Madomagion in Hanabi

What you need

• Two Hanabi sets with the same kind of cards/tiles. (For its abstract feeling a good choice is the Abacus’
Hanabi Deluxe.)
• A poker card deck.

The game
The barriers between dimensions are thinning down and unspeakable horrors are entering in our world bringing
insanity and death. You play as the Wizards the only beings able to understand the Words that form the Spells,
the only force able to oppose. However, a single Wizard power is not enough as to look at the words directly
would make anyone insane… they need to cooperate to save the world.
The goal is building the five (six, in the advanced version) Spells, by building the sets in the correct order: 1, 2,
3, and the final sigil.
The sets are white (cold magic), red (lava magic), blue (lightning magic), green (nature magic), yellow (fire
magic), and for advanced play multicolored (sanity).

Preparation
Since cards have numbers and we need multiple copies of them it can become confusing, so we use the words
(e.g., three) to mean the cards with that figure on it and the digits (e.g., 2) to mean the number of copies (e.g.,
2 yellow threes means “two copies of the yellow colored card with a three on it.”)
• From one set of Hanabi take the following cards: red two, green two, and yellow two. Put the remaining
parts back in the box, you will not need this set anymore.
• From the other deck of Hanabi take out the whole deck and put back in the box the following cards:
– white: one, two, three, four, and five;
– red: four and five;
– blue: one, three, four, and five;
– green: five;
– yellow: four;
– multicolored: all the cards, but the five. Alternately, for the advanced game: take out 2 multicolored
ones, 1 two, 1 three, and 1 four.
• Take out the three storm/red tokens.
• From the poker card deck take the following cards:
– three, four, and seven of Hearts (♥),
– king of Diamonds (♦),
– king of Spades (♠).
– king, queen, jack, and ace of Clubs (♣),
After the game, just put back the red two, the green two, and the yellow two cards in the first Hanabi set.

1
Material
Double check the material you have, for each color you should have cards numbered one, two, three and four in
the following amount:
• white: 2, 1, 1, 1;
• blue: 2, 2, 1, 1;
• red: 3, 3, 2, 1;
• green: 3, 3, 2, 2;
• yellow: 3, 3, 2, 1, and the yellow five;
• multicolored: 1 1 1 1 if playing the advanced game.
In addition you should have:
• 1 multicolored five;
• 9 poker cards;
• 3 storm tokens.
In general the Hanabi cards are the Words, but some have specific names as they are special functions, the
multicolored five is the Jolly Word, the yellow five and the all fours are Sigils; the poker cards are Unspeakable
Horrors; finally the storm tokens are Sanity token.

Preparation
• Shuffle well Words, Sigils and the Jolly, in the advanced game shuffle also the multicolored Words. Deal
out 4 Words to each player if you have 4 players, 5 Words if you have 3 players, and 6 cards if you have
2 players. Place the cards so that you cannot see your own cards, but you can see clearly the other player
cards. Place the remaining Words face down on the table. Nearby the deck of Words it will grow a discard
pile of Words, face up. Players always have to replenish their hand to initial size.
• Put the Unspeakable Horror Ace of Clubs face down on the table. Shuffle the other eight Unspeakable
Horrors and put them on the Ace of Clubs face down. Nearby this deck another discard pile will grow.
During the game the Unspeakable Horror cards will move between the two piles. The starting pile is face
down, the discard pile is face up.
• Flip the Sanity token so they show the blank side (In some Hanabi versions this tokens have no discernible
faces, in this case just put them nearby the game lid and move them inside and outside the lid.)
• Determine the starting player, if possible the most insane one.

Rules
• Keep your hand cards facing outward, so that the other players can see them at glance, but you cannot.
• In turn, the players do their moves, clockwise around the table until the game ends.
• Players always have the initial number of cards in their hand. As soon a player plays or discards a card,
they draw a new card without looking at it.
• The game is immediately lost when the three Sanity tokens show the thunder face: the Wizards went
insane and the world is doomed.
• The game also ends if the last Word is drawn, and the Unspeakable Horrors are pushed away. Or when
the last Spell is completed, and the unspeakable horrors are sealed away, bringing complete victory. Feel
free to count your score.
• On your turn you have to do one of this actions, you cannot skip:
– Provide information to another Wizard about his Words, but bring insanity.
– Cleanse insanity, but attract Unspeakable Horrors.

