Jenga game with dice. Jenga. Your little Leaning Tower of Pisa

Since time immemorial, man has had a passion for flying and other entertainment related to being away from earth's surface. Prudent nature did not provide wings, air bubbles, jet engines and other devices in the “higher organism” that would allow it to overcome the force of gravity. In order to somehow realize our dream, we have to invent various devices that will bring us closer to the sky. One of them is towers. Today on the Pink Sofa is the tower-destroying board game “Tower with Forfeits”.

Having created soaring buildings that touch the clouds with their domes, inspired homo sapiens climbs onto the roof and looks triumphantly at the surroundings. Some representatives of the human race use these useless buildings for experiments, dropping them on the heads of passing comrades cannonballs and deducing wise formulas. Unfortunately for architects, towers have a tendency to fall, but they do so gracefully and slowly to the admiring glances of those around them. In a word, towers have become an integral part of our lives, so everyone should be able to build them. This is what we will do today.

It is not known for certain who was the first to come up with the idea of ​​cutting the trunk of a century-old oak tree into small pieces and building a tower from them. From time immemorial, children have been building houses from cubes, pebbles and blocks, but the practical Leslie Scott decided to patent this method construction, added simple rules to it and invited Hasbro to publish a game called “Jenga”. Everything ingenious is simple, and millions of players around the world have been building towers from wooden blocks for more than 30 years.

And the blocks in my box turned out to be great - polished, smelling like real wood, without knots or potholes. 54 pieces, one to one. Beauty! Lighting a stove is a nice thing, a compact cubic meter of wood for a compact fireplace ( oh, what am I talking about...)

Some rectangles have inscriptions that instruct you to perform some action. Since the version is for children, then... adults can easily cope with the tasks. “Depict a mouse looking for cheese” - no problem! I have three of these mice, and everyone is looking for cheese at night, as well as other goodies in the kitchen...

Let the fires fly!

Cool woodpile... For the game, all the tiles are mixed and placed in tiers, criss-crossing 3x3 blocks. It is better to build this structure on a horizontal (if you find it in our houses) surface, but I managed to build the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” even on my sofa - the structure is quite stable.

Try to ensure that the bars lie flat. The fact is that they will have to be pulled out and placed on top of the assembled base. It looks something like this...

Opponents take turns pushing one block from any floor with one hand and placing it on top of the structure (holding the structure is prohibited). This maneuver must be performed very carefully, as the building gradually turns into a termite mound eaten away by tunnels.

This cannot go on forever; the tower leans dangerously, rivaling its famous Italian brother, and falls with a roar to the joyful cries of those around. Actually, whoever is the “hero of the occasion” collects a mountain of blocks and packs them in a box. If you think this is easy to do, then... then you know the super secret of Jenga packaging! Otherwise, give your friends a lot of positive emotions.

It remains to be mentioned that the one who pulls out the block with the “magic order” is obliged to fulfill it. If you refuse, shame on you forever and ever...

Why are you standing there swinging, Jenga from China...

As a child I great benefit spent part of the summer with his grandmother, gaining invaluable life experience: climbing through neighbors' orchards for apples, gorging himself on someone's raspberries, running from an evil collective farm watchman and jumping on the roofs of garages (nowadays this is called the fashionable word parkour). And my friends and I had a game called “Izbushka” (I don’t know what it’s called in the original). Take a box of matches and use them to assemble a kind of well with overlapping 4x4 sticks. Then we carefully pulled out the matches and placed them on top of the “house”.

Whoever brought down the hut ran to the orchard for apples. Who would have thought that we were playing the family game of the respected Leslie Scott. And if you remember the towers made of plastic cubes, which I made when I was 3-4 years old in a similar way (there were few cubes, so I made the base, and then rearranged the blocks from bottom to top), then I can rightfully say that I also have a similar “family game passed down from generation to generation”...

But seriously, the game is excellent, yet simple to the point of absurdity: a handful of blocks, basic rules and funny tasks. There are no age restrictions for this game; if you have overcome the age of “what I see is what I eat,” then feel free to pick up the blocks and build your own tower. You will need dexterity and a lot of luck - sometimes the bars line up in such an intricate pyramid that, looking at the construction, you involuntarily question the fundamental laws of physics.

