Jenga

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Jenga

Players	2 or more
Age range	8 and up
Setup time	< 5 minutes
Playing time	Usually 10-15 min
Random chance	None
Skills required	Manual dexterity

Jenga is a game of physical and mental skill, marketed by Hasbro, in which players remove blocks from a tower and put them on top. The player who causes the tower to collapse loses. The word jenga is derived from kujenga, the Swahili verb "to build"; jenga! is the imperative form. In Israel the game is called "Mapolet", which means "avalanche" in Hebrew.

Jenga is played with 54 wooden blocks; each block is 3 times as long as it is wide, and slightly smaller in height than in width. The blocks are stacked in a tower formation; each story is three blocks placed adjacent to each other along their long side, and each story is placed perpendicular to the previous (so, for example, if the blocks in the first story are pointing north-south, the second story blocks will point east-west). There are therefore 18 stories to the Jenga tower. Since stacking the blocks neatly can be tedious, Hasbro includes a plastic loading tray.

Once the tower is built, the person who built the tower moves first. Moving in Jenga consists of taking one and only one block from any story except the completed top story of the tower at the time of the turn, and placing it on the topmost story in order to complete it. Only one hand at a time may be used to remove a block; both hands can be used, but only one hand may be on the tower at a time. Blocks may be bumped to find a loose block that will not disturb the rest of the tower. Any block that is moved out of place may be left out of place if it is determined that it will knock the tower over if it is removed. The turn ends when the next person to move touches the tower, although he or she can wait 10 seconds before moving for the previous turn to end.

The game ends when the tower falls in any significant way -- in other words, any piece falls from the tower, other than the piece being knocked out to move to the top. The loser is the person who made the tower fall (i.e. whose turn it was when the tower fell); the winner is the person who moved before the loser.

The game in its current form was invented in the 1980s by Leslie Scott. It grew out of a childhood game created around a present of wooden building blocks purchased from a local wood craftsman in Ghana.

1 Variants
2 Legal
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Variants

Throw 'n Go Jenga is a variant marketed by Hasbro. It consists of blocks that are colored red, blue, or yellow plus a six-sided die. Before each move, the player throws the die and then follows the instructions on the die:

Yellow/End: Remove any yellow block or remove any color end block.
Red/Mid: Remove any red block or remove any color middle block.
Blue/End: Remove any blue block or remove any color end block.
Any two: Remove any two blocks of any color in any position.
Wild: Remove any color block in any position
Reverse: Don’t remove any blocks, but pass the die to the next player in the opposite direction.

Other than the fact that the die determines the proper move, play continues the same as regular Jenga.

Jenga Truth or Dare is an adult variation of Jenga also marketed by Hasbro. This version looks like regular Jenga except there are three colors of blocks, red, black and natural, instead of just the natural color of Jenga. Play is the same, but if you move a red block on your play, you have to complete the dare printed on it before stacking the block on top. If you move a black block, you have to truthfully answer the question printed on the block before stacking it. The natural blocks have nothing printed on them and are played as in Jenga. However, it is permissible to write your own truths or dares on the natural blocks if desired.

Jenga Truth Or Dare Tower

Jenga Xtreme uses blocks with different shapes and angles instead of the rectangular blocks of Jenga.

Drinking Jenga is a home-made variant using the standard Jenga game. Played at a party, each of the tiles has a command written on the bottom. The commands usually involve drinking or doing something embarrassing, from simple commands such as "Take a Drink" or "Give Away 2 Drinks" or "Do a Funky Dance Move," to more complicated commands such as "Look at someone, and try to get them to say "What?" If they do, they have to drink. If they don't, you have to drink."

When a player takes a tile, they must obey the command written on the bottom. The remainder of the game is played in the standard way, with the loser (the one who collapses the tower) drinking an entire beer.

Giant Jenga is played with dimensional lumber blocks. Build your own with scrap 2x3s or 2x4s. Given the size of the stack, it's best suited for outdoor parties. All normal and/or drunken Jenga rules may apply.

Domino Tower is similar to Jenga, but using standard dominos. It has been played by children in England since at least as long ago as the 1960s. It was, however, a solo activity rather than a competitive game. Blocks were removed in order from the bottom tier and used to add more tiers to the top. Possibly a precursor to Jenga.