Gamehelphanabi

Original Hanabi

Contents

• 50 cards, numbered 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5 for each of red, yellow, green, blue and white
• 8 Clue tokens

Objective

Hanabi is a cooperative game, that is, a game where the players do not play against each other, but work as a team to achieve a common goal. The players of Hanabi become one of the people in charge of an impressive fireworks display. However, they were distracted and got the gunpowder, fuses and rockets mixed up. The show is about to start and panic is spreading. You must join forces to prevent the show from being a disaster!

The cunning pyrotechnicians must put together the fireworks in 5 series (1 white, 1 red, 1 blue, 1 yellow, 1 green), arranging the cards by colour and in ascending order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

The Game

The players then take their turn going in a clockwise direction. On their turn, a player must complete one, and only one, of the following three actions (and they are not allowed to skip their turn):

1. Give one piece of information.
2. Discard a card.
3. Play a card.

NOTE: When it is a player's turn, their teammates cannot comment or try to influence them. This is highly dishonorable and will bring great shame upon you.

1. Giving a piece of information

In order to carry out this task, the player has to flip over a Clue token on the table so it is now face down. They can then tell one teammate something about the cards in front of that teammate.

Two types of information can be given and the player giving the information chooses only one type to give:

1. Information about one specific COLOR (and only one)
2. Information about one specific VALUE (and only one)

IMPORTANT: The player must give complete information. If a player has two green cards, the informer cannot only indicate to one of them, BOTH green cards will be indicated.

NOTE: The action cannot be performed if there are no Clue tokens face up in the right-hand area. In that case, the player has to choose to perform a different action.

2. Discarding a card

The player then places a card from their hand in the discard pile. This moves a Clue token from the left-hand area to the right-hand area. They then take a new card from the draw pile and add it to their hand without looking at it.

NOTE: This action cannot be performed if all the Clue tokens are in the right-hand area. The player must perform a different action.

3. Playing a card

The player takes a card from their hand and plays it to the center of the table. Two options are possible:

1. The card either begins, adds to, or completes a firework and it is then added to the appropriate color firework. 1. The card doesn't begin, add to or complete any firework. Discard the card out of the game. The fuse counter increases by one; the fuse is burning shorter and time is running out.

After playing their card, they then take a new card from the draw pile if one is available and add it to their hand without looking at it.

How the fireworks are built

• There can only be one firework of each color. The cards for a firework have to be placed in rising order (1, 2, 3, 4 and finally 5).
• There can only be one card of each value in each firework (so 5 cards in total).

BONUS for completing a firework

When a player completes a firework - i.e. they successfully play the card with a value of 5 - flip a face down Clue token back to face up on the table. This addition is free; the player does not need to discard a card. This bonus is lost if all of the Clue tokens are face up on the table.

End of the game

There are 3 ways to end the game of Hanabi:

1. The game ends immediately and is lost if the third Fuse is consumed (thus revealing the explosion).
2. The game ends immediately and it is a stunning victory if the firework makers manage to make the 5 fireworks before the cards run out. The players are then awarded the maximum score of 25 points.
3. The game ends if a player takes the last card from the pile: each player plays one more time, including the player who picked up the last card. The players cannot pick up cards during this last round (as the pile is empty).

Once this last round is complete, the game ends and the players can then add up their score.

Score

In order to calculate their score, the players add up the largest value card for each of the fireworks.

Artistic impression is determined by the Artisan League Of Fireworks Technicians reference scale:

Score breakdown

Points	Overall Impression
<= 5	Horrible, booed by the crowd...
6-10	Mediocre, just a hint of scattered applause...
11-15	Honorable attempt, but quickly forgotten...
16-20	Excellent, crowd pleasing.
21-24	Amazing, they will be talking about it for weeks!
25	Legendary, everyone left speechless, stars in their eyes!

Multicolor Variants

1. Add the 6th suit to the game and attempt to create all 6 fireworks. In this variant, the multicolor suit is not wild, it's a separate firework.
2. Same as Variant 1, except use only one card of each number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) for the multicolor suit.
3. Add the 6th suit to the game and these cards are now wild. In this variant, you cannot call out the multicolor suit. Instead of the multicolor cards always count as the color in your clue. But when playing the card, it counts and builds as the 6th (multicolor) firework.
4. The game does not end after the round where the last card is picked up. It continues until the players are defeated (3 Fuses used up OR if an indispensable card has been discarded) or until the players are victorious (all the fireworks are completed). The players can then find themselves with fewer cards in their hand at the end of the game and the score scale is not used: the fireworks display has to be perfect. (Can also combine this with any one other variant.)

Black Powder Variant

This variant adds 10 black cards to the pile. The players must form a sixth fireworks series, which will be placed on the table next to the other ones. Black cards are played in reverse order to coloured cards; that is, in descending order, from 5 to 1. When the black fireworks series is completed (with the number 1 card), players get a Clue token as a bonus, just like with the other colours.

Black cards have no colour. It is forbidden to give information about their colour. Players can only give information about their value.

Note: It is also forbidden to say “You have no black cards.”

Black cards do not score like the other colours. You’ll have to subtract 1 point from your final score for each card missing in the black fireworks display. The maximum score is still 25 points. You will be able to add the Black Powder Award to your final score, even if you don’t complete the series!

Example: at the end of the game, the black fireworks display is formed by the cards valued 5, 4 and 3. Players will subtract 2 points from their final score. Therefore, their total score will be 16 points with the Black Powder Award.