So let’s do a social experiment, you and a selection of friends/co-workers/secret enemies/random strangers are going to count to 100. Pretty easy right. Except you’re going to do it using playing cards, but also with no communication, and then also several rounds of increasing difficulty. It may sound difficult but trust me though, you’ll be alright once we find out how to play The Mind.
Set Up
This is nice and easy. The 100 card deck of numbered cards is shuffled and placed face down. Take one throwing star and a number of lives equal to the number of players for your team, the rest are kept to one side for now. Then select a number of Level cards determined by player count:2 players- 12 Levels
3 players- 10 Levels
4 players – 8 Levels
Stack these in descending numerical order, so Level 1 should be the top card. Now you’re ready to play.
Teamwork
The Mind takes place over several Levels, where you all play as one team to complete the Level together. Each Level starts by shuffling together all the 100 number cards to recreate the original deck before dealing each player a hand of cards equal to the Level. So for example on Level 1 everyone has one card, Level 2 everyone has two cards and so on. You cannot communicate your card numbers or any other information about your hand to anyone else, they remain secret to you at all times unless played or discarded.After dealing you all order your hands of cards from lowest to highest, easy enough on Level 1, its time to Focus – place one of your hands on the table palm down to indicate you’re ready to begin. Once all players are Focused and ready you immediately start playing The Mind!
The goal for each Level is for everyone to place all their cards onto the table in ascending order. The first person to play a card places it in the middle where everyone can reach, further cards are played on top of this to create a stack of played cards. There is no fixed turn order so you can play a card at any point, the one rule is that you must always play the lowest card in your hand. You also play your cards one at a time, even if you had the numbers 56 and 57 in hand you would have to play the 56 first, then you can play the 57. Hopefully you all manage to do this correctly and in the right order and finish the Level. However, this won’t always be the case.
Mistakes – If someone plays a card on the table and you have a lower value card in your hand then immediately pause the game. All players discard any cards in their hands that are lower than the value of the card just played, then lose one life, regardless of how many cards were discarded. Any cards discarded are kept face-up in front of you. If there are still lives remaining then everyone will Focus and continue with the Level, or Finish the Level if all hands are now empty. However, if your team just lost your last life then the endeavour has failed and its Game Over.
Finishing a Level – Once all player’s hands are empty you Finish the current Level. If the Level card shows a bonus card in the bottom corner, either a life or a throwing star, then you receive one of these from the supply to add to your team’s stash. [Note that the cards are limited, so you can only have a maximum of 5 lives and 3 throwing stars.] Now discard the Level card into the box, if it was the last one then Congratulations you’ve just won The Mind! Otherwise continue with the next Level by setting up as described earlier.
Throwing Stars – These are helpful tools with a one time use. When a Throwing Star is used the game will pause, then all players will discard the lowest card in their hand and the Throwing Star is returned to the supply. Following this, if there are still cards remaining to be played then all players Focus and resume the level. There is no limit to the number of Throwing Stars that can be used on any Level.
Throwing Stars are a team item though, so everyone must be in agreement to use one. If you want to use a Throwing Star then hold you hand in the air. If all players hold up their hands then pause gameplay while carrying out the Throwing Star action.
Sound Too Easy?
If you want to try this game at a more difficult setting then play it on Blind Mode! It is recommended to move onto this immediately after winning a game of The Mind, but there is no reason why you can’t play it like this from the start for a completely different experience.
In Blind Mode most of the gameplay remains identical to the regular game, the one key difference is that when playing cards from your hand to the central stack they are all played face-down. The cards remain face-down until the end of the round when they have all been played, at which point they are revealed. Now every mistake revealed will cost the team a life, so see how many Levels you can complete like this.
I have found the simplest way to do this is to take the stack and flip the whole thing upside-down, then start placing the cards off the top into a line. At any point if the card on top you want to place is not the highest, then find the earliest played card higher than it and slide the card underneath. Do this with every card that meats this criteria, so one card could have several cards slid underneath. Once the whole stack has been revealed then lose lives equal to the number of individual cards that have other cards slid underneath them (regardless of how many cards are under themn). If the team still has lives remaining then it’s on to the next Level!
Concentration
One rule of advice is that you should always be concentrating during a game of The Mind. If you feel like you are losing concentration during a Level then say STOP to pause the game immediately. Then re-Focus and once all players are Focused the game will resume.
That’s it, have fun playing and attempting to complete all levels of The Mind.