When purchasing, pay attention to the quality of the bars - they must be perfectly polished, since the slightest knot will “pull” the entire building along with it. There is nothing to complain about in my copy - “ Fun Games» production of wooden parts is carried out at high level... I was pleasantly surprised by the “bonus” in the form of tasks burned on the blocks - it’s definitely more fun to play. People of royal blood, of course, can ignore the inscriptions and simply rearrange the bars meaningfully - but according to their status, they are not supposed to have fun...

The game was provided for review by the online store " ABC Science", a wide range of which will allow you to choose an interesting model for both children and adults.

Oh no! I dropped the tower again!

Do you have strong nerves? No? Pass by. Are your hands shaking? Also past, next one! But if you have a steady hand and nerves of steel, this seemingly simple game is for you.

Jenga, also known by the names Town(Russia), Leaning Tower of Pisa(Europe), Earthquake(Brazil), Brick house(Denmark stood out among other European countries with its original name).

Rules are simple, one might say there are almost none.

First, a flat, beautiful tower of 18 floors is built. During the game it can more than double. Do you have high enough ceilings? Each floor consists of three blocks placed closely and parallel to each other. The blocks of each next floor are placed perpendicular to the blocks of the previous floor

Jenga. Your little Leaning Tower of Pisa


Jenga. Your little Leaning Tower of Pisa

Jenga. Your little Leaning Tower of Pisa

Jenga. Your little Leaning Tower of Pisa

According to traditional rules, you can touch the tower with only one hand at any time.

The game continues until the tower falls. I think this will happen quite quickly in the first games.

Now everything is also simple - the one who dropped the tower lost, the one who made the previous move won.

That's it, let's build the tower again so that it can be beautifully destroyed again!

Do you think there is little dynamics in the game? Play others non-classical Jenga variants:

- Jenga with cubes: will need more dice, and the blocks will need to be numbered. Before each block, we roll the dice and take out only the block with the corresponding number.

- Jenga forfeits: on the blocks we are already writing various tasks that correspond to your company and party, from “sing a song” and “tell a rhyme”, to romantic evening ones - “kiss on the lips” (here you can safely turn to Captain Obviousness and Fanta-flirting for ideas. Shkolota, shoo out of the post!). You are limited only by your imagination.

- colorful jenga: we paint the blocks in different colors and play the same way with cubes or any other rules you come up with for pulling out blocks

Jenga can always be with you, and you don't need all those 54 pretty wooden blocks, the game is available for mobile phones- java game, game for iPhone. I just haven’t found one for Android yet, I’ll be grateful for help in finding it.

Board game Jenga (Tower) and its variations

History of appearance

The familiar “Jenga” was invented by British board game designer Leslie Scott three decades ago. According to the author, it was created in the image and likeness of the game at which the entire Scott couple spent their evenings in the distant seventies. Only then, instead of elongated wooden blocks, elements of the Takoradi children's construction set, brought from Ghana, were used. Based on the same African fun, another game was created called “Ta-Ka-Radi”, very similar to “Jenga”. It appeared on the American market several years earlier, but did not achieve such deafening popularity as Jenga.

The game has a rather exotic name. "Jenga" is a Swahili dictionary word meaning "to build." The game's author, Leslie Scott, is of British descent, but she was born in Tanzania and spent her entire childhood in Africa. Therefore, Leslie decided to pay tribute to her second native language by christening her new brainchild with a name so unusual for Europeans.

Kit Contents

The original Jenga consists of 54 oblong wooden blocks. The surface of each block is carefully sanded, but not covered with varnish or paint. This increases friction between structural elements and prevents the tower from falling apart. Block Dimensions classic version games are 1.5x2.5x7.5 cm.

With the growing popularity of Jenga, many of its “remakes” have appeared on the market, the dimensions of the elements of which may differ from the ancestor, but the aspect ratio of the blocks is mostly preserved.

"Ta-Ka-Radi" vs. "Jenga"

The two games are very similar, but have some significant differences. Ta-Ka-Radi uses only 51 rectangular blocks. As a result, the original tower is one floor lower than in Jenga, but the height of the structure is greater. The most important difference is how the bars should be placed. In “Ta-Ka-Radi” the blocks are installed on the short side of the section with significant gaps between the elements of the same row. At the same time, in Jenga, the bars lie close to each other on the long side of the section.

If “Jenga” comes in paper packaging, then “Ta-Ka-Radi” is sold in a fabric bag made of natural cloth with a print. The manufacturer also offers a choice of several types of fabrics from which the bag can be made, all colors in the spirit of Africa.

