Game: Handy

Thread: Demoed at GenCon

llamaface — 2008-08-20T20:40:21+00:00

This caught my eye at GenCon, so I demoed it with a group of friends.

First Impression:
I really like the look of this game. The art is reminiscent of of old time carnival.

Watching people play, it's sort of like 3d Twister for your hands. I watched a few younger kids play, and it seemed like their hands are too small for it.

The Rules:
Everybody has a reserve of colored balls. You are on two teams- one with the person to your right and one with the person to your left. As you go around the table, each team member flips over a card indicating a finger. Then they try to hold a ball between the indicated fingers without dropping any other balls. When a ball is dropped, the team puts it back in the box and loses it for the rest of the game. Scoring is done by adding up the number of balls left in play.

Gameplay:
My group played for about 10 minutes. It was kind of fun for the first round, but my group could never get more than one ball of each color in the air at the same time. Whoever put the first ball in the air dropped their second ball every time. It might be better with less players. There were 5 of us, and it was just a tangle of hands.

Cons:
The balls don't like staying in the little hoops. When you grab one ball from the hoop, sometimes the other balls go rolling off the table. If you try to grab them before they fall, you run the risk of dropping the balls you're holding.

It's not as much fun as it look like it would be.

Pros:
The art. I keep seeing the box, and I want to buy it even though I didn't enjoy the game.

It might be fun if you have steady hands.

It's very unique. I've never seen another game that plays in a similar way.

Thread: Re: Some basic rules questions...

benbodrero — 2007-09-21T01:38:53+00:00

The situation we ran into was running out of fingers - not balls. Each player starts with ten balls since they are on two different teams. We would make around enough times that is was someone's turn to put up a ball (which was available) but no cards to flip (no free fingers). I didn't notice anything in the rules about this so I am not sure if they really expected it to happen very often.

I will have to go get some bowls or saucers. Hopefully they will also be small enough to fit in the boxe with the rest of the bits.

Thread: Re: Some basic rules questions...

Android — 2007-09-18T21:00:05+00:00

Sorry I didn't post a reply earlier. Got busy and forgot I posted this question...

benbodrero wrote:
First off, have you found that by having the person who drops a ball be the starting player they almost always are the person to drop the next ball?

Not always, but I would say that is most common (just like rolling sevens with pair of d6). None the less that is what the rules say, and though I have noticed the same dilemma as you, I have not yet come up with a better way to choose who starts. I suppose you could just remember who started the previous round and have the team to the left (which would be the left member of the previous team and the player to his left since everyone is on two teams) start the next round.

We did just that and it seemed to add a bit better balance to the game.

Second question, interference with other players/the tree in general. We found that people were holding their fingers in ways to make connections almost impossible, shaking the tree, tickling other player's palms, wiggling, etc. Are there any rules governing these actions?

So far we play this as kind of a team game, where if one player needs to make a good stretch, he can get the rest of the tree to move with him. I see part of the challenge/fun as getting as many balls as possible in the air. Also, the essence of the game seems to be that people are only connected by the balls, i.e. no physical contact.

The no touching rule is fair enough, kind of hard to do it when your hand is twisted all out of shape. As for wiggling the tree, eg pushing one of the balls your holding in order to throw off others, seemed to be a good strategy but nasty none the less.

The balls, are they fairly firm (eg: Nerf Gun Balls) or squishy (stress balls). We used superballs which while they have a good surface to grip on, they have NO give at all...

They are made of a firm foam that only requires a little pressure. Playing with superballs sounds interesting though. Was it ever tough to track down all the balls after the tree collapsed? It seems like they would go everywhere.

We used cheap superballs, so not so much bouncing as you'd think...

A rules suggestion for the game: It happened several time where a player would run out of cards - meaning that they had a ball on every finger. I didn't notice (or look hard enough maybe) a rule governing this situation, so we made up a reward where whichever team put the last ball in play was able to retrieve a discarded ball back to their holder. Related to your first question, this always rewards the first player to flip a card, but I think it does work out to be the team to the right of the one that started. Take it for what it is.

Actually as soon as one player has no balls to play (and since there are only five balls for each player) the round ends and each team scores by the number of balls they currently have. A new round then starts.

A general suggestion for the game: There are some holders that come with the game that do a decent job of holding balls until they are needed. However it often happens in our games that balls will roll off the table because one is bumped out of the holder when another is being picked up. I am planning on finding some small bowls the right size to hold the balls better. If anybody finds something like this before I do, then let me know how it worked and I will do likewise.

