A 2+ person card game of memory, strategy, backstabbing, love, betrayal, political intrigue, crippling ennui, and other feelings.
Check out the GitHub Pages hosted version of the rule book here https://mjoseph1234.github.io/spider-monkey/
See the rules directory for the rulebook in various other formats.
I learned this card game back in 2019 while on a boat crossing from Estonia to Finland. A very tall, very patient man explained the rules and we played a few rounds to pass the time. I jotted his explanation and notes down on a biodegradable napkin, fairly certain I understood the words I was hearing.
Since then, my friends and I have changed and adapted various rules to fit how we played the game, most often while enjoying our third beer at various local bars and pubs. The rounds we played were brief, noisy and comical. New friends would often join in after watching a round or two and trying to figure out what we were doing. Changes we made to the game came naturally from that environment, always towards the goal of making it more fun and accessible.
Simpler rules left us room for hyperanalyzed strategies and schemes involving multiple layers of reverse psychology. These strategies and schemes work well for us against each other, but we tend to lose badly to newcomers who aren't aware of the tricks we're overprepared for.
What's left of my original notes seems to be lost. What's left of the very tall man in Finland who taught me the original rules is a mystery. I hear rumor he's now married, living in Australia, probably teaching others how to play his original version of the game. It'd be fascinating to one day compare his interpretation of the rules to what we play now.
Although our current understanding of the rules is mostly settled now, I maintain this Git repository to track any future changes.
I have heard this game compared with other Shedding-type card games like:
- Cambio
- Six Card Golf (but the four card variant)
- Games with dedicated, proprietary decks like:
I do not know if any of those games were the actual origin of what we play now. This current version of Spider Monkey shares elements with each of those games, but I feel it's different enough to exist on its own.