Like Minds Game Rules

Like Minds is a board game for four to eight people. Played in teams of two, it tests how well each set of partners can come up with the same examples of the 420 different game categories. Like Minds is a simple party-style game that can accommodate new players immediately.

Setup

Partners sit across from each other; the Like Minds' "Brain" must be put in the reach of every player. Each round, a different team is the "brain-taking team," which means that they will have a quota of minimum matches -- required to move ahead on the board -- as determined by the roll of a die. If the brain-taking team meets their quota of matches, they earn two extra points in addition to a single point for each match. If they miss their quota, they score zero points. All other teams simply score one point per match.

Basic Gameplay

Gameplay starts with one player from the brain-taking team drawing a card from the pile to discover the category for the round. The player then reads the category aloud for all players to hear and everyone immediately starts writing down their answers.

Team Roles

During their team's "brain-taking" round, partners take turns playing the two different team roles of "active" and "passive" player. Each round has a different category and quota (the quota is the number of matches the team needs for that particular round), which changes each round based on a random die roll. Only the "active" player, however, knows the quota number for each round; his partner, the "passive" player, does not. While both partners must come up with potential matches, the active player has the added duty of deciding when the round should end by guessing when his partner has enough matches. For instance, if the active player rolls a 2 for the quota, he may decide to end the round fairly quickly as his partner only needs two matches to coincide with his answers.

Strategy

The most effective strategy for obtaining matches is to come up with the most obvious answers, as both players are more likely to come up with the same answer if it is not obscure. For example, if the category is "colors," the answer "red" is much more likely to generate a match than the answer "fuschia" -- both partners are likely to come up with "red."

Winning

After each round, all of the players read what is written on their lists and count up the matches. Teams simply score one point for each match; the team with the most points for the round will move their game piece ahead on the board. This is a board game, so the winning team is the one that makes it first to the end of the board -- "Brain Central."