Hanabi convention list

[pikiou]

I like to play games sometimes with, sometimes without pre-agreed conventions; depends on what I feel playing ^^ So I love this list, thanks for it!

A few questions, now:
- would you include in the "play left discard right" convention that you should prefer to discard cards without clues?
- why a "finesse through color" and no "finesse through number"? I've seen both work and finesse is generaly assumed to work for both!
- for some conventions, the risk depends on whether you're playing multicolor or 5/6 colors. But it may be too technical to add a risk depending on the variation ^^


Now for a few more conventions (sometimes they are not compatible with the ones you already listed). Some are more common sense than real conventions...

"play all cards which received the same clue" unless you're given a new clue, be it about something else to play, to keep or to discard.

"play all 1s" that you received a clue on at the start of the game, unless you're told otherwise. Sometimes luck is on your side and you have three playable 1s!

"clue on rightmost = save". When you get a clue on one or more cards and one of them was the next to be discarded, check the discard to see if its twin wasn't discarded already. If so, it was a save clue.

"play card with most clues" when in doubt between two cards that could be played. Especially useful in multicolor.

"play where I discarded". At the end of the game when you know none of your cards are useful and especially when there are no clues left, discard something else than your rightmost to tell the next player to play at the same position. Especially efficient for 5s during the last turn!

(Should we say clue or cue? I'm french I don't know ><)

[petronille18]

This convention list is terrible. Terrible. Oh my gosh, terrible.
Not only does it tell players they should apply these tricks without even caring to know why they exist (which makes no sense) and regardless of the situation (which makes less than no sense - situation is everything in Hanabi), but it also contains some totally absurd and counterproductive conventions.

There is so much more to Hanabi than just using (bad) tricks like a robot.

I am totally agree with you! I play very often Hanabi but it was the first time today on-line ... This list of "conventions", allow simply to know what to play, unguardedly... This list, it is as to speak, because for one action, one answer (and no search!;))
I am very disapointed . Hanabi looses all its attraction here... I shall not replay Hanabi on Board game arena...

[Fishwick]

"play all cards which received the same clue" unless you're given a new clue, be it about something else to play, to keep or to discard.

This is a recipe for disaster I think. Mostly the clue will be to give one playable card, and additional information about others, not necessarily telling you to play them.

Playing everything you're told about will just lose you lives. Sometimes people can't give you an updated clue because they have another priority or it will be giving you false information.

[pikiou]

"play all cards which received the same clue" unless you're given a new clue, be it about something else to play, to keep or to discard.

This is a recipe for disaster I think. Mostly the clue will be to give one playable card, and additional information about others, not necessarily telling you to play them.

Playing everything you're told about will just lose you lives. Sometimes people can't give you an updated clue because they have another priority or it will be giving you false information.

I participated in many perfect games using that convention. And I've never seen a game using it go wrong without any player mistake unless the deck was awful. Not saying it's the best, but it works quite well ^^
And come to think about it, there are many good reasons why. I invite you to list them if you really want to discuss this topic further.

[Fishwick]

I know for sure I give colour clues when the leftmost is playable but the next isn't. Maybe you're in tune with the people you play with, maybe you've gotten lucky.

I think it's a bad assumption.

[sparr]

"play all cards which received the same clue" unless you're given a new clue, be it about something else to play, to keep or to discard.

This is a recipe for disaster I think. Mostly the clue will be to give one playable card, and additional information about others, not necessarily telling you to play them.
Playing everything you're told about will just lose you lives. Sometimes people can't give you an updated clue because they have another priority or it will be giving you false information.

I participated in many perfect games using that convention. And I've never seen a game using it go wrong without any player mistake unless the deck was awful. Not saying it's the best, but it works quite well ^^

There are an infinite number of conventions you could make up that would lead to more perfect games. Some might even be pretty simple, such as "first player only gives play clues, last player only gives discard clues". Just because they lead to higher scores doesn't make them any less tabletalk/cheating.

[chucklaplante]

This convention list is terrible. Terrible. Oh my gosh, terrible.
Not only does it tell players they should apply these tricks without even caring to know why they exist (which makes no sense) and regardless of the situation (which makes less than no sense - situation is everything in Hanabi), but it also contains some totally absurd and counterproductive conventions.

