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Shinobi box art
2015 Ranked #18,692

Shinobi

This bluffing elimination game has ninja daimyos assign secret attacks, mislead rivals about their weapons, and become the last survivor. Repeated attack claims restrict what can be announced, making deception as vital as intuition.

Bluffing Card Game Player Elimination Theme: Ninjas

Players

4-6

Play time

15-20 min

Age

10+

Complexity

1.4/5

Rating

5.81

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.0/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.7/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

The Great Daimyo of the Ninja Clans has died in mysterious circumstances, just as it happened with his predecessor, and his predecessor’s predecessor, and so on so forth back to immemorial times.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

The Great Daimyo of the Ninja Clans has died in mysterious circumstances, just as it happened with his predecessor, and his predecessor’s predecessor, and so on so forth back to immemorial times. In order to take his place and serve the Shogun, the Daimyos of each clan have started the choosing process, and yes, you are said Daimyos. If you want to become the next Great Daimyo, you only need to manage one thing: Be the last survivor. During your turn in Shinobi Assasins, you must attack the three rivals on your right, giving each of them an attack card face down. As you do so, you must tell each of them which weapon you're attacking them with — but of course this DOESN’T have to be TRUE. Remember, we’re Ninjas. Upon receiving the face-down attack, the assaulted player must mark the kind of attack he’s been told to be receiving by placing a black cube on top of the appropriate weapon icon on the back of the card. If a player has already received two identical attacks from other ninjas, be they true or not, you cannot repeat the same attack a third time. When you attack, you can say whatever you want and gesticulate frantically or subtly wink to another player, anything you deem necessary to confuse them as to which attack you’re really assigning. Remember, deceit will be your most powerful weapon. Once you’ve assigned three of your ninjas to attack your rivals, the following player will do the same. Once all the players have assigned their attacks, each of you will have before you three face-down attack cards, courtesy of the loving clans to your left. Each card will have a cube marking the weapon the attacking ninja is supposedly using. The time has come to use intuition, dodge and denounce.

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Category

3

Mechanism

1

Family

1

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
No editions imported yet.

Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

No files imported yet.

Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
4–6
Best with
4–6
Play time
15–20 min
Age
10+
Complexity
1.4/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
Josep M. Allué

Artists

1
Siscu Bellido

Publishers

2
GDM Games Japanime Games

Linked items

No published linked games yet.