Shenanigans
From Wiki
By Mitch "Narmical" Morris
Copyright © 2008 - 2010 Mitchell Morris
All rights reserved. This document may not be reproduced in part or in whole in any form or in any means with out the express written permission of the authors.
Shenanigans is a card game of piratey fun and tall tale telling. Somewhere between an RPG and a card game, each player takes on the role of a fearsome pirate complete with a pirate ship. You tell silly pirate stories to the other assembled pirates about your pirating life. During the course of the game you get items to be used in the telling of the stories prompted by story cards.
- Object: To tell silly pirate stories until the deck runs out
- Number of Players: 2-6
- Recommended Number: 3-5
- Best Number: 4
- Play Time: 60 - 90 Minutes
In The Box
119 Cards
- 30 Story Cards
- 59 Item Cards
- 5 Of Cards
- 10 Modifier Cards
- 5 Narration Cards
- 10 Ellipses Cards
What you need
- 5 thingamajigs per player. Anything. We will call these 'Shenanigans Tokens'.
- Nametags, placards or index cards. Something to display your pirate name and ship to all the other players.
- A pen or pencil (to write on the name tag).
Contents |
Setup
Pick Your Pirate Name and the Ship You Sail On
Each player will be taking the role of a fearsome pirate, so everyone needs a fearsome pirate name! Pick any name you want, provided it fits the theme. Write your name on your nametag or placard, and put it where everyone can see. The same rules apply to naming your ship. If you have trouble with the names, check the Appendix for help.
Hand out Shenanigans Tokens
Each player starts the game with 5 Shenanigans Tokens.
Build the Deck
If you’re playing the basic Shenanigans game without any expansions, just give it a good shuffle and you’re done. If you’re using more than one deck, sort out the cards into two piles: story cards and everything else. Shuffle each separately. Take the top 30 (be precise) ‘Story Cards’ and the top 89 (just guess) ‘non-story cards.’ This will be your deck. Shuffle them together and you’re ready to go.
Pick the First Player
Deal cards from the deck face up to each player. When a player has a 'story card,' don't deal him or her any more cards. When all players have one 'story card,' stop dealing. The player with the highest valued 'story card' goes first. Ties go to the most fearsome!
Keep your Swan Song
Hand back all the cards you just received except the ‘story card.’ This card you keep face down in front of you. This will be your Swan Song; the final story you tell during the game.
Deal the Starting Hand
Before shuffling all the cards used to pick the first player, deal out 4 cards to each person. If you get dealt any 'story cards,' discard them and draw another. When the game starts you should have no 'story cards' in your hand, and your Swan Song face down on the table. Now shuffle all the cards back together and put them in the center of the table to make a draw pile.
Playing Your First Items
Before the first turn starts, each player gets a chance to play ‘item cards’, ‘ellipses cards’ and ‘of cards’. You need items on the table in order to tell stories so get prepared.
Types of Cards
Generally there are three types of cards: Story Cards, Item Cards and Do Something Cards.
Story Cards
Each ‘story card’ has three parts: a story prompt, a key word or phrase, and a story level. The story prompt is a sentence that informs the story teller what their story is to be about. The key word or phrase is a bold section of the prompt. The story level is just a number from 1 to 4. Story cards can never be in your hand, and can only be played during the Hand out phase of the turn.
Item Cards
Item cards represent items in the game world that must be used during the telling of a story. Each item card has a value of one. When you tell a story, the combined power of the items you use must be equal to the level of the story. ‘Item cards’ can be played at any time except during a story. To play an ‘item card’ you put them face up in front of you on the table. This makes the item available for later story telling. You can have a maximum of 4 ‘item cards’ in front of you.
Do Something Cards
Do something cards are all the other cards in the game. They all do something to either ‘story cards’ or ‘item cards’.
Of Card
An ‘of card’ can be used to combine two items together. The combination must be agreeable to the other players. If they don't like it, they can call shenanigans on you! When two items are combined with an ‘of card’ they count as one item for your item limit of 4, but they count for two when played during a story. For example, if you have grog and tankard, you could use an ‘of card’ to combine them into a Tankard of Grog. Feel free to change around the items that the ‘of card’ connects at any time, except when you are in the middle of telling a story.
