Shrimp
Shrimp Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 81 shrimp cards
- 3 delicious shrimp dishes (grilled shrimp, linguine, fried)
- 1 lemon
Object of the Game
Collect as many shrimp as possible. You are a young cook who loves shrimp, and you want to prepare your famous shrimp dish.
Game Setup
Place the lemon in the center of the table.
Place the 3 dishes around it.
Deal all the cards face down. Each player creates a face-down deck in front of themselves. Players may not all end up with the same number of cards; this is not a problem.
Example 1: before starting a 4-player game, the table should look like this.
The Shrimp
Shrimp differ from one another according to 4 characteristics:
- Number: one, two, or three shrimp (from left to right)
- Size: large, medium, or small (from left to right)
- Color: green, blue, or pink (from left to right)
- Origin: America, Brazil, or Italy (from left to right)
To describe a shrimp it is necessary to list all of its characteristics.
Example 2: this card shows 2 large, green, Italian shrimp.
How to Play
The youngest player goes first.
That player reveals the top card of their deck and, without looking at it first, places it face up as quickly as possible on one of the three dishes. Play then proceeds clockwise: the next player does the same.
When a card is placed on a dish that already holds another card, the newly turned card is placed on top to form a pile. At any given time only 3 cards are visible on the dishes around the lemon. Although the cards are not in a perfectly neat pile, only the last card placed on each dish counts.
When there are THREE visible cards (one per dish), the feast begins!
Important: players may not cover a shrimp card already played until there is at least one shrimp card on each dish.
Example 3: in a 4-player game, the first three players must each choose a different dish.
The Feast
As soon as a player notices that the THREE shrimp cards on top of the dishes share at least one characteristic in common, that player smashes the lemon (which makes the typical squeaking sound lemons make!) and calls out loud, pronouncing each word clearly, the characteristic in question.
Example 4: in this case the player smashes the lemon shouting "3 shrimp"!
If that player identifies the correct characteristic, they take ALL the cards on the 3 dishes and place them in a new face-up pile (which becomes their "feast"). Cards that are part of a player's feast may not be reused during the game; however, they can be stolen...
The game restarts with the same player who identified the correct characteristic (that player turns over a card, and so on).
If the player instead declares an incorrect characteristic, they suffer a penalty (see the "Penalties" section).
Shrimp Cocktail
Shrimp lovers know well that seven shrimp are better than one!
When the sum of the number of shrimp visible on the three cards on top of each of the 3 dishes equals SEVEN, the player who is fastest to smash the lemon and say "shrimp cocktail!" takes all the cards on the dishes and places them in their own feast (see above).
Example 5: this is a shrimp "cocktail"!
Shrimp Binge
A true cook is never satisfied with a banal dish! A player may, if they can identify them, declare two characteristics that the three cards on top of the dishes have in common. The reward is the same, with one exception: that player ALSO steals seven cards from feasts of their choice (the stolen cards may be divided among the feasts of several players).
Example 6: in this case the player smashes the lemon shouting "3 American shrimp"!
Example 7: in this case, to win everything, the player must say "cocktail of large shrimp".
Example 8: would a "blue Brazilian shrimp" suit your taste?
The Most Exquisite Shrimp Dish of the Century
A player who dares to name and identify THREE characteristics that the cards on top of the dishes have in common, after smashing the lemon, wins the game IMMEDIATELY. If they are wrong, they suffer a penalty (see the "Penalties" section).
Example 9: anyone who says "cocktail of large Italian shrimp" is a genius, and has won the game.
Example 10: "3 pink Brazilian shrimp"... the winner is served!
Penalties
A player who declares an incorrect characteristic, stays silent after smashing the lemon, or tries to identify the characteristics without having first smashed the lemon, suffers a penalty. The player in question gives one card from their feast to an opponent of their choice. If the player suffering the penalty has no cards in their feast, they must give one of the face-down cards from their own deck.
End of the Game
If a player prepares the most exquisite shrimp dish of the century, that player is immediately declared the winner.
Otherwise, the game ends when a player can no longer draw because they have no face-down cards left in their own deck.
The player with the greatest number of shrimp cards in their feast wins the game (face-down cards still in players' decks do not count toward the total).
In case of a tie, the winner is decided by drawing lots!