Some say Anansi is a trickster, but he is a spider for sure and sometimes even a man. Let me tell you why he is also known as the "Keeper of Stories": One day, Anansi decided to gather all stories and become the wisest of all. After many years, he finally had all the stories in the world, but poor Anansi did not feel any wiser. Eventually he realized that true wisdom is not achieved by keeping knowledge to yourself, so he decided to share his stories and inspire people with them — and believe it or not, that was how this game was made!
In the trick-taking card game Anansi, you have to be smart about which tricks you are trying to get. Each trick represents a story, but stories untold are worth only a little. If you can acquire followers — by playing a card not to the trick, but for its indicated number of followers — you can match up your followers with stories to inspire them, and inspiring all your followers should always be your goal because this grants you the trickster's favor and sweet bonus points.
Note that cards played to gain followers can affect the trump suit, which means that the trump can change several times in a game. It is up to you to adapt to the new situation!
Anansi is in the same game line as Spicy, with the game box and card backs being decorated with a special metallic print in purple. For such a rich and cultural theme, publisher HeidelBÄR Games paired up with Nigerian artist Dayo Baiyegunhi and South African artist Emmanuel Mdlalose to create a unique and colorful look for the story world of Anansi.
- Unique storytelling mechanic
- Interesting balance of followers and stories
- Inspired by African folklore
- Storytelling and trickery
- African folklore
- Trick-taking with storytelling mechanics
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Follower inspiration — Players balance followers and story stacks to score points
- Trick-taking — Players play cards to win tricks, with special rules about trumps and storytelling
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Anansi from the folk tales is known to be a spider, a trickster, and a keeper of stories
References (from this video)
- Smart and funky take on trick-taking
- Interesting bid/shifting trump mechanic
- May be harder to access for new players
- Theme may not appeal to everyone
- trick-taking with shifting trump and bidding
- Trick and Trade
- Hachi Train
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- trick-taking with shifting trump — Bid on number of tricks with a dynamic trump that shifts during the round.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is a game that anybody can play with a standard deck of cards
- the real awesome part of this game is taking those cards from the Tableau
- Carnegie is right up there and I've played it dozens of times
- I strongly recommend it I don't think it's necessarily going to blow you away and be the best game you've played this year but I found it fresh I found it interesting and very enjoyable
- it's a really smart Super Fresh really easy to teach game that everyone can play