Hanabi

Variants of Hanabi

Players work cooperatively in this clever deduction card game with an electrifying twist! Each player is dealt a hand of 5 cards, but the catch is that you can see everyone's cards except your own. Working together, you must share (and remember!) vital information to play cards in the proper launch sequence. Light them all to create a dazzling display and avoid a fizzling fiasco!  2013 Spiel des Jahres winner, designed by Antoine Bauza.

Variant 1:

Add the 6th suit to the game of Hanabi and attempt to create all 6 fireworks. In this variant, the multicolor suit is not wild, it’s a separate firework.

Variant 2:

Same as Variant 1, except use only one card of each number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) for the multicolor suit.

Variant 3:

Add the 6th suit to the game and these cards are now wild. In this variant of Hanabi, you cannot call out the multicolor suit. Instead multicolor cards always count as the color in your clue.

But when playing the card, it counts and builds as the 6th multicolor firework.

Variant 4:

The game of Hanabi does not end after the round where the last card is picked up. It continues until the players are defeated (3 black fuse tokens in the lid of the box 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.

Strategic Advice

A player who is given information can rearrange his hand in order to put the cards concerned in an order which is easier for him to remember (on the left, on the right, further up or down),

The players can look at the cards in the discarded pile at any time. If a player of Hanabi discards a card that he has no information about, he runs the risk of getting rid of a card that could be useful in completing a firework. Sometimes a player will have no choice and will have to discard a card that he knows nothing about. However, there are multiple copies of the cards (except for the card with a value of 5); so discarding one does not necessarily mean that the firework cannot be completed.

Clearly identify a firework that you know you cannot complete: for example pulling out the last card of Hanabi in the series slightly. The cards of the corresponding color could still be discarded to put blue tokens back onto the table.

Communicating while playing Hanabi

Communication and noncommunication between the players are essential to Hanabi. If you follow the rules of Hanabi closely, you can only communicate with your teammates when you give them information by placing a blue token. 

However, you can play whichever way suits you best: set your own rules regarding communication. You could always allow comments like “I still don’t know anything about my hand” or “So do you remember what you have in your hand?”.

Hanabi is a cooperative game, i.e. a game where the players do not play against each other but work together towards a common goal.

In this case, they are absent-minded firework manufacturers who accidentally mixed up powders, fuses, and rockets from a firework display. The show is about to start and panic is setting in. The Hanabi players have to work together to stop the show from becoming a disaster!

Ages 8+   |   2 to 5 players   |   Playing time 30 minutes