Preparing for the game

Before the start of the round, the starting tower must be level. You can level it using the box from the game itself. Some Jenga sets come with a special plastic corner that acts as a kind of level. Initially, our building has 18 “floors” of 3 blocks each. The bars are laid on the long side. All elements must fit tightly to each other. In this case, the bars of each subsequent row are located perpendicular to the blocks of the previous one.

Rules and gameplay

Jenga is designed for two or more players. The principles of the game are very simple: each participant takes out one block from an already standing structure and places it perpendicular to the previous row. At the same time, the “penthouse” tier, preceding the unfinished one, remains untouchable. Also, you cannot start laying blocks in new level, leaving the top "floor" unfinished.


You can only pull the block out of the tower with one hand. You are first allowed to touch the elements and tap the ends of the bars, checking which of them is the most pliable. If something moves out of place, the player must return all affected blocks to their original position before the end of his turn.

All participants take turns taking turns. The turn ends when the next player touches the tower or ten seconds after placing the pulled out block.

Nature of the game

The game trains motor skills and analytical skills well. At the same time, it does not require participants to develop strategy and mental stress, so the gameplay is a relaxed, fun pastime.

Varieties of the game

On modern market There are a great variety of Jenga board games: from small portable versions with tiny bars to huge copies that serve more of an advertising role than serve their direct purpose. Such a “tower boom” among board game manufacturers was undoubtedly due to the popularity that the game found among fans of such games. According to the creator of the classic Jenga, about 50 million copies of the original game have been sold worldwide.

"Jenga: Throw and Go" (Throw "n Go Jenga)- a game resulting from the fusion of good old Jenga and gaming dice. The elements of the classic set are painted in three different colors. The dice are marked with colors and words that indicate where exactly the block should be pulled from (middle, top, bottom of the tower), as well as exactly how many blocks need to be pulled in one move. For example, after the first roll, you get the words “any two” on the top face of the die. This means that you will have to “fight” with two bars, and not with one.


Throw the die again, and the top one turns out to be a crimson side with the word “beginning”, which means that the first element is crimson, and it is located at the base of the structure. Next, you roll the dice and get the word “middle” on a black background - you pull out a black block from the middle of the tower.

Jenga Truth or Dare. The set consists of the usual number of blocks, two thirds of which are colored orange and purple colors(V different publications colors may vary). Orange bars are desires, purple bars are questions. In this case, one third of the game elements remain uncolored. It is on these pristine bars that players are invited to write own desires or questions. Then the game acquires individual characteristics and becomes one of a kind. Overall, this variation is quite fun and aims to get participants talking, and the gameplay is generously filled with fiction and eccentricity. Due to its nature, it is intended for players over 12 years of age. Nevertheless, many rightfully note that this variety of Jenga is not suitable for children. The desires and questions proposed by the creators cannot be called crystal innocent. On the one hand, you may only be required to sing a song or describe one of the participants and games (why not?). There are also more amusing statements, such as “sensual dance with a mop” and other similar inventions. The questions are tricky ones with a touch of the now popular “American humor.”

More suitable for children Jenga Girl Talk Edition- a much more harmless edition of the game. The blocks are painted pink and crimson and, just like in the previous version, are covered with questions. This kind of thing could once be seen in children’s notebooks and questionnaires, which were then filled out by friends and classmates. Here you will find traditional questions: “What is your most cherished wish? or the more modern “Name your favorite website.”

Jenga Extreme. The game elements are not a rectangular parallelepiped, but a parallelogram. This adds a certain extreme to the gameplay and makes it possible to build tilted towers of absolutely bizarre shapes.

"Jenga: Las Vegas Casino" (Las Vegas Casino Jenga)- a completely unexpected combination of two completely different games: Jenga and roulette! As the tower is built, players place bets. The set consists of 54 numbered red and black blocks, a betting board and 75 chips. Recommended for players 18 years and older.

"Jenga" XXL- an enlarged version of the classic Jenga (although there are also much larger copies of the game). The size of each block is approximately 45x22.5x7.5 cm. The set includes 50 elements (48 directly for the game and 2 “in reserve”). All blocks are made not of sanded wood, but of painted plywood, so that when they fall, the structure will not kill players. The original tower is 120 cm high and can theoretically grow to three and a half meters during the game! This version of Jenga is especially good for playing on fresh air, it goes with a bang as a fun accompaniment to a barbecue.

