# Kemps — tell your partner without a word

- From: Kemps, a partnership card game
- Players: 4 players in two teams
- Time: 10 min
- Made by: Traditional

Made with boardgameBuilder 0.14.4. To design from it, open boardgameBuilder and choose Open game: its blocks go on the canvas, and the feelings are left for you to pick.

Partners agree a secret signal before the game. Cards are swapped at speed from the middle of the table, and when one partner holds four of a kind, the other must notice the signal and call it, before the other team spots it too.

## What it shows a designer

Information has to cross between partners through a hidden channel, while the other team tries to read it too. It shows how a game can be about communication itself, and how a forbidden channel (speech) pushes play into another.

## What you need

- one standard deck of cards
- paper for letters

## How to play

1. **Signals.** Each team goes aside and agrees a silent signal meaning 'I have four of a kind': a gesture or a look. No words. False signals to mislead are allowed.
2. **Deal.** Partners sit opposite. Deal four cards to each player and four face up in the middle.
3. **Swap.** There are no turns. Anyone may take a card from the middle and put one of theirs in its place, as often as they like. When nobody wants the middle cards, the dealer clears them and deals four new ones.
4. **Kemps.** If you think your partner has four of a kind, say 'Kemps'. If they do, the other team takes a letter; if not, your team does.
5. **Stop Kemps.** If you think an opponent has four of a kind, say 'Stop Kemps'. If one does, their team takes a letter; if not, yours does.
6. **End.** If the deck runs out with no call, nobody takes a letter. A team that collects K-E-M-P-S loses.

## After playing, talk about

- What signal did your team choose, and did the others read it?
- How did watching your partner change how you played your own cards?
- Was it harder to collect cards or to read the table?

## Where the rules are written down

- https://www.pagat.com/commerce/kemps.html

## Its blocks

- Core mechanic: set collection
- Victory condition: one loser
- Player interaction: team vs team
- Information visibility: one knows, cannot say
- Timing: no turns

## Saved state

boardgameBuilder reads this part back when the file is opened.

```json
{"mechanics": {"core-mechanic": ["set-collection"], "victory-condition": "one-loser", "player-interaction": "team-vs-team", "information": "one-knows-cannot-say", "timing": ["no-turns"]}, "chosenFeelings": [], "previousMechanics": {}, "previousFeelings": [], "turnNumber": 0, "locked": false, "turnHistory": [], "answers": {}, "tests": {}}
```