Hand game

A team-based guessing game in which players conceal or transfer small objects in their hands while opponents try to identify their locations.

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Hidden-information game: A game in which players hold information that other players cannot directly observe. Concealed objects create the uncertainty that opponents must resolve.
Mancala: A family of board games in which players distribute and capture counters in rows of pits. Some hand-game traditions are associated with mancala play and its communities.
Ceremonial game: A game whose performance forms part of a religious, ritual, or communal ceremony. Some hand games are played as ceremonial events rather than only as recreation.
Shell game: A gambling trick in which an object is hidden under one of several shells and rapidly moved. Both conceal an object, but the shell game centers on tracking a moving object rather than team play.
Bluffing: A strategy of misleading opponents about one's intentions or private information. Players can disguise where an object is held to provoke a wrong guess.
Indigenous games of North America: Traditional and contemporary games developed and played by Indigenous peoples across North America. The game has longstanding forms within Indigenous communities, including those of the Plains.
Oral tradition: The transmission of knowledge, stories, and cultural practices through spoken performance across generations. Songs and verbal conventions can carry the game’s rules and cultural knowledge.
Three-card monte: A confidence trick in which a target tries to follow one card among rapidly moved cards. It also tests tracking under deception, but is typically a hustling trick rather than a team contest.
Team strategy: A plan coordinating the actions of multiple players toward a shared objective. Teammates must coordinate concealment and guesses without revealing the object’s location.
Plains Indians: A collective term for Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains, encompassing many distinct nations and cultures. Several well-known hand-game traditions are associated with Plains nations.