Kranen

Kranen (meaning the Crane) is a Danish drinking game derived from the game Meyer. It was invented at the University of Copenhagen and is especially widespread among the students at the faculty of science. The game is usually taught to first year students by their tutors during the traditional introduction trip the week before the semester starts.The game is particularly popular among students of physics and mathematics. Chances are that Kranen is going to be played at any time alcohol is close to any of these groups. Since the game can be quite noisy this tends to have an effect on the people in the vicinity that doesn't know the game.

How to play Meyer

To play the original game of Meyer you need two dice and two dice cups.

The object of the game is to roll higher than your competitors. The rank is as follows:
* 1 + 2: Meyer
* 1 + 3: Small-meyer
* 6 + 6: Pair 6
* Pair 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1
* 6 + 5: 65
* 6 + 4: 64
* 63, 62, 61, 54, 53 etc. all the way down to 32

The first person puts the dice on top of one of the dice cups and puts the other dice cup on top. The person now shakes the dice cups and looks at the result without showing it to the others.

Now you have two choices: Either you can say what you have or you can bluff and make a higher call making it more difficult for the opponent to beat. Then the dice cups are sent to the next player.

The next player now has to decide if he believes you or not. If he doesn't he can lift the top dice cup revealing what the first person rolled. If the first person made the correct call the second person loses, if the first person bluffed he loses. If the second person does believe you he must roll higher. He first rolls and looks at it. If he doesn't like what he sees he can choose to either bluff or to shake the dice cups again, but this time he has to send them along without seeing them. In this case he can choose between calling "nnn" or calling "nnn or higher" (or higher can only be used on unseen rolls). The higher the combinations get the greater is the chance someone is lying.

Kranen

The most important difference between Meyer and Kranen is that in Meyer the possible calls are the numbers you can roll - in Kranen each of these have gotten a name that must be said in a very specific way. For many of the names it is also a custom to say or do special things before or after - though this can be overlooked for inexperienced players.

Rules

* You are not allowed to say the names of the calls unless it has just been called (this rule makes the learning curve much steeper since it means that the only way a new player can learn names of calls is during play).

* The only exception to the above is Kranen. You can say Kranen anytime you want. Kranen is the highest call (1-2).

* You are not allowed to watch someone else play Kranen without participating.

* You must drink what you are due before it is your turn again.

* Kranen should be played with beer that has an alcoholpercentage of at least 5.8.

* The Crane must not make any pauses (if it does everybody has to drink). In this case the players will chant: "The Crane must not stop! Here's to that! CHEERS!" (In Danish it rhymes: "Kranen må ikke gå i stå! Det skåler vi på! SKÅL!

Drinking

If you lose in Kranen you have to drink. On the lowest call you have to drink 1/21 of half a beer. This rises 1/21 of half a beer with each call until the second highest for which you have to drink 20/21 of half a beer(it is not measured so strictly). For Kranen you have to drink 21/21 of a full beer - or more precisely 21/21 of half a beer times 2 (this is measured strictly).

Generally when someone gets beaten on the high calls the rest drinks in sympathy.

If you say a name of a call that is not active you generally have to drink as if you had lost on Kranen (1 beer).

Variations

* Kranen is not played in the same way by mathematicians and physicists. Some pre-calls and post-calls are different. Mathematicians (who originally invented Kranen) do not have crane operators. Everybody should be able to play Kranen anytime thay like.

* Physicists tend to be stricter, when playing Kranen. For example when playing "Fysik-Kranen" (The Physics Crane) you have to drink if you do not say the pre-calls and post-calls. Furthermore the physicists usually claim that the penalty for revealing the name of a call while not playing Kranen is that you have to drink a case of beer.

* Voldgraven (the Moat) - basically the same as Kranen but with a new set of names for the calls. Rules are the same. The drawbridge (Danish: vindebro) has the position that the crane operator holds in Kranen.

* Über-Kranen is an extension of Kranen to be played with three dice instead of two. This gives 56 different calls. The calls of Kranen are contained in Über-Kranen.

* Porno-Kranen is an older extension of Kranen to three dice. The third die determins a category, so each of the usual Kranen calls comes in six categories.

Trivia

* The dice cups used to play Kranen are generally called a crane (Danish: en kran).