Ben

Bowls work, the other option is to use saucers for plant pots. I picked some up for $0.50 each at Wall-mart...

Thread: Re: Some basic rules questions...

benbodrero — 2007-09-01T07:04:33+00:00

First off, have you found that by having the person who drops a ball be the starting player they almost always are the person to drop the next ball?

Not always, but I would say that is most common (just like rolling sevens with pair of d6). None the less that is what the rules say, and though I have noticed the same dilemma as you, I have not yet come up with a better way to choose who starts. I suppose you could just remember who started the previous round and have the team to the left (which would be the left member of the previous team and the player to his left since everyone is on two teams) start the next round.

Second question, interference with other players/the tree in general. We found that people were holding their fingers in ways to make connections almost impossible, shaking the tree, tickling other player's palms, wiggling, etc. Are there any rules governing these actions?

So far we play this as kind of a team game, where if one player needs to make a good stretch, he can get the rest of the tree to move with him. I see part of the challenge/fun as getting as many balls as possible in the air. Also, the essence of the game seems to be that people are only connected by the balls, i.e. no physical contact.

The balls, are they fairly firm (eg: Nerf Gun Balls) or squishy (stress balls). We used superballs which while they have a good surface to grip on, they have NO give at all...

They are made of a firm foam that only requires a little pressure. Playing with superballs sounds interesting though. Was it ever tough to track down all the balls after the tree collapsed? It seems like they would go everywhere.

A rules suggestion for the game: It happened several time where a player would run out of cards - meaning that they had a ball on every finger. I didn't notice (or look hard enough maybe) a rule governing this situation, so we made up a reward where whichever team put the last ball in play was able to retrieve a discarded ball back to their holder. Related to your first question, this always rewards the first player to flip a card, but I think it does work out to be the team to the right of the one that started. Take it for what it is.

A general suggestion for the game: There are some holders that come with the game that do a decent job of holding balls until they are needed. However it often happens in our games that balls will roll off the table because one is bumped out of the holder when another is being picked up. I am planning on finding some small bowls the right size to hold the balls better. If anybody finds something like this before I do, then let me know how it worked and I will do likewise.

Ben

Thread: Re: Some basic rules questions...

Android — 2007-08-28T17:51:52+00:00

taraba wrote:
First off, have you found that by having the person who drops a ball be the starting player they almost always are the person to drop the next ball?

The first group isn't always the group to drop the next. It depends on if the finger cards work out or not and the ability of the players to match up their fingers.

Yup, that's how we played it, but here's the deal. Say there are five players, ABCD and E. After one round the number of balls being held by each group of players is one. A and B started and after they have two balls in place then B & C try to get their ball placed. A & B have to hold their ball the longest and end up having to fight with holding it the longest while everyone else figures out what ball goes where. Chances are the starting players will be the first people to drop a ball.

We found that people were holding their fingers in ways to make connections almost impossible, shaking the tree, tickling other player's palms, wiggling, etc. Are there any rules governing these actions?

Weird group you play with.

I don't remember reading rules about this, but it seems that it's most likely to hurt one of your teams as it is anyone else. If it's not in the rules, I would say it would make sense to make a house rule to outlaw touching a non-teammate's hand or touching a non-team ball. (maybe the offender pays one ball from each team)

And after the first instance of this, we did. That still doesn't stop someone from causing the tree to "shake" while still holding their balls steady in the tree. It's quite easy to do, *trust me*...

I'm not sure if your players were aware that you're on two teams. The person to your right and to your left that you're going to balance with are each on a different team with you. So, you have an interest in keeping any balls of either team from falling and those are the ones that you're touching directly.

Oh, we got that part, but we were playing it to cause the other players to drop their ball. One trick was to move your hand slowly away from the other player so they had to stretch and thus they ended up losing their hold on a different ball (the one with their other partner). Wiggling or vibrating your hand slightly caused balls to roll out from between the fingers and even holding your unused fingers at weird angles caused problems for the other teams.

Yes, my group can be a bit nasty at times...

Thread: Re: Some basic rules questions...

taraba — 2007-08-27T21:01:04+00:00

First off, have you found that by having the person who drops a ball be the starting player they almost always are the person to drop the next ball?

