Snaps (game)
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Snaps is a party game in which players try to guess the mechanism by which two people communicate a phrase known only to one of them. At least two people must be familiar with the game: the others (spectators) are challenged to discover the "secret" and then participate.
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Overview
The spectators secretly tell one of the players (the sender) a word or short phrase. The sender then communicates the secret phrase or word to the receiver (the other person who is "in the know") using a predetermined code. Once the receiver knows the coded phrase, he tells the spectators. The sender and receiver continue this process until one of the spectators is sufficiently confident of the code to attempt to either send or receive, thus either proving or disproving that he has discovered the secret.
The secret
After speaking a standard introduction, the sender spells out the word or phrase with a series of sentences and finger snaps. Consonants are communicated as the first letter of each sentence and vowels are communicated by finger snaps: A is one snap, E is two, I is three, O is four, U is five snaps. Generally the receiver can guess the word or phrase before all the letters are given, further bewildering the spectators.
Introductory phrases
The sender's introduction is delivered in a ritualised formulaic style. Variations are used to distract the spectators from the real code. The standard forms are:
- "Snaps is the name of the game and the name of the games is Snaps".
- "This time we're going to play the game of Snaps."
- "This is the game of Snaps. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, but sometimes it doesn't really matter." followed by one of "This time it is" or "This time it doesn't matter".
If a spectator gets wise and gives the sender a difficult word, like one starting with an "X", or something that may be difficult to send without giving away the code, the sender can begin by saying, "Snaps is NOT the name of the game" or "This time it isn't", and that tells the receiver that the word that will be spelled is NOT the word he has to guess, but rather a clue to what the word is. For example, to send ZEBRA in this way, the sender might spell out, "black striped horse", and avoid having to send the letter "Z".
Example
If the secret word were "George Washington", the sender may say the following:
- "Snaps is the name of the game and the name of the games is snaps"
- "Give me a second" (G)
- (snap twice) (E)
- (snap four times) (O)
- "Ready?" (R)
- "Got it yet?" (G)
- (snap twice) (E)
- "Wait a second" (W)
- (snap once) (A)
and so on.
If done quickly, and with practice, this game is bewildering to the spectators, and the receiver will know the word or phrase without having seemed to get enough information from the sender.