Half a court
Everyone plays at one hoop. Before the first ball, walk the space and agree out loud on three things: the two sidelines, the back line, and the take-back line — an arc or a mark far enough from the hoop that nobody can score from behind it without meaning to. A painted three-point line is the natural take-back line if you have one. If you don't, pick a crack, a seam, or a shirt on the ground and point at it. Split into two even teams of one to six a side; if you can't tell each other apart at a glance, one team takes shirts off, turns them inside out, or picks a color.
Objective
Put the ball through the one hoop more times than the other team. Baskets inside the take-back line count one, baskets behind it count two, and the first team to eleven wins by two.
How it's played
First ball
Somebody shoots from the take-back line. If it goes in, their team starts with the ball; if it misses, the other team does. Any settled way of choosing is fine — shooting for it is just the one that never turns into an argument.
Check ball
Every time play stops — a basket, a foul, the ball out of bounds, an argument — the team with the ball restarts from behind the take-back line. Someone from that team holds the ball out to a defender, the defender hands or passes it straight back, and the ball is live the instant it's back in the offense's hands. No defender may guard anyone until the check comes back. If a defender won't check the ball, the offense can't start, so this rule enforces itself: the game simply stops until they do.
Take it back
Whenever possession changes during live play — a steal, a defensive rebound, a ball the other team knocks loose — the new offense must get the ball behind the take-back line before it may score. Carry it back or pass it back; either counts, and the ball only has to cross the line once. A basket scored without taking it back doesn't count, and the ball goes back to the other team. Teams that skip this rule end up with a game of putbacks under the rim, which is why every court in the world has some version of it.
Make it, take it
The team that scores keeps the ball. Check it at the take-back line and go again. This is the baseline because it's what most courts play and because it rewards a team that's rolling. Plenty of groups instead give the ball to the team that got scored on, which keeps blowouts shorter and everybody more involved — an even split, and an easy thing to change.
Out of bounds, and how to end an argument
The ball is out when it touches the ground, a wall, or anything else past the lines you agreed on, and it goes to the team that didn't touch it last. When the ball ends up wedged between two players and neither will let go, it's a jump ball — give it to the defense and check it. When the room genuinely can't agree who touched it last, don't vote and don't re-litigate: replay the possession from the check. That single rule ends more pickup arguments than any amount of goodwill.
Winners stay
If there are more people than spots, the winning team keeps the court and the waiting team comes on. Whoever's been waiting longest has next, and they call it out loud before the game they're waiting on ends — "I've got next" is a claim, and the court honors the first one made. Teams that lose go to the back of the line. Some courts cap how many games a team can hold the court in a row so one good group doesn't own the night; pick a number if you need one.
Ones and twos
A basket from inside the take-back line is one point. A basket from behind it is two — the shooter's feet decide, and both feet must be behind the line when the shot leaves their hands. Toes on the line is a one. If nobody saw the feet, it's a one. Call the score out loud after every basket, your team's number first, and keep calling it — the score is whatever the room last agreed on, not whatever you remember.
Penalties & violations
Call your own fouls
There are no referees, so the person who got fouled makes the call, out loud, at the moment it happens. A foul is contact that changed what was going to happen: a hack on the arms, a shove in the back, a body that arrives before the ball. On any foul call, play stops, no basket counts, and the offense checks the ball at the take-back line. There are no free throws. Two things keep this honest, and both are rules, not etiquette. First, the call belongs to the caller — the other team may say their piece once, and then the game restarts with the call standing. Second, a player who calls everything gets the same treatment everyone gives that player, which is why almost nobody does it twice.
Nobody's here to get hurt
No undercutting a shooter, no swinging elbows to clear space, no hard contact on a player already in the air. This is the one call the whole group makes rather than the player fouled: if the room agrees a foul was reckless, the offense gets the ball back and the fouler sits the next basket. Say it plainly when it happens. A pickup game is not worth a wrist.
Eleven, win by two
First team to eleven wins, and you have to win by two: at 10–10 the game keeps going until one team is up by a pair. Some groups cap it — first to fifteen no matter the margin — so the next team isn't standing around for twenty minutes at 18–17. Announce the cap, if you want one, before the first check.
Make it yours
Every court answers these differently. The rulebook above is one honest baseline — these are the calls that make it yours.
Play to 11 or 21?
Eleven by ones and twos is a fast game; twenty-one by ones and twos is a long one; twenty-one by twos and threes is a different game entirely.
Make it, take it — or ball goes to the other team?
The single biggest lever on how a blowout feels.
Take it back past the arc, or just past the free-throw line?
Shorter take-back makes the game faster and rewards offensive rebounding.
Winners stay, or rotate the loser's spot?
Some courts sub only the losing team's worst matchup so the same five don't play all night.
Call your own fouls, or nobody calls anything?
“No blood, no whistle” is a real house rule, and it makes a very different game.
The prose is the game. Every change here is saved as a new version, and every match ever played pins the exact rules it was played under.