Kinapa

Kinapa is an unusual game. I am still not sure whether it's a game I don't like, or a game I don't understand. Many others have played it and found it unique (in a good way). Their comments make me doubt myself. Some who don't like it say it's just like Go Fish, but I disagree about the similarity. In Go Fish you may not lie about whether you have a card. In Kinapa you may. 

Kinapa is a card game for 2 to 8 players. I believe it is designed primarily for 4 to 8, because to play with 2 or 3 you need to use variant rules. The number of hand cards used is always 4 times the number of players, because players start with a hand of four cards. Your goal is to play all four of your cards. All numbers in the game appear twice. What you want to do is to collect both cards of the same value, and then play them to a base. In the photo above there are two cards numbered 13. So that's a pair. There is also a base which shows a fan, and it has the numbers 13 and 14. This means the base can accept a pair of 13's or a pair of 14's. The goal is pretty straightforward. 

The bases are shuffled and placed face-down at the centre of the table. There will be enough bases for all the pairs, just that at the beginning no one knows which bases allow which numbers. The active player (called the emperor) starts his turn by openly demanding a number. All other players must, on the count of three, respond to the demand at the same time. You either raise your hand to state that you don't have the number (you may lie), or you do nothing. There are several possible situations. If two or more players do nothing, then assuming that everyone is honest, the card the emperor wants is with one of these players who do nothing. The emperor picks one of them and randomly draws one of their cards, then give a different card in return. Now if the number of players who do nothing is 0 or 1, whoever has the card the emperor demands must surrender it. If the card comes from someone who has raised his hand, it means he has lied, and he is now caught lying. He will be penalised. Here is yet another situation. The emperor may already have a pair and still ask for that number. If everyone raises their hands, the emperor does not need to swap a card. He just needs to show his pair. 

After the demand step is completed, the second thing the emperor must do is to reveal an unoccupied base. If it matches a pair he has, he plays that pair to the base, and he reveals another base. If the emperor plays his second pair, he wins the game. If he is unable to play, the base is flipped back face-down. You need to try to remember what number it has. This is also a memory game. 

I find reading the rules rather challenging. The rules are hard to digest and remember. I'm not sure whether it's because of the game design or the way the rules are written. I feel the game can be simplified. When teaching the game, I had to look up the rules several times, because I realised I didn't know what to do when I encountered a certain situation. One thing I still don't quite get is this. Isn't it best to always not raise your hand? This way, everyone minimises helping the emperor. Also you won't be caught lying or be penalised for it. The game becomes just the emperor randomly picking someone to swap a card with. Why would you want to raise your hand? Is it because you already have a pair and don't want the emperor taking your card? 

One thing I find annoying is these sheep cards above. Whenever you become emperor, you must take a sheep card too. Anyone with a sheep card may not become emperor again, until everyone has a sheep card and they are then all returned to the centre. This is a mechanism to make sure everyone gets to be emperor once before anyone does it again a second time. Turn order is not clockwise. It is always the current emperor who decides who is next, except he cannot pick someone with a sheep card. Yet another exception is if someone has a fox card but not a sheep card, he must go next. 

The fox cards are the penalty for getting caught lying. This happens in a very specific situation - you have raised your hand, and that turn no one or just one person has his hand down, and you have the card the emperor wants, and you have been forced to surrender it. The penalty is for two turns you play with your hand open. The two fox cards are a countdown mechanism. 

I feel the game has many fiddly rules, making it complicated and hard to remember. I wonder whether they are necessary. Possibly I haven't fully grasped the fun in the game, so I can't appreciate why the rules are needed. I have only played one game, and I didn't even teach or play it correctly. I should play again, and play it correctly, before I draw any conclusion.