List of games with concealed rules

These are games where the rules are intentionally concealed from new players, either because their discovery is part of the game itself, or because the game is a hoax and the rules do not exist. In fiction, the counterpart of the first category are games that supposedly do have a rule set, but that rule set is not disclosed.

Actual games

Discovery games

• Army of Zero: A card game in which the cards also form a series of puzzles, leading to a particular answer. Would-be solvers are not told what they are trying to discover, and must derive their objective as well as unravel the puzzles.
• Big Blue Moon: A game that involves saying "Big Blue Moon X Y Z", where X Y and Z are words following the rule to the game.
• Seven Eleven Doubles: A drinking game played with two dice. One of the rules is that no one explains the rules, and if a rule is broken by a player, that player must take a drink. A player who rolls 7, 11, or doubles (any pair) gets to choose another player and make them drink. The player chosen to drink cannot start drinking until the dice are touched. If their roll is something else, the dice must not be touched and the player to the right gets to go next.
• Bobby's World (or My World): A game where players declare an item that is "in" their world, and those knowing the rule confirm or deny whether it is part of their world.
• Elephant's foot umbrella stand: A parlour game in which items are added to the end of a list. Only items that follow the rule are accepted.
• Eleusis: A card game where the object of the game is to deduce, by studying which cards have been successfully played onto a layout, the rules by which subsequent placements may be made.
• Gestalt Number Theory: A game in which one or more objects are positioned so as to represent various numbers between zero and ten (or possibly eleven). Those in the know can readily confirm the value indicated.
• The Green Glass Door: A word game that has a single rule that needs to be guessed by other players. Typically, players who know the rule will give a thematically matched pair of words, one of which "is" behind the green glass doors, and the other of which "is not."
• Jewels in the sand: A verbal version of Eleusis.
• NetHack: A rogue-like computer game in which discovery of the rules is a fundamental gameplay aspect. Descriptions of NetHack's mechanics are often called "spoilers". In addition, on each playthrough items and levels are randomized, so that one cannot simply learn what each thing does without identifying it each time.
• One Hand Up: a game that has a single rule that is known to some but not others. Players take turns, and those who know correct those who do not. As people figure out the rule they are encouraged to take the lead in correcting those who do not, until one person is left in the dark.
• One Up, One Down: a drinking game with improvised jargon.
• Paranoia: A role-playing game set in an Orwellian dystopian future. The actual rules of the game are secret from the players (but not the Gamemaster), while the rules presented to the players are incomplete and inaccurate, and players are penalized for showing knowledge of the actual rules. Keeping this knowledge of the rules hidden, and using it to put a player's character in a more favourable position while back stabbing others without them knowing, is one of the themes of the game, in keeping with the setting.
• Penultima: a chess variant in which the moves of the pieces vary, and are initially kept secret from the players.
• Scissors: A game where a pair of scissors is passed, with the passer declaring that they are being passed "open" or "closed", and the players must figure out the rule determining which is the correct declaration.
• Skitgubbe: One variant of Skitgubbe requires that a new player infer the (complex) rules of the card game.

Hoax or joke games

• 52 Pickup: A card game in which dealer scatters the cards on the floor and non-dealer must pick them up.
• The Game: A mental game in which a player loses when they think about The Game. Since one of its rules is that "everyone in the world is playing The Game", even those who are unaware of it, The Game's rules are concealed from the majority of its players.
• Kamoulox: A joke game created by Kad Merad and Olivier Baroux, presented on French radio and television. The aim of the game is to be the first to say "Kamoulox".
• Mornington Crescent: Originally a round in the Radio 4 comedy panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, Mornington Crescent involves naming stations on the London Underground, roads and streets until Mornington Crescent is "reached". The game parodies games such as contract bridge or chess.
• Stanley Random Chess: A computer moderated chess game where 50% of the moves are made randomly from a list of all possible legal moves in the current position. Players are told that their original moves were illegal, under obscurely-named rules, and have been adjusted to the closest possible legal move. Players of SRC perpetuate the belief that the rules are all real, and that the game in fact predates standard chess.
• Inspector: A game in which a new player, who does not know the rules, is picked to be the inspector and is told to leave the room while the rest of the group comes up with a scene. A person in the group who does know the rules quickly explains to those left who do not. The inspector is brought back into the room and instructed to ask yes or no questions to try and figure out the scene. All questions ending in a consonant are answered 'no', all questions ending in a vowel are answered 'yes', and all questions ending with a y are answered 'maybe'. This goes on until either the inspector catches on, or the other players break character or give up.

