Hanabi Clues for Begining Players

[Oldspring]

Basic Hanabi Conventions on BGA

*Basic Definitions

Bomb: A play that causes a misfire.

Chop: The oldest, unmarked card in a hand.

Convention: Agreed set of clue, play and discard interpretations. e.g. a number clue that marks the chop card should be interpreted as a unique card save (if there is a unique card of that number).

Draw: The newest card in a hand.

Focus: The target card of a clue.

Marked: A card matched by a clue.

Play clue: Clue that marks a focused card to play.

Playable: A card that can be marked by a play clue.

Save: A (number) clue that marks a chop card to prevent discard.

Strategy: Plan to achieve the highest score. e.g. to mark first copies of cards.

Trash: A card that can never be played successfully.

Unique: The last remaining card of its rank and colour (that can be played successfully at some point).

*BGA Basic Conventions

Players assume:
Every marked card will be playable at some point.
The oldest, unmarked (chop) card is safe to discard.
Cards known to be trash are discarded in priority e.g. cards marked blue when the blue stack is completed.

Save clue: A number clue that marks a unique chop card¹. Focus is the chop card.

¹Two Player Game: In a two-player game, if the two oldest cards have already been marked, marking the current chop card is a Play clue, not a save clue. However, if the clue also marks a younger card, the younger card is the focus.

Play clue: A clue that does not mark a (unique) chop card¹. Focus is the newest card.

Priority for choosing which play clue to make: A play clue that leads to plays in other hands. A play clue for a Lower rank card.

Fix clue: A follow-up clue on the same hand as an initial play clue. Required to change the focus (and prevent a misfire).

Examples of Bad clues:
Tell a lie e.g. a clue that marks red2 as playable without the required red1.
Mark unknown trash or duplicate cards e.g. mark 4s in another hand when your hand could have a copy of that 4.

Marked card discard: If a non-trash marked card is discarded it means: A copy of that card is already marked in someone else's hand (sarcastic discard); or A copy of that card must be marked in a future save clue (use with caution); or An unmarked copy of that card is playable (gentleman's discard)

Examples: [I don't know how to copy the appropriate examples. Here should go the following examples: Save Clue; Play Clue; Fix Clue.]

Finesse Convention
In Hanabi a finesse is a clue given to one player, not necessarily the player to the clue-giver's left, which requires a third player to notice what is happening and play a particular card. When you are ready to play the Finesse Convention, please see the description given near the end of the Rules Summary. When playing the finesse convention, all of the BGA Basic Conventions above still apply, with some modifications.

[Sammy McSam]

Thanks for your fresh perspective. I agree there is a large gap between beginner and finesse.
As Travis explained, the wiki page reflects the current options.
Blacktango suggested a 'basic' option. I suggested 'prompt' because it is a defined move and helps with understanding how it relates to finesse.

Save clue: A number clue that marks a unique chop card¹. Focus is the chop card.

Agree - feel free to edit

[aesche]

Regarding „1“ in 2P: So you can‘t have more than 2 saved cards in a hand??

[Sammy McSam]

Edit: I completely missed the line:

¹Two Player Game: In a two-player game, if the two oldest cards have already been marked, marking the current chop card is a Play clue, not a save clue. However, if the clue also marks a younger card, the younger card is the focus.

This doesn't make sense.

----
Below explains the current note:

Save clue
- A (number) clue that marks a (unique) chop card¹.
- Focus is the chop card.
¹Exception: 2 player game with 2+ consecutive saves.

Probably the wording could be improved, but it means:
If we can only save on chop in 2 player, we can't save multiple consecutive cards.
e.g. Bob: X X 5y 4r 4r
After Bob discards 4r, suddenly Alice must save both 4r and 5y. One solution is to permit off-chop saves:
- Alice clues '5' [Bob understands this is not a play clue]
- Bob discards 4r
- Alice clues '4'
We could instead force Bob to clue whenever Alice saves a card, but this depletes clue tokens. Therefore off-chop saves are a good strategic solution.

Other solutions:
- Alice clues red, Bob misfires 4r, Alice clues 5.
- Bob discards 4r, Alice discards off-chop (at the risk of a critical discard).
- Bob discards 4r, Alice clues empty to save two unmarked cards.

[Wreckage]

e.g. Bob: X X 5y 4r 4r

There are a number of ways to handle saving multiple cards. Some players use the convention; that if no 5 is playable in your example, they can clue "5" and it saves the 5 and every card to the right of the 5. Actually, they do this with any number card that isn't currently playable.

My partners and I play that if we force a bomb, it automatically saves 2 chop cards.