Monkeys in a Barrel Rules

Mechanics of the Game

• To play, hold one monkey up in the air. Take another monkey and hang it by one of its curved arms from one of the first monkey's arms. Continue doing this, linking monkeys by their arms, for as long as you can without letting any of the monkeys fall off. Only one monkey can link with another monkey at a time. For example, you can't hang two monkeys from the same arm of one monkey.

Single-Player Rules

• If you don't have multiple people to play, there is an official single-player version of the game. In this version, the goal is twofold: get 12 monkeys in a chain without dropping any and do it as quickly as possible. Use a timer or a stopwatch to track your times. If any monkeys fall, you lose and must start over again.

Multiple-Player Variations

• Any number of people can play the multiple-player version of Barrel of Monkeys. Have all the players gather in a circle around a table or other surface and dump all of the plastic monkeys out on the surface. Determine who goes first by whichever way you think is fair, such as having the oldest or the youngest go first or by rolling a die. Each play gets a point when he successfully links one monkey with another. The turn ends when the player drops a monkey. The first player to get 12 points wins. Naturally, if a player forms a chain of 12 monkeys without dropping any in a single turn, this is an automatic win.