Games in works of fiction

Games with undisclosed rules

• Cripple Mr Onion: This game is referred to in various books in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It is a card game whose rules are never directly specified, but are very complex.
• Double Fanucci: Featured in the computer game Zork Zero, Double Fanucci has mind-bogglingly complex "rules". Legal play can depend on things like the phase of the Moon and the ancestry of the players.
• Dragon Poker: A fictional card game by Robert Asprin in the MythAdventures series. The rules change depending on weather, seating position, time of day, and undisclosed other modifiers. However, a playable version has been created by fans, based on the rules and play that are presented in the books.
• Seahorse: In the novel Seahorse: A Novel by Graham Petrie a complicated game played by island natives using cards depicting grotesque themes and colored stones, whose rules are never disclosed.
• Xing Haishi Bu Xing: In the episode "Atlantic City" of How I Met Your Mother, Barney plays a game entirely in Chinese. Marshall, however, figures out how to play the game, giving Barney clues as to how to play. Barney wins by going all in, spinning a roulette wheel, and choosing the girl who is holding the Jelly Bean. He shows this victory by declaring "Ying le".
• Several invented games feature in Star Trek episodes. For instance, throughout The Next Generation, repeated references are made to Parrises Squares, a game that is never explained but is apparently quite dangerous.
• In Fallout 2 the player is able to play a game called 'Tragic: The Garnering' (a pun on Magic: The Gathering) that uses ridiculous rules that alter gameplay such as the day, and position to dealer. The rules of the game are in fact a reference to the Fizzbin game invented in Star Trek.
• In Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist, the Leary children invented a card game called Vaccination—which as adults they still play—so incomprehensible that nobody else can play it, and which it is possible they are still making up as they go along: "In fact, more than one outsider had accused them of altering the rules to suit the circumstances."
• "Stars and Comets", a game that is briefly mentioned in many of Andre Norton's science fiction stories.
• Blernsball in Futurama is kept intentionally confusing and overly-complicated. It resembles baseball, but with a tethered ball, the potential for multiball, and other strange addenda.
• A chess with strange pieces (such as "Ape" and "Parapet") and exotic rules is featured in Haruki Murakami's novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
• MAD Magazine published and article outlining 43-Man Squamish, a college sport designed to be unplayable. The sport features a pentagonal field, silly-sounding terms and a dummy on each team.
• In season 3 of the Upright Citizen's Brigade's television series, numerous references are made to a sport similar to baseball called "Thunderball", which includes three balls and a "Gun Circle" in which a loaded handgun, which players are not allowed to touch, is placed ten yards behind second base.
• In the book, The Player Of Games By Iain M Banks the entire government of the Azadian Empire is determined by one's ability to play Azad, described as the most complex game in existence.

Hoax games

• Clique: The online satirical gaming magazine Critical Miss featured rules for a card game called Clique, a parody of collectible card games that used printed cards and spurious spoken rules to confuse onlookers.
• I Win!: In Big Daddy, Nazo (Rob Schneider) attempts to play cards with Julian (Cole and Dylan Sprouse). Whatever card combination Julian has, he declares, "I win!" A frustrated Nazo asks Julian what the name of the card game they're playing is. Says Julian, "I win!"
• Kleebob: In the very first episode of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950) George tries to trick Gracie with a made-up card game called "Kleebob".
• Pai Tai: In The Bob Newhart Show, a group is playing poker, and Howard never wins a hand. When it becomes his turn to deal and call the game, Howard announced they are going to play Pai Tai - Chinese poker. He deals each player a different number of cards, and explains that no kings are allowed in Pai Tai, and if any player has kings, they must be thrown away. If this leaves a player with no cards, they cannot fold and must sit in place until they lose. There are no raises and no bluffing, everyone bets, then reveals their cards, and whatever cards Howard was holding turned out to be a "Pai Tai" and won. Jerry then deals and announces a game of "Klotski", or Polish poker, for which every player needs a banana.
• In the Young Ones, Rik, Mike and Vyvyan play a card game where Rik consistently loses as "people with an R in their name are only allowed one card".
• In an episode of the second series of Bottom, Richie asks Eddie to suggest a card-game, and Eddie suggests "One-Card Slam"; he immediately slams one card down on the table, and says "Ooh! 12 quid!". Demonstrating extraordinary gullibility, Richie pays up, promising that one day he'll discover the rules.

See also

• List of fictional games
• List of games with mutable rules

External links

• Petals Around the Rose
• Calvinball - Television Tropes & Idioms