Rules of the Game
The Old Shanghai Game is based on San Francisco history and life on the "Barbary Coast"' as San Francisco's wild waterfront was named. Sailors arriving in San Francisco were eager to explore the bars, saloons and dancehalls of this notoriously wicked port, but they were always targets of the crimps, who made their living selling sailors to ship captains. Drunk or drugged, they were rowed out to waiting ships, and when they came around to their senses, they were bound as virtual slaves on a ship to "Old Shanghai"
In a Hurry to Play?
Simple Quick Start Steps:
Set Up:
Pull out all the Shanghai Cards and one Heart of Gold for each player.
Remember to take out the Shanghai Cards before dealing!
Deal out 5 cards to each player. Give each player a Heart of Gold card.
Put the one Shanghai card per player back in the deck and shuffle again.
Play:
When it’s your turn, take a card from the stack. If the Shanghai comes up, flip it over and put it on the table. You’re Shanghai’d. (See the Shanghai step)
Players keep taking cards and adding them to their hands.
Skipping Your Turn:
If you’re worried the top card is the Shanghai, skip your turn with a Drink Up, A Drunken Sailor or an Old Shellback.
The Shanghai
If you drew the Shanghai you can play a Heart of Gold to get out of it.
If another player draws the Shanghai, you can finish them off with a pair of Rowing Gang cards or a single Boss card.
After that, you’re Shanghai’d. UNLESS you have a Harbor Patrol.
All cards are discarded except Shanghai and Boss cards. They go back in the deck.
Separate out the Shanghai’d Cards from the deck. Set aside one card for each player. Deal out one Heart of Gold per player. Now shuffle the rest of the deck and deal 5 cards per player. Lastly, give each player a Shanghai card.
Each player slides their Shanghai card in to the deck, and then the deck is shuffled and cut one more time. Place the deck in the center of the table.
Starting with the player who has most recently been on a boat, play starts by drawing the top card from the deck. Players take turns drawing and adding to their hands. Pay attention to the Safety Cards, they can save you from a Shanghai!
Continue drawing cards until one of two things happens: A player draws the Shanghai Card, or a player plays a Skip Card.
Skip cards allow you to avoid drawing the top card. They are: Drink Up, Drunken Sailor and Old Shellback. Drink Up passes the draw to the next player. You are free to play as many Drink Ups as you have in your hand, but don’t use them all if you don’t need to!
Play one of these to avoid drawing a card. Old Shellback lets you draw 2, and put one back. Drunken Sailor lets you steal a card from another player and make them draw! Both go in to the discard pile.
If the Shanghai Card comes up – you’re in trouble! Do you have a Safety Card?
Play a Heart of Gold now, and the Shanghai ends. You get to put the Shanghai Card back anywhere in the deck. No Heart of Gold? Read on…
Now another player can take you out of the game by playing a pair of Rowing Gang cards, or a Boss Card. It will be game over for you, unless you have a Harbor Patrol Card…
The Harbor Patrol card will save you, but don’t play it before someone else plays their Rowing Gang Cards or Boss Card. When they do, slap the Harbor Patrol on them. Steal 2 cards from their hand and place the Shanghai Card (and the Boss Card if used) back in the deck. You’re still in the game!
If you didn’t have a Safety Card, you’re out of the game! The player that helped Shanghai you (by playing a Boss Card or Rowing Gang pair) steals two of your cards, you discard the rest. Better luck next time!
A Shanghai can’t happen without help. When the Shanghai Card comes up, another player has to join the treachery. Play a matching pair of Rowing Gang cards or a Boss Card and the Shanghai’d player is out of the game…
If you join the Shanghai, be ready to have a Harbor Patrol pulled on you, it will cost you two cards! Sometimes it’s best to let others do the dirty work for you!
As the game gets near the end, the odds of getting Shanghai’d go up! Did you save some Skip cards? You could really use them now.
The game is over when there’s only one sailor left! Buy that fellow a drink!