Ellipses Card
An ‘ellipses card’ can be used to increase the power of an item by one point. Each ‘ellipses card’ has a word or phrase with a ‘...’ at the begging or end. This phrase is then attached to that item. If you have the ‘Flying…’ card and ‘rats’ out on the table. You could make Flying Rats. If the combination does not make sense, someone may call shenanigans on you. Just like the ‘of card’, feel free to move this around, as long as you’re not in the middle of telling a story.
Ellipses and Of Cards Together
‘Ellipses’ and ‘of cards’ can be used together to create even more powerful items. No matter how many cards are used, the resulting item still only counts as 1 item towards the item limit of 4. If you have the ‘Burning…,’ ‘bag,’ ‘poop,’ and ‘of cards,’ you could create the Burning Bag of Poop. This item would be worth 3 items when telling a story. You could even create Flying Burning Bag of Poop if you also had the ‘Flying… card’ (and no one called shenanigans). This item would count for 4 items when telling a story, but only as 1 towards the item limit.
Modification Card
A ‘modification card’ makes a story more or less difficult by raising or lowering the level of the story by one point. Similar to a ‘story card’, a ‘modification card’ has a prompt and a key word or phrase. When you play it, come up with something that makes the story harder or easer, that uses the key word or phrase, or you can use the whole prompt provided. Some ‘modification cards’ have no prompt or phrase. For these, you can make up whatever you want.
Narration Card
‘Narration cards’ change the storyteller. The instructions for each of these cards are different and are written on the actual cards.
Playing a Turn
The Draw
When it’s your turn, put your hand aside and draw cards. You draw one card for each player playing, plus an extra card (n+1 cards). For 3 players draw 4 cards, for 4 players draw 5, and for 5 players draw 6.
The Hand Out
Hand one card to each player. Announce what the card is when you hand it out, and place it face up in front of the player. If the card is an item, that player may put it in his hand, or leave it down on the table (provided he has not reached his item limit of 4). If it’s a ‘story card’, it’s your turn to tell a story. Any other card goes into the proper player's hand. The dealer of the hand decides the order in which the stories are told. This is the only time during the game that ‘story cards’ can be played. The leftover card gets discarded.
Do Not Play a Story on Yourself
You are discouraged from playing stories on yourself. You should play a story on someone else whenever possible. However if you are the only person who can beat the story, or you draw all ‘story cards,’ it’s ok to play one on yourself.
Hand Limit & Item Limit
You may have as many cards in your hand as you wish. You may only have 4 items on the table at a time. Items that are a combination of more than one card, only count as 1 towards this limit.
On the Story Card
Each story card has three parts: a story prompt, a key word or phrase, and a story value. The story prompt is a sentence that informs the storyteller what their story is to be about. The key word or phrase is the bolded section of the prompt. The story value is a number from 1 to 4.
Introducing a Story
The dealer of that hand must introduce the story. You must come up with a prompt which uses the key word or phrase then announce it in this way: “So Captain Swagbeard, tell me about the time __________.” If you're not feeling creative you can read the prompt written on the card as is.
Example Story Prompt
A story card could read ‘Tell me about the time you were attacked by 10 men.’ If you were the person to play this story card you could say "So Capitan Swagbeard, tell me about the time you were attacked by 10 men', or you could say “So Capitan Swagbeard, tell me about the time you were attacked by the Pirate Queen”, or even “So Capitan Swagbeard, tell me about the time you were attacked by 10 men and defeated them with your raging halitosis.”
Telling the Story
Fist and foremost: Talk Like A Pirate. You must tell the story from the point of view of the pirate, in first person, as if you were the pirate telling the story to other pirates. Second, you need to incorporate your item cards into your story. The story level determines the number of items needed in your story.
After Your Story
After you have finished telling your story any items that you use in the telling are discarded including any ‘ellipses cards’ attached to them or ‘of cards’ used to combine them. You keep the ‘story card,’ face up in front of you, to keep track of your exploits. If you go overboard and use more than the required number of items in your story, you can decide which to discard, separating combinations (and keeping the ‘of card’ involved) or detaching ‘ellipses cards’ if necessary. If anything about your pirate has changed you should add this to your nametag or placard. If you got promoted from captain to admiral, for example, or you acquired a cool nickname.
