Niiwin (the Ojibwe/Anishinaabe language word for Four, pronounced: Nee-win) is a two player card game, inspired by Ojibwe (Native North-American) folklore and language. Each player has four unique goal cards they try to complete by forming rows of four cards. Players take turns placing cards from their hand on the table in hopes of scoring their goals while preventing their opponents from completing theirs. The game is simple and takes around 15 minutes and uses Ojibwe vocabulary in the cards so players can learn some basic words and numbers.
A card game for 2 players.
Created by Julia Keren-Detar, Itay Keren as part of Global Game Jam 2015.
Shuffle both the Play cards (red and green numbers) and the Goal cards. Deal 4 Goal cards and 6 Play cards face down to each player. Players can look at their Goal and Play cards but shouldn't reveal them to their opponent.
Place the Title Board between players, bordering the playfield, facing inwards.
Players take turns placing Play cards face-up on the table from their hand. For each card played, a player draws another Play card back into their hand. Players can play one of the open slots on the Title Board, or adjacent to any previously placed card, in any direction within the 4x4 grid. The game is complete when 16 cards are placed, filling up the grid.
The object of the game is to get the most points by completing goals listed in your goal hand. For each row of cards both horizontally and vertically that meets a player's goal criteria, 1 point is awarded (Modified Mode: point value at the bottom of the card is awarded).
A single goal can be achieved multiple times, for multiple rows and columns.
Additionally, Niiwin is awarded if a player achieves all their Goals, and an extra 4 points are added to their total.
Print printouts and cut all cards and Title Board along the lines.