2
 – Play a Word from your hand, to try to make a Spell.
– Discard a Word from your hand, to try to push away the Unspeakable Horror that is face up on
discard pile.
Once done, unless the game is over, the turn passes to the player on your left.
• “To push back” an Unspeakable Horror means to take the top card from the discard pile, where it lies face
up, and put it back on the Unspeakable Horror pile face down.
• The discard piles are open information.
• The only comunication about cards is allowed via the Provide Information action.

Action details
Players state clearly and plainly the action they want to execute and after follow the instruction of the action.

Provide information

This action is not available if two Sanity tokens show the lighting side.
The player flips a blank Sanity token so that it shows the lighting side, select another player and a color or a
number. Then current player points to all and only the cards of the selected player with that number or color.
For example, Alice says “I provide information,” mentally selects Bob and three; then she tells Bob all and only
the Word with three in it. It is possible to state there are no cards with that color or number. For the Provide
Information action the Jolly (five multicolored) is its own color and number. This means that instead of deciding
a color or a number a player can state where the Jolly is.
Similarly, you have to use the special name for the four and the five Sigils. This is mainly relevant for the Yellow
as it has two different Sigil cards with different effects (yellow four and yellow five). For example, Bob selects
“Alice and Sigil” and so he tells Alice where all Sigils are in her hand; with only this information Alice cannot
know if a pointed card is a four, a five yellow, or its color.
The player receiving information may rearrange the cards, but they cannot do anything else like repeating or
writing down anything.

Cleanse insanity

This action is not available if no Sanity tokens show the lighting side or all Unspeakable Horrors are on their
discard pile.
The player flips one or two Sanity tokens so they show the blank face. Then they draws the same number of
Unspeakable Horrors cards from the Unspeakable Horror deck, apply the effects and (possibly) put them face up
one top of Unspeakable Horrors discard pile. Some Horrors have an one-time effect, once drawn, execute the
effect and put them away as they will not be used again for the current game. The choice of cleaning one or two
Sanity tokens has to made before drawing the cards and it is possible to cleanse two Sanity tokens only if there
are at least two Horrors to draw.

Play a Word

After stating the action, the player points to one of his cards (even if they can only see the back!) and put it on
the table face up. Now it is checked if the card is valid or not; a played card is valid if: it is a one and its color
was not on the table already; it is a two or a three and the previous figure of the same color is on the table; it is a
Sigil and the three of the same color is on the table.

3
The Jolly can take the place of a one, two, or three of any color (but not multicolored in the advanced play); this
means the Jolly cannot be used as a Sigil. Once the Jolly took the place of another Word it cannot be changed.
If the card is valid, it is added on display on the table. In the case the card is a valid Sigil the Spell is complete
and its effect is played. The Spell effects are described in the next section.
If the card is invalid, it is discarded (on the Words discard pile) and the player flips one Sanity token so it shows
the thunder. If it were the third Sanity token showing the thunder, the game is over.
Finally the player draws a new Word, without looking at it, to replenish his hand.

Discard a Word

After stating the action, the player points to one of his cards (even if they can only see the back!) and put it on
the Words discard pile face up.
Doing so may push back an Unspeakable Horror. However, this may not be possible because some Horrors ignore
some kind of Words. Or, more plainly, the Horrors discard pile is empty. The details are in the Unspeakable
Horrors section.
Once discarded the card the player draws a new Word, without looking at it.

Word, Sigils, and Spells

The objective of the game is form the five (six) Spells, once a Spell is completed its effect plays in the game.

White (cold magic)

The cold magic is the most powerful as it brings numbness and shivering even to the worst Horrors. On the other
hand it is very hard to maintain (cards: 2 1 1 1.)
The cold Sigil pushes back two Unspeakable Horrors. Besides, the Cold Sigil is the only effect that can push
back the Ace of Clubs. Since there is only one Cold Sigil, the Ace of Clubs can be pushed back only once.

Red (lava magic)

The lava magic is effective and fairly easy to maintain (cards 3 3 2 1.)
The lava Sigil pushes back two Unspeakable Horrors.

Blue (lightning magic)

Lightings are fairly effective, but hard to maintain (cards 2 2 1 1.)

