresh bets.

When does the game end, and who wins?

The moment any piglet crosses the finish line past space 16, the race stops. The Winner and Loser cards are revealed in the order they were laid. Correct ones pay 8 · 5 · 3 · 2 · 1, so whoever guessed first earns most, and a wrong guess costs 1 coin. The player with the most coins beats their friends.

The end-of-game window with the final coins: first place Sam with 22 coins, second place Me with 12, an MVP banner and a Play again button — The finish: cards revealed, coins counted, and Play again to race the same friends

Tips for your first game

Bet early: if you are right, the first bettor gets 5 coins.
Second place still pays +1, so you do not always have to back the leader.
Watch the backward runners: they can drag the leader back.
Each colour's card can be played once, so lay it when you can see who is really ahead.

The full rules are on the in-game How to play page. Ready? Open Midgard Derby, create a room and send the link to your friends.