Long before it became a playground game, Rock-Paper-Scissors had a different name and a deeper purpose. In Japan it was called jan-ken — and among the warrior class, it carried real weight.

Samurai lived by a code that valued honour above all else. Drawing a blade meant consequences — for both sides. When two warriors reached an impasse that didn't warrant bloodshed, they could settle it with jan-ken: a contest of reading, timing, and nerve. No swords. No violence. Just two hands and the courage to commit.

The game arrived in Japan from China during the 17th century, evolving from older hand games like sansukumi-ken — the “three-way deadlock” where each choice beats one and loses to another. By the Edo period, jan-ken had spread through every level of society, from daimyo courts to merchant houses to the streets of Kyoto.

What made it endure wasn't luck — it was psychology. The best players read their opponents: watching for patterns, exploiting hesitation, disguising intent. A split-second decision that revealed character.

Shadow Hands takes that core idea — the reading, the bluffing, the commitment — and builds a full duel around it. Every throw still matters. But now you have cards to shape the battlefield, specials to shift the odds, and twelve hit points standing between you and defeat.