The lighting Sigil pushes back two Unspeakable Horrors, however the King of Spades ignores lighting as its
spade send the charge safely away.

Yellow (fire magic)

Fire magic is effective, pleasant to see, and easy to maintain. The only downside of fire magic is that its Sigil
may go wrong and fail to do anything (cards 3 3 2 1+1.)
The fire magic has two different Sigils. If the yellow four is played as Sigil the Spell pushes back two Horrors
and cleanse one sanity token. However the King of Diamonds is immune to fire magic, apparently that kind of
diamond does not burn.

4
If the yellow five is played as Sigil the Spell fails to form and explodes. This Sigil has no gameplay effects, but
the resulting fireworks are so spectacular that they outshine the stars and may grant extra points at the end of the
game.

Green (nature magic)

Nature magic gives support and is very easy to maintain (cards 3 3 2 2.)
The nature Sigil allows to: pick up any Word from the discard pile and put it back in the Words deck and shuffle
or put it in the bottom of the Words deck without shuffling.

Multicolor (sanity)

(Only in advanced play) When playing advanced the Wizards also have to hard task of keeping track of their
own sanity to ensure full victory (cards 1 1 1 1.) This Sigil has no gameplay effects.

Unspeakable Horrors
This nine creatures from other realities are so abstract and alien that just contemplate them bring insanity and
despair to normal humans…
As Wizards, players are slightly more resistant: Hearts have no effect at all.
The King of Spades has no effects, but it is immune to Lighting magic, so it cannot be pushed back by discarding
a blue Word or playing the blue Sigil.
The King of Diamonds also has no effects, but it is immune to Fire magic. Analogously to the King of Spades,
it cannot be pushed back by discarding a yellow Word or playing the yellow Sigil.
All the four Clubs have special powers:
The Queen and the King of Clubs have the same one-shot effect. Once played remove them from the game. The
Queen (and the King) of Clubs touches the mind of the Wizard that attracted her in such a way they can see one
of their cards without going insane. The player puts one of his Words in a way everyone can see it including
themselves, but it still counts as part of the player hands. This effect applies only to that card.
The Jack of Clubs has a one-shot effect. Once played remove it from the game. The Jack of Clubs undoes the
work of the Wizards, the player that attracted him selects a color that is already on the table and discards the top
card. The Jack can be a blessing or a curse as it might allow to play a Sigil two times, but also to stop a Spell to
ever reach completion.
The Ace of Clubs is so fast and abstract that it cannot be pushed back by any action or effect other than the cold
Sigil. That’s it, to push back the Ace of Clubs you must complete the white Spell.

Scoring
The sigils combo points are counted the first time you complete the indicated Spells in any order.
• 2 points for each Sigil played,
• 2 points minus the Sanity token showing the lighting face,
• 2 points for each Word left in the deck,
• 1 point for each Unspeakable Horror still in the face-down deck,
• 2 points if the Jolly word was not used,
• 10 points for pushing back the Ace of Clubs,
• white, blue, green sigils unnaturally natural combo 5 points,

5
 • yellow, white, blue sigils white death combo 5 points,
• white, red, green sigils iced magma combo 5 points,
• multicolored, white, green sigils waterfall meditation combo 10 points,
• multicolored, yellow five sigils perfect beauty for an instant combo 5 points,
• multicolored, yellow, red sigils tranquil fury combo 5 points,

Variants
Memento
(Easier game) At any moment the current player is allowed to ask another Wizard what he knows about his cards.
The current player should keep a poker face even if the other player says something uncorrect or forgot something.

Ask information action

This variant adds the the Ask information action. This action can replace the provide information action (harder
game) or being an extra possiblity (easier game).

Ask information

This action is not available if two Sanity tokens show the lighting side.
The player flips a blank Sanity token so that it shows the lighting side. Then they selects a color, a number, or
the jolly. Then he asks the other players what cards of his hands have that color, number or are the jolly. The
other players have to answer honestly.

The Jolly is everything

(Harder game) During the provide information action, instead of being its own color and number, in this variant
the Jolly is any possible number or color it can replace. So when providing information the player has to point
to the Jolly any time they give information about one, two, three, or any color a part of multicolored.

The multicolored is any color

(Harder game) Similar to the previous variant. But in this case the sanity Words (multicolored) have to be pointed
each time a player gives information about white, red, blue, green, or yellow.