I tried to make a game based on the story of Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts:

In the end the game bears little resemblance to the story in the song, but it’s pretty fun.

Components

You will need

• A pack of standard playing cards
• A water pistol, filled with water
• Between 3 and 52 players

Aim of the game

Kill the Jack of Hearts (well get him wet)

How to play

Separate the same number of cards as players, making sure one of them is the Jack of Hearts. Place the loaded water pistol in the centre of the table. Deal the cards to all players, face down on the table. Every player looks at their own card.

As soon as the cards are dealt anyone is able to grab the water pistol and shoot it at another player. Once shot the player reveals their card, if they are the Jack of Hearts, the player that shot them is the winner. If they are not the Jack of Hearts, they are still in the game (it was just a flesh wound) and they leave their card face up on the table. The player that incorrectly shot them is now imprisoned (eliminated from the game) because they shot the wrong person, and their card is removed from the table. The gun is then returned to the centre of the table.

The play continues until someone successfully shoots the Jack of Hearts.

The Jack of Hearts can also win the game by shooting everyone else. However because the gun must be returned to the centre of the table between each shooting this is a difficult thing to achieve!

Notes

You might think its not necessary to play with a water pistol – can’t we just point? In my experience this doesn’t work because many people might want to shoot at around the same time and it results in arguments. Having a physical object to grab eliminates this ambiguity.

You could probably play without water in the water pistol, but it is a lot more fun when there is a real threat of getting wet!

Game play

The challenge in this game is to try to work out who is lying about what card they have. In my experience, the best way to determine what card someone has is to ask them and see their response. Because there is no turn taking this means the conversation can get quite rowdy and heated, but this is all part of the fun of the game.

There are several other things that makes this a good fun game.

1. It’s really quick. Most rounds last a couple of minutes and it never goes on very long.
2. Its easy for people to join and leave. If you get bored you can leave at any time, by just shooting someone!
3. The rules are so simple anyone can learn the quickly.
4. No one is eliminated from the game unless they choose to be.