The Mind is a quick and fun card game for 2-10 people. It’s great to play during a night in with a roommate or significant other, but it’s equally fun to bring it to a brewery to play with your whole friend group. Either way, it becomes a lot more fun if you add drinks! Here are the rules as well as a drinking game for The Mind.
How to play The Mind
Unlike most card games, you work together with the group, and you either win as a team or lose as a team. The point is that you are all connected as one “mind” – being able to understand what the other players are thinking and predicting what they will do.
The Mind comes with 100 number cards, 12 level cards, 3 throwing star cards, and 5 life cards.
Each person in the group receives 1 randomly dealt number card for each level you are on. So on the first level, everyone starts out with 1 card, on the second level, everyone starts out with 2 cards, and so on.
The Mind setup
Everyone is sitting in a circle holding their card(s). To start, each player puts their hand on the table (or ground, if that’s where you’re sitting) to “sync up.” The game can only begin when everyone has “synced up” because that signals you are ready and paying attention. This game moves fast. The goal is for everyone’s number card to get played – but they must be put down in perfectly ascending order. So the person who feels they have the lowest card must go first, and then whoever feels like they have the next lowest card will play theirs. This is where it gets tricky, because you don’t know how big that gap is going to be between the played card and the next card! You’ve got to use your collective “mind” powers to decide.
The Mind level cards
These cards only serve to provide information; they are never played. The dealer keeps the current level card in front of them to remember where they are and how many cards will be dealt the next turn. The level cards also hold a key piece of info. When you level up, the next level card will tell you if you get to add a life card or a throwing star card to your collection. Those are explained below.
The mind life cards
There are 5 total life cards in the game. These save you in the event that someone messes up and plays a card out of order. For example, if a player plays a 10, and someone immediately puts down a 12, but another player was holding an 11, this is a “loss” and you forfeit a life card. If you have no more life cards, the game is over, you lost.
The mind throwing star cards
There are 3 throwing star cards in the game. A player can call “throwing star” at any point, and everyone gets to put down the lowest number card in their hand. This serves two purposes: eliminates cards from the game which reduces the possibility of error, and gives everyone a hint to what cards everyone else has. For example, if someone puts down a 70 for the throwing star, you know they won’t have anything below 70 in their hand. Use your life cards and throwing cards strategically! You can only get more if your next level card says so.
The Mind Drinking Game Rules
Drink any time…
- You are the first person to put down a card
- You put down the 100 card
- You and another person go to play a card at the same time
- A throwing star is played
If someone messes up the order, everyone takes a sip! Everyone involved in the mis-ordering takes an extra sip.
If you run out of lives and lose the whole game, everyone waterfalls their drink, starting with the person who has made the fewest mistakes.
For you advanced The Mind players, it now comes in an EXTREME version! Can you juggle 2 hands of cards, one that must be played in ascending order and the other in descending?
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