First things first. You win Finguz by being the first to reach The Ultimate Ring of Power, Immortality, and Fun (catchy, right?). It's the circle at the center of the board. You have to reach it with an exact number of spaces. If you would go over, then you stay where you are until your next turn.
Instead of using dice to move, Finguz uses Flickoffs. It’s like Rock Paper Scissors, but with the number of fingers instead. Players reveal their numbers at the same time.
The offense player wants to move to a certain space, and the defense player is trying to guess what offense will play, to slow offense down or even make them go backwards. The difference between the two players’ numbers, that’s how many spaces offense moves. It doesn’t matter who plays the higher number, it’s just always the difference.
If offense or defense plays a five and the other player plays a one, offense moves the difference: four spaces. A five versus a four means a gain of only one space for offense. You get it already, right?
You can see that the closer defense comes to guessing the number offense plays, the fewer spaces offense gets to move. But what if defense guesses exactly? Then offense moves back three spaces! It doesn’t matter if it’s five versus five or one versus one. Offense always has to move back three.
Players move from space to space along any path on the board, including The Outer Ring and The Inner Ring paths. Offense can go past spaces with other players on them already. There is no blocking in Finguz, but there’s something even better: poking!
When offense lands on a space with a player on it, they “poke” them. In Finguz, poking means that offense stays on that space. Then offense moves defense to a space the same number of spaces they just got in their Flickoff. Offense decides which space that is. If the move makes defense land on another player, then offense pokes them as well!
To start, each player picks a color and puts their token on that color’s circle at the Start Space (solid color) of the path.
The blue player (or any color you decide on) starts as as offense and plays a Flickoff with the player to their left, the defense player. Offense moves based on the result of that Flickoff. Then defense becomes offense and flicks off with the player to their left. The Flickoffs continue clockwise around the board until someone wins.
Playing with just two players? Go to the 2-Player Version rules.
Random is as random does. If you just can’t take the fact that Finguz packs strategy into what would otherwise be a random roll of dice, that’s okay. You can use a single die from any other game and count a six as a five during Flickoffs. You might want to use dice when playing with kids or anyone who wouldn’t be able to use much strategy.
Yes, Finguz will have cards soon, too. These will give offense more choices during their turn, but everyone else can play certain cards even when it’s not their turn.
Cards will add even more strategy to the Finguz experience. While you’re waiting for the cards to appear, though, you can just stare at your own color’s card space and imagine this more perfect future…
A one-on-one game of Finguz is fast and fun. Start on facing paths. The rules are basically the same as with the 3-player or 4-player versions, except each player must go to their opponent's Start Space and then race to the center to win. No using any of the Ring paths. No cards. Poking is allowed!