Is rock paper scissors a good game? That’s what Ninjan is, a big game of rock paper scissors. And now, I think we all know how that game plays. So how is it possible to play rock paper scissors with five players?Ninjan is a game that wants to do that, but does it do that well? And is there enough game in Ninjan to make it something more than just rock paper scissors? Join me as I look at the latest game that I learned on Board Game Arena (BGA).

How To Play Ninjan?

Like i said, Ninjan is a game of rock paper scissors. So the normal winning hands work in this game, but there is more to the game. You play the game over nine rounds, and the person who wins the most points is the winner of the game.

How Does a Round Work?

In Ninjan you deal each player a hand of ten cards. Those cards will be the ones that you play rock paper scissors with against three cards that are set out in the middle of the table. Each card is going to have a symbol and a number on it between 10 and -6. Each player picks a card to play.

The player who played the highest value card is going to go first. They take one of the cards from the middle that they beat and replace that card with their new card. That continues for each player going in numerical order and then if there are ties on numbers the “stronger” card goes first. So in a tie between rock and paper, since paper beats rock, paper goes first. In the case of a three way tie, it goes rock, scissors, paper.

Once every player has played out their cards, each player plays down a new card and you continue until you have a single card left in your hand and total up your points. But what if you can’t beat something because you didn’t play a winning card?

What If You Don’t Beat Anything?

So what is going to happen if when you come to your turn you have a paper and there are no rocks out there? You add your card to one of the piles. So you might make a pile better with a positive point card, or you might make it worse if you played a negative point.

What Doesn’t Work?

There is luck in this game for sure. I’m going to say this more as a neutral thing, but for some people it is not going to be fun because there is a bunch of luck. You get dealt a hand. If you find that you have a ton of a single suit and are locked out of getting points some hands. And especially at lower player counts since you see a smaller percentage of the deck, that might be the case.

What Works?

Firstly, the game is simple and easy to understand. Everyone knows rock paper scissors so they understand how that works. That means I can teach this game in minutes and people will understand what is going on.

But the game also has more depth than you might think. If you are playing a game and it’s a good rock out there, or maybe two, but you only have low papers, the other players might fight over the rocks. So if you play a really low, negative value, scissors and they play out paper, you might be able to grab a good point card of paper. That changing middle section is really interesting to work with. And there is more strategy to the game than first appears.

I also like that the game is one hand of cards. I think the first game that you play might go twenty minutes. And with a full five players it might be twenty minutes all the time. But because everyone picks a card at once, there is little downtime and the game keeps moving. And I think that negates the negative above because it’s over so quickly. I think you could even play in ten minutes if people are on the ball and not overthinking everything.

Who Is Ninjan For?

Ninjan is going to be for people who want a filler style game. It is purely that and it is one that I think is going to have great success for me for game nights. Why, because people know how to play rock paper scissors so that is going to be easy for them learn and understand. And it scales from 2 to 5 players which is going to make it a good game as people who up.

Grades and Final Thoughts on Ninjan

I went into Ninjan expecting to think it’s just an okay game. The concept of Ninjan with rock paper scissors is so simple. And my expectation was that I would find there wasn’t enough going on in it. But I enjoy Ninjan a lot. The little addition of scoring and playing against that center board versus playing against other players makes it a good time.

Now, I’ve only played Ninjan on BGA thus far. So I suspect it is going to work in person well as well. Mainly because I think that a lot of people will enjoy and get into it when they sneak out a card before someone else can take it and stick them with negative points. Or it could be the heartbreak of being one number short. Or it could be the smart play of throwing down a -6 of scissors and snagging a 10 of paper with it.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: B+
Luck (out of 10): 5
Strategy (out of 10): 3

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