Calling Shenanagans
When something happens that you don't like, you can call shenanigans. You must make the call immediately when the offense happens. Once the next turn starts whatever happened; happened. To call shenanigans, you say “I call Shenanigans!” then the other players either vote “Arr” or “Nay” if 50% of the players (as opposed to 51%) are in favor of the shenanigans, then whatever it was called on, is reversed. If the vote passes, players who voted “Arr” must discard one token, if the vote fails no tokens are discarded. In a 3-player game, you need 2 votes to pass a Shenanigans vote; in a 4-player game you need 2 votes, and in a 5 player game, 3 votes.
To Disapprove of a Story
If you disapprove of a story you can call a Shenanigans. If the vote passes, the player who told the story can decide to either tell the story again, or discard the story at no further penalty. This call must be done right after the story has been completed.
Reasons to not like a story:
- didn't talk like a pirate
- didn't use a funny accent
- the story was not entertaining enough
- the story teller defied the laws of nature too much (“I pour my blowing ball into my cup”)
- the story was too gross or inappropriate
- etc.
To Disapprove of a Combination
If someone plays an ‘ellipses card’ or an ‘of card’, and you think the combination does not make sense, you can call Shenanigans on them. If the Shenanigans vote passes, the combination is split and the cards are returned to their owner. For example, if Cup of Life Boat makes no sense to you; you can call a Shenanigans!
To Settle Rule Disputes
If there is some argument about a rule you can call a Shenanigans. If a rule is unclear, and the players disagree on how it should work, call a Shenanigans to settle it. If you think someone has cheated, and they won’t fess up or rectify the situation, call a Shenanigans! If the vote passes, the majority opinion is in effect for the remainder of the game.
Other uses for Shenanigans Tokens
Shenanigans Tokens can be used at any time to buy a card from the discard pile. You can only buy cards that you can hold in your hand, in other words, not a ‘story card.’ If you don't have enough items to tell a story, or you really can't think of any ideas to fill the story prompt, you can pay one Shenanigans Token to just discard the story.
End Game
Swan Songs
When you have gone through the draw pile once, the game is almost over. In a regular game of Shenanigans (with no extra cards or combining of decks) the cards will be exactly enough cards for everyone to get one in the last hand. In a game with more than one decks worth of cards, this may not be the case (depending on how meticulous you were about building the deck). In this case, the last hand where everyone can get one card is the last regular turn played. Now is the time to play your Swan Song. Flip it over, pick someone to start and all tell your final story. The story values are disregarded during your swan song. If you have any left over tokens, you must use them now to take items from the discard pile. For each token you have left you can take one item of your choice from the pile. All items you have, either in play, or in your hand must then be used in your swan song.
The Winner
The winner is the person who had the most fun; argue if necessary.
Appendix
Having trouble coming up with a pirate name? No problem here are some suggestions.
Piratey Job Titles
The simplest way to get a good pirate name is to add a piratey job title to your very own name (or some other real name). “Captain Mike” might be a little to boring for you however, so here are some piratey job titles.
- Captain
- Boatswain
- Mate
- Quartermaster
- Cabin Boy
- Powder Monkey
- Cook
- Doctor
Piratey Nicknames
If you want to get more advanced try coming up with a piratey nickname. A particularly piratey physical feature is a good start. Use it alone or in combination with a real time, so here a some suggestions.
- Peg Leg
- Eye Patch
- Hook Hand
- Jar Head
- Block Head
Piratey Ship Names
Ship names are a little more difficult. Try out a real girl’s name or the name of some abstract concept. Here are some ship names from history and fiction.
- Hispaniola
- Queen Anne's Revenge
- Adventure Galley
- Flying Dutchman
- Endeavor
Credits
The following people made this game possible.
| Game Design: | Mitch "Narmical" Morris |
| Artwork: | Mitch "Narmical" Morris |
| Editing: | Michael Bonet |
| Playtesting: | Kristen Rose |
| Jessica Brownstein |
Special thanks to Michael Bonet for his invaluable assistance and his work on the upcoming expansions.
