Sort all cards into facedown piles, one per category. For a first game, just use the base cards, but you can add as many other sets as you want.
Pick any player to start.
The game ends once all players have taken a turn. It’s cooperative. A higher score is better and the “perfect score” is 10 x the number of turns.
Start player begins, then take clockwise turns until done.
On your turn, draw 5 random cards from different categories. Then use the Rank Tokens to rank them from left to right. Left means “this makes me most unhappy” and right means “this makes me most happy”. Place the tokens facedown, where the color/icon matches the card of that category.
Once you’re done, all the other players try to guess your ranking. They also place Rank Tokens on the other side of the cards.
Once done, reveal and compare! Each token in the right place gives you +1 point. Guessing them all correctly doubles your points for this round.
Can’t I just use the cards themselves for the second ranking? Yes, the second ranking (by the group) can reorder the original cards! Do that, if you prefer it. Playtesting, however, showed that some people find this confusing and would rather match a row of tokens to an identical row of tokens. That’s why all tokens are included twice.
Want a harder or easier game?
- Change how many cards you draw on your turn. (More cards = harder)
- Or allow the active player to play one token faceup. (Easier, because you’re helping the others by giving away one correct answer.)
Want more randomness to cards? Just put all cards into one deck and shuffle. On your turn, you simply draw 5 cards from the top. Also use the Rank Tokens with numbers (not categories) to indicate your ranking, where 1 is “most unhappy” and 5 is “most happy”.