Competitive Hanabi

 At a convention in California about 8 years ago (OrcCon 2015), I played in a Hanabi tournament format they called Hanabi Race with my friend Andrew and someone else who I don't even remember (sorry, person) -- it was a neat format, you played Hanabi in real time, and you could start over if you wanted, but you only had like 15 minutes or so, and when the time was up, your current score was your score for the round... Why would you start over? Because maybe you accidentally discarded such that you shut off a color early, and you wanted to do better, or because your opening draw had no 1's at all, stuff like that. A referee watched the game, and you were penalized for making "cheating" type errors. It was a fun way to do a Hanabi tournament!

BUT... that's not really what this post is about. Rather, it's about using the Hanabi mechanism, but in a non-cooperative game. Hanabi is one of my favorite cooperative games, and its novel mechanism of holding cards backwards and giving clues to each other to deduce the contents of your hand paved the way for several imitators, including Bomb Squad, by my friends Dan and David, which I helped develop and publish with TMG, as well as a Knizia game called Abracada-What? and maybe some others.

A designer I know, Isaac Shalev, once had a design for a competitive game that used the Hanabi mechanism - It was about solving mysteries, a la Sherlock Holmes. I'm not sure if anything ever became of that design or not.

At one time I had my own thoughts about a competitive game using Hanabi's main mechanism. It's one of the rare ideas I didn't write down, either here in this blog, or elsewhere, which means now (maybe a decade later) I recall having the idea, and I recall thinking it was cool or promising, but I don't recall any of the specifics! I know that the cards in your hand were buildings that you would play, and I'm pretty sure you got resources by giving clues to your opponents about their cards in hand. but really, that's about all I remember...

The other day I saw an ad for the upcoming 7 Wonders expansion, and it said "a new experience in the 7 Wonders universe," which made me think "you know, if I ever made that competitive Hanabi city-building game, maybe it could be in the 7 Wonders universe!" Which made a lot of sense to me - the cards could basically be 7 Wonders cards, but instead of drafting them, you play this clue-giving, deduction game to get them into play.

So, I set about mashing up two of Antoine Bauza's greatest hits: Hanabi and 7 Wonders. Here's what I've got so far, now to figure out a way to prototype and test this (I don't know how well Tabletop Simulator will work for a Hanabi mechanism!):

Hanabi Wonders

7 Wonders style buildings, each with a cost in 7W resources (wood, stone, clay, ore, glass, paper, cloth)

7W cards come in 6 colors... Shuffle 2 starting cards in each color, and deal 3 face up to each player - assign 1 "under construction," and the other 2 "completed"

Deal X cards (based on player count?) FACE DOWN to each player - DO NOT LOOK at your cards, hold them so all other players can see them

On your turn:
1. Give a clue
2. Play a card
3. Draw a card

1. Give a clue
Choose an opponent and one of the following conditions, then point out all cards in that opponent's hand that meet that condition. Once you e done so, gain the associated benefit:
A. Name a resource - point out all cards that have that resource in their cost
Benefit: collect 1 resource of the named type for each card you pointed out
NOTE: you have a storage limit of [6?] resources

B. Name a number - point out all cards that cost that number of resources (total)
Benefit: move 1 resource of your choice from your supply to your under construction cards for each card you pointed out (if you complete a card, discard those resources and move the card to the "completed" area)

C. Name a color - point out all cards of that color
Benefit: activate 1 of your completed card of the chosen color for each card you pointed out

2. Play a card
EITHER
A. Play a card face up in front of you, it is now "under construction"
OR
B. Discard a card and choose:
* Collect any 1btesoice found in its cost
* Activate 1 (all?) Of your completed cards of that color

3. Draw a card
Draw a new card from the deck to replace the old one in your hand. Remember, DO NOT LOOK at it. When the deck is out, the round is almost over... After everyone has had equal turns, the round ends.

End of Round / End of Game:
Maybe certain buildings activate (like red ones, or ALL buildings?), then a new round begins with Era II cards, which cost more than the Era I cards, but you get a discount for having certain other buildings in play (maybe simply 1-2 basic resource discount per building of that color you have in play?)

After round 2, the same thing happens using the Era III cards, which cost more still, and have strong effects, and/or game end scoring based on some condition (like Guilds from 7W)


After the end of round 3, the game is over - total your victory points to determine the winner

Card effects when activated:
Red:
All red (and maybe some other) cards have military icons. When activated, gain 1/2/3 vp for each neighbor with fewer icons than you

Blue:
Gain 1/3/5 vp

Yellow:
Trade 1/2/3 resources for coins. Coins are wild resources (maybe glass/cloth/paper costs 2/trade for 2) and are worth a point at game end

Green:
Draw 1/2/3 science tiles at random, keep 1 (science tiles have 1 of 3 science icons, score sets like 7W)

Brown:
Provide 1/2 basic resources (wood/stone/clay/ore) of the pictured type (no brown cards in age III)

Gray:
Provide 1/2 advanced resources (glass/paper/cloth) of the pictured type (no gray cards in age III)

EDIT:
Idea to keep players from just giving the same clue to the same person back-to-back:

Give each player 3 tiles, one each for Color, Number, and Resource. When given any clue, refresh any face down tiles and turn face down the one corresponding to the new clue. You may not be given a clue in the face down category.

 Also, on your turn, refresh all of your tiles.