The first group isn't always the group to drop the next. It depends on if the finger cards work out or not and the ability of the players to match up their fingers.

We found that people were holding their fingers in ways to make connections almost impossible, shaking the tree, tickling other player's palms, wiggling, etc. Are there any rules governing these actions?

Weird group you play with.

I don't remember reading rules about this, but it seems that it's most likely to hurt one of your teams as it is anyone else. If it's not in the rules, I would say it would make sense to make a house rule to outlaw touching a non-teammate's hand or touching a non-team ball. (maybe the offender pays one ball from each team)

I'm not sure if your players were aware that you're on two teams. The person to your right and to your left that you're going to balance with are each on a different team with you. So, you have an interest in keeping any balls of either team from falling and those are the ones that you're touching directly.

If I get another player to move their hand, one of my team mates might move their hand while concentrating on the ball that you started to make fall. But then they recover that ball and drop one on your team. This happens quite a bit. I've had a few times when a team mate was trying to hold a new ball and started to forget about one of the other fingers holding a ball. Saying, "stopstopstopstop" doesn't catch it in time.

The balls, are they fairly firm (eg: Nerf Gun Balls) or squishy (stress balls).

I think they're made out of a firm foam. I don't think we squished any because they felt like they were going to fly out from between the fingers if you did. Gentle pressure felt the most secure. It's mostly the grip of the pads on your fingers that keep them up.

Thread: Some basic rules questions...

Android — 2007-08-27T19:00:58+00:00

Last weekend I went out and picked up some superballs from the $1 store to try this one out before I started hunting down a copy of the game. We played a round or so and found it amusing, but there were questions that needed answering regarding the rules. (Not to worry, if it works out I'll be picking up the game...)

First off, have you found that by having the person who drops a ball be the starting player they almost always are the person to drop the next ball? (eg: It's easy to hold one, but the first group to hold two are always the ones to drop them)

Second question, interference with other players/the tree in general. We found that people were holding their fingers in ways to make connections almost impossible, shaking the tree, tickling other player's palms, wiggling, etc. Are there any rules governing these actions?

The balls, are they fairly firm (eg: Nerf Gun Balls) or squishy (stress balls). We used superballs which while they have a good surface to grip on, they have NO give at all...

Thanks for your help, even with the rules confusion it was still a fun play!

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simonh — 2006-12-29T21:00:28+00:00

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simonh — 2006-12-29T20:48:08+00:00

Inside the Rules Booklet

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simonh — 2006-12-29T20:48:00+00:00

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simonh — 2006-12-29T20:47:37+00:00

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simonh — 2006-12-29T20:39:45+00:00

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simonh — 2006-12-29T20:39:28+00:00

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simonh — 2006-12-29T20:36:43+00:00

The Game Components

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simonh — 2006-12-29T20:36:32+00:00

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simonh — 2006-12-29T20:36:17+00:00

Box Contents

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monalisa — 2006-09-28T06:10:08+00:00

Granby 2006

Thread: Fun for late night, but possibly too long

Henry Rhombus — 2006-02-25T15:15:42+00:00

Handy (Brent, Max, PD, Eric, Ryan, Linda -- in order around the table)

Yet another SimplyFun item, this dexterity game puts you in two person teams with each person in two teams. My teams, for example, were me and PD and me and Ryan. On a turn, you and your teammate flip over one of your five cards, with each card designating a specific finger or the thumb. You then take a squishy ball of your team's color and hold it between the designated fingers: my index finger and Ryan's ring finger, for instance.

Then going clockwise around the table, each team flips over two cards and adds a ball to the "hand tree," as the structure is called. So Ryan and Linda would hold a ball, with Ryan now supporting two balls. Then Linda and Brent would add a ball, and so on. If a team drops a ball, it's out of the game and the other teams return their balls to their reserve. We occasionally had a round get past six balls, and once we reached eight balls with me having four fingers occupied, but typically we got a bit shaky before that point and something would slip.

A round ends if a team is supposed to place a ball and they have none in reserve. Each team scores points equal to the number of balls in reserve or in the hand tree. Play three rounds and see which team wins.

It was edging towards 1am, and Brent seemed ready to nod off, but he proved the steadiest hand with both of his teams ending the first round with three (out of five) balls. PD, Max, and I all had five balls left between our two teams. Rather than have Brent drop completely, and not just his balls, we stopped after one round, which had lasted 20-25 minutes.