Players in Qwinto all play at the same time, with everyone trying to fill the rows on their scoresheets with numbers as quickly — and as highly — as possible in order to score the most points.

To set up, each player receives a scoresheet that contains three colored rows of shapes (mostly circles with a few pentagons); the rows don't completely overlap, but they do overlap enough to create five vertical columns of three shapes, with one pentagon being in each vertical row.

On a turn, a player rolls 1–3 dice, with the dice being the same colors as the rows: or ...