Rules
The rules of Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock are:
- Scissors cut paper
- Paper covers rock
- Rock crushes lizard
- Lizard poisons Spock
- Spock smashes (or melts) scissors
- Scissors decapitate lizard
- Lizard eats paper
- Paper disproves Spock
- Spock vaporizes rock
- Rock breaks scissors
There are ten possible pairings of the five gestures; each gesture beats two of the other gestures and is beaten by the remaining two.
One way to remember the rules is to remember the standard "rock-paper-scissors" ordering, where each gesture defeats the one before it, and is defeated by the one after. But then add the two novel gestures near the word they approximately rhyme with:
- Rock
- Spock
- Paper
- Lizard
- Scissors
In this expanded list, each gesture is defeated by the following two options, and defeats the preceding two.
Since the Spock gesture is known to be notoriously difficult for some people to perform, some players may be disadvantaged while playing this variant. The fingers must be moved quickly into the final position from a closed fist, which means that many people will not be able to use Spock, thus cutting down their options.
Read more about this topic: Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock
Famous quotes containing the word rules:
“Under the rules of a society that cannot distinguish between profit and profiteering, between money defined as necessity and money defined as luxury, murder is occasionally obligatory and always permissible.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“Fergus rules the brazen cars,
And rules the shadows of the wood,
And the white breast of the dim sea
And all dishevelled wandering stars.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Can rules or tutors educate
The semigod whom we await?
He must be musical,
Tremulous, impressional,
Alive to gentle influence
Of landscape and of sky
And tender to the spirit-touch
Of man’s or maiden’s eye.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)