spider-monkey

Spider Monkey

The Game

A 2+ person card game of memory, strategy, backstabbing, love, betrayal, political intrigue, crippling ennui, and other feelings.

The Goal

Be the player with the lowest sum of cards in front of them, either by swapping cards for lower cards, or eliminating cards through discarding (or slappin’) cards away.

The Deck

A standard deck of 52 cards with Jokers removed.

The Deal

Each player is dealt four cards face down from the deck. Players are not allowed to look at their cards. The remainder of the cards are placed face-down to form the stockpile. The top card from the stockpile is placed face up next to the stockpile to form the discard pile.

Players arrange their cards in a line face down in front of them. Once all players have thier cards, everyone can pick up two of their own cards to look at them and learn their rank. Those cards should then be placed face-down back in their original positions. Players cannot look at or rearrange their cards again until the end of the game.

The Play

Beginning with the player on the dealer’s left, in clockwise order, players can pick up the top card from the stockpile or from the discard pile.

If they pick the top card from the stockpile, they can look at it without revealing it to other players, and then choose either to:
- keep the card they picked up and replace one of their own cards, which then goes face-up in the discard pile.
- discard the card they picked up, face-up into the discard pile.
If they pick the top card from the discard pile (which would already be face-up and visible to everyone) they must use it to replace one of their current cards, which is then discarded, face-up into the discard pile.

When a player takes a new card either from the discard pile or the stockpile, that card goes in the same position in front of them as the card they choose to replace. Players should keep their cards hidden from other players, except for cards added to the discard pile.

At the end of their own turn a player can choose to call Spider Monkey. Other players each get one more turn and then all players will flip their cards face up. The player with the lowest sum wins.

Slappin’

When a player discards a card on their own turn, other players can immediately remove any cards of matching rank from their hand and slap them down on the discard pile.

A player cannot do this on a card they discarded as part of their own turn. Players cannot do this on the very first card added to the discard pile as part of The Deal step.

If a player correctly slaps down one or more cards of matching rank, they remain with fewer cards in front of them. They do not have to add additional cards to their hand to replace the slapped-down cards. If a player ends up with zero cards in front of them, the game ends and that player wins. If two or more players achieve this on the same turn the game ends in a tie.

Conversely, if a player slaps down an incorrect card (i.e. they thought they were slapping down a matching card but picked the wrong one), the incorrect card remains in the discard pile and the player must take two new cards from the stockpile and place the cards face down in front of them without looking at them. This effectively ends all slapping for the turn. Other players cannot continue to slap down cards of the correct rank, since there’s an incorrect card in the way. And players cannot use the incorrect card to start slapping down other cards of that incorrect card’s rank. It’s incorrect. The turn is over.

Special Cards

If a player discards one of the following cards on their regular turn, that player has the option to use the card’s ability.

Jacks: The player may swap any two cards in front of any players (including themselves) without looking at the cards.
Queens: The player may look at one card in front of any player (including themselves) and then place it back face down in the same position.
King of Diamonds: This card behaves like other kings except that it is worth 0 points.

Scoring

Ace = 1
2-10 = Face Value
Jack = 11
Queen = 12
King of Clubs, Spades, Hearts = 13
King of Diamonds = 0

Strategies

The Fundamentals: On your first few turns, draw from the stockpile and replace any unknown cards in your hand, even if the cards you draw are high ranks. It’s usually worthwhile to learn what you have early on, even if it gets you a few high cards at the beginning.
The Speed Blitz: If your first two known cards are low, and you draw another low card on your first turn, it might pay off to call Spider Monkey and end the game before your opponents have a chance to learn all their cards.
The Fateful Jack: Save a Jack and a high card in your hand. When another player calls Spider Monkey use the Jack on your turn to give the other player your high card and take one of their cards. Their cards are likely to be low since they were confident enough to end the round.
The One-Two Swap: If you have a Jack and two or three matching cards of the same rank, use the Jack to give one of the matching cards to an opponent. They’re likely to discard it since they don’t know what it is, and then you can slap down your card.
The Jackanape: Using the Jack power to rearrange one opponent’s cards, or using it to randomly swap cards between two other players can be an effective way to get your opponent to incorrectly remember the order and rank of the cards in front of them.
The High Card Gamble: Players are likely to discard their higher cards as play continues. Keeping high cards in your hand early on can pay off as other players discard cards of the same rank. Just be careful not to hang on to all high cards until the end of the game.
Kingmaking: Players are likely to get rid of high cards like the King of Clubs, Spades or Hearts. A player holding the King of Diamonds can use this to their advantage without giving up the best card in the game.
- Regicide: A player holding two kings in their set of cards, one of which is the King of Diamonds, can discard both if another player gets rid of a king on their turn. By discarding the King of Diamonds first and then placing another king on top, the valuable King of Diamonds is now buried and can’t be picked up on the next turn.
- Royal Reclaim: If a player knows the position of the King of Diamonds in their set of cards, and the player immediately to their right discards a king on their turn, the player with the King of Diamonds can slap down that card, and then pick it back up as part of their normal turn.

Variations

Cut the deck instead of taking the top card to form the discard pile.
Keep track of scores across rounds. Once a player has more than 120 points, the game ends and the player with the lowest score across rounds wins.
If a player slaps down an incorrect card, slapping could continue, either with cards of the correct rank, or with cards of the newly incorrect rank, or both.