We briefly talked about only some of the varieties of this simple board game. There are also special editions of it. Deserves special attention Jenga Nigthmare before Christmas- a game designed in the spirit of a popular cartoon that appeared on screens more than twenty years ago. The blocks are colored black, purple and orange colors. Each of them bears images of ghosts, funny, sad, cunning faces of Jack Skelington and, of course, the name of the cartoon with its signature “Halloween” font.

In addition, there are many board games created based on Jenga. Some retain the rules of the original game, but the elements themselves are significantly modified. In particular, the snow-white set looks very interesting Jenga Stack The Bones with blocks in the form of bones and a skull crowning the tower. Such a set can become not only your favorite game, but also an original interior decoration, which will also serve as a wonderful gift for lovers of various strange things. There are also similar sets with more peaceful themes: with cats, bunnies, carrots, and so on.

As you can see, the good old Jenga does not stand still, but develops in accordance with the desires of modern users. The market is full of various options long-loved board game, among which you will definitely find the best “Tower” for yourself.

Jenga is an extremely popular, meditative and at the same time gambling game. During the process, players act with bated breath, and the loss is marked by the roar of a collapsed building.

Review

The board game Jenga, also known as Tower, is quite simple.

You need to build a tower from wooden blocks, and then pull the sticks out of the tower and put them on the top floor. The structure will become increasingly unstable until it collapses from careless movement or a blow of wind.

In its basic principle, it is a bit like playing spillikins (with miniature utensils) or Mikado (using wooden skewers). The game takes on average 5-10 minutes.

Who created

The game Jenga was invented by Tanzanian-born Englishwoman Leslie Scott in the early 1970s. Its ancestor was the game of blocks that Leslie played as a child. The word "jenga" comes from the Swahili verb "to build". The game is produced by one of the subsidiaries of the Hasbro company; replicas from the Igrotime company are popular in Russia.

From what age

You can play Jenga from the moment your fine motor skills have developed sufficiently. You can build a tower for the first time at the age of five, although it’s unlikely that an adult should compete with an impatient child.

What is in the box

In the package you will find:

54 wooden blocks, easy to remove. Their size is about 8 centimeters in length, the length and width have a ratio of 3:1. The original uses bamboo, while Russian replicas often use birch;

cardboard sleeve for building a level tower, also known as instructions.

Rules

In Jenga, the rules are clear to both a preschooler and a grandmother. It is necessary to build a tower from blocks with the inscription “jenga”, laying three bricks in a row, on them - three bricks perpendicularly. There are 18 floors in total.

Next, you need to pull out one block at a time from the body and arrange it at the very top so that the skyscraper stands. You can touch the tower, try it on, touch the bricks you are going to pull out, but only with one hand. The main thing is not to drop it. Dropped - lost. After each move you need to wait 10 seconds, and only then pass the move on.

Sometimes Jenga is played using a grid of 4 by 4 bars rather than 3 by 3. Then the process may result in a marvelously intricate design, the fall of which will be simply epoch-making.

There are other options for how to play the tower. For example, buy a set with numbers on the dice and take out not random blocks, but the one whose number appears on the dice.

Game mechanics

In Jenga, players have to demonstrate miracles of dexterity, precision of movements and fine motor skills. Knowledge of physics and the ability to see an object in volume and calculate balance will also be useful.

Tricks and secrets

The rules of the game describe only the general principle of action, but experienced players know that there are some subtleties:

There's no need to rush. The main thing is accuracy, so try on as much as you think is necessary;

Test how firmly the bricks sit. Some can be pulled out easily, some cannot. If the block doesn’t want to move, don’t pull it, otherwise you’ll almost certainly collapse everything;

Try to build the tower not higher, but more stable. This will make the game last longer. Or, on the contrary, make a shaky top, hoping that your opponent will not be able to repeat your trick;

If you push out the central blocks rather than the side ones, the chance of collapse is reduced.

The game is unpredictable because a mistake of a millimeter can cost you a victory. The original Jenga even keeps the exact dimensions of the wooden blocks a secret. Allegedly, each brick is slightly different from the other, so that there is no exact balance and it is impossible to choose a uniquely winning strategy. However, a banal production error gives the same effect.