There is so much more to Hanabi than just using (bad) tricks like a robot.

I am totally agree with you! I play very often Hanabi but it was the first time today on-line ... This list of "conventions", allow simply to know what to play, unguardedly... This list, it is as to speak, because for one action, one answer (and no search!;))
I am very disapointed . Hanabi looses all its attraction here... I shall not replay Hanabi on Board game arena...

I was really interested by these conventions... some of them are clever, and all try to bring an answer to the problem of Hanabi.

But, well, that's just where I stop. For me, Hanabi isn't a mathematical problem, but a game.
By there I mean : It's WAY more fun to play than to resolve...
as this can be confusing, I'll give an example :
Imagine someone find a convention (probably more a group of conventions) allowing total victory each time... well, this wonderful and exciting game would become soooo boring !
I would respect the persons who found the "perfect system"... i would understand the fun hey had finding a solution... but, hey, I never would play with them

I like the way chance is part of hanabi, where it's not in chess... it provides variability ok, but more important : Fun !!!

So if some techniques are essential to not play totally randomly (like the one, anyone will necessary find logically after a few games, consisting of discarding in priority the older cards, giving a hand order everyone use), i'll stick to them and i'll try to avoid even the more consensual of the more "artificial" ones (the "play left, discard right"...)

And, frankly, being a little more submitted to the chance gives you at least two things :
-the necessity to REALLY think each move, and to ADAPT to the table (vs being a robot playing with robots ^^')
-the great JOY when it works for your team (extatic when you do 25 !!!)
... and why not even the joy to learn from your mistakes, or just the excitement to see if the risk taken pays this time !

And, finally :
I tend to agree with Sparr... if it's not something which was the silent fruit of deduction, it's like cheating.
If all the players at the table agree to do this, I have no objection whatsoever... hey, they could even decide a convention of such : "we play with all the cards visible by everyone, even by the player holding them" !...
but like i said, it's not really my kind of fun... and, honest : I hit regularly 25 points nevertheless.

[beri]

[my gospel]

Man, I love you. You have spoken every word of my mind.

I've added you to my friends list, we so need to play together. We are not many.

[Schusi]

This convention list is terrible. Terrible. Oh my gosh, terrible.
Not only does it tell players they should apply these tricks without even caring to know why they exist (which makes no sense) and regardless of the situation (which makes less than no sense - situation is everything in Hanabi), but it also contains some totally absurd and counterproductive conventions.

There is so much more to Hanabi than just using (bad) tricks like a robot.

lol, i so agree!!

[Liallan]

Gotta agree with beri and with chucklaplante.

At least in certain respects. It's difficult to say the conventions themselves are terrible cause I don't know the game very well. (Although just reading the very first few it didn't seem to allow any leeway for situations.)

But what I can say is that if I played the game, I wouldn't want that list of conventions, whether good or not, and I do suspect it's only certain people's idea of conventions that wouldn't necessarily work for everyone, and that other conventions can work just as well.

The one thing I learned the very first time I played was that it helps to know who you're playing with and what they're doing. i.e. learning the meanings behind what they're doing. We also choose to talk about it, cause we had several new players. If you play with the same people all the time, these people can learn each other and what their conventions are. They can learn this without having to make a list. If that's what works for that set of people, what's wrong with that? A different group might have different conventions.

And if you play with yet another group, they may not have any conventions at all, and they might like it that way. Maybe they like deducing what is meant. And some things are fairly logical.

Some of us don't want to play like a robot. I think this totally ruins the fun of trying to figure it out, adjusting to situations, deducing what someone is getting at, without knowing definitive cues, being able to laugh over mistakes. All these conventions are just too damn serious. I don't know if I consider discussing them up front to be "cheating" - I don't see it as any different than discussing concepts in any co-op game. But it's also like telling people ahead of time how they have to play and what strategy they have to use, and I don't want to be locked into something like that. It feels more like a class exercise rather than a game.

Share your conventions with the people you play with and who want them.

One more good reason not to play this game here. I'm fairly sure I'd be gathering some red thumbs. I think we need to start a new group "People who don't care how you play Hanabi."