The most intense moment

The most interesting thing begins when the tower is already quite skewed, and every movement can bring it down. Will this happen from the removed block, which, as it turned out, held everything on itself. Or the building will collapse when the player has already pulled out the brick, put it on the roof and exhaled with relief.

How to diversify the gameplay

When you get bored with having fun according to the basic rules, bring in fresh ideas. It will become more fun and difficult if:

  • Write numbers on the ends of the pieces of wood, throw the dice and pull the one that lands;
  • Write tasks on pieces of paper and take them before each move. For example, doing everything with your left hand or singing a song while doing it;
  • Tasks or questions can be written directly onto the bars;
  • Not to build on, but to dismantle the tower from below until there are so many holes in it that it collapses.

How to increase interest

Simply rearranging wooden blocks quickly becomes boring. The solution is to come up with a prize. For example, desire. Something big - like having to wash all the dishes after a party. Participants will fight with passion until the last brick!

How else to use

With young children, you can use Jenga as a construction set and build turret houses together, and then, optionally, remove the bricks as usual. The kids will be happy to work on the new building material (more than environmentally friendly).

Who lost

Ay-ya-ya-ay, the leaning tower has fallen! Who is guilty? Who wasn't careful enough? On whose turn did a fly fly past and the air vibrations cause a catastrophe? So he lost.

Additional materials

Playing the game Jenga is more than just stacking blocks on top of each other. This is a fun activity with a strong competitive element. In addition, it can always be diversified.

The secret of popularity

There are several secrets to the popularity of Jenga:

  • Very simple and clear rules, anyone can play it;
  • It does not require a special place other than a flat, hard surface - for example, the floor;
  • Despite the transience of each game, it drags on for hours;
  • Consists of environmentally friendly materials, the details are pleasant to the touch;
  • You can upgrade the set rather than buy a new one;
  • The best players are both the smartest and the luckiest.

The benefits of regular games of Tower

The construction tower is a great shared activity for both adults and children. And for a party too.

Parsing the block structure is good for concentration and fine motor skills. The player has to show everything he is capable of.

Building a tower helps develop spatial thinking. We learn to imagine what exactly we get if we remove a part from one position and move it to another.

Other advantages

Jenga is a very fun game. It’s simply impossible to tear yourself away - well, another five minutes, well, another game.

Everyone, young and old, can play Jenga. Which makes the desire to build a tower out of wooden blocks a universal family pastime.

The number of participants is not limited - although if there are many of them, it is not a fact that the move will reach everyone. But the one who gets the chance will certainly try to concentrate with the top piece in his hands and not succumb to the “encouraging” cries around like “Ruin ​​it!”

The set is durable. Even if you have already played dozens of games, the appearance of the wooden parts will not change at all, they will not wrinkle or rub like cards.

The height of all the bars is slightly different. This is not a bug - it's a feature to make the game even more unpredictable and interesting.

There is a whole line of games for fans. For example, the one called “Django chairs”.

The Leaning Tower, or Jenga as it is also called, is a popular and interesting board game for a group. It's not like the usual games. There are no chips or cards in it, but there are blocks of natural unpainted wood (birch).

Build a flat tower from the bars using a special corner included in the game set. Each row should have three bars, each subsequent row is folded in a direction transverse to the previous one. You will get 18 such rows! Turn the corner over and remove it. On the table there will be a tall, eighteen-story impregnable tower. Now players can go on an attack.

There can be as many participants in the battle as there are friends in your company. Each player chooses any level to attack and pulls out one of the bars with one hand! This block, which ends up in the player’s hands, is placed on the new, top floor of the structure. All actions are performed by the participant so that the tower of bars does not collapse! The culprit of the disaster is considered the loser! Sanctions can be applied to it, which the players consider fair; with this rule, the game will be more intense and longer. If you play without it, the game will be more dynamic. Choose the option that suits you. And if your company brings together dexterous, attentive and intelligent participants, the height of your tower can double!

In the end, if you get tired of playing, the blocks can be used as a set of cubes for little builder, since they do not contain varnishes, dyes or stains, but are made from environmentally friendly Vyatka birch.

Equipment:

  • 54 bars;
  • rules of the game.
  • Reviews for the board game The Leaning Tower

    Alexander

    Poor quality. Chips on the sides since opening the package (((

    Answer: You may have received a defective game or it was damaged during transportation. We will definitely help resolve the issue.



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