Hive Mind Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Setup
Playing the Game
- Move the Mind Pawns
Ending the Game
Do These Answers Match?
Credits

Components

1 question box containing 300 cards, 1 double-sided Hive Mind board, 1 6-sided die, 12 Mind pawns, 12 pencils, 1 notepad, 1 rulebook

Setup

Give each player a pencil and a piece of paper from the notepad. Place the Hive Mind board in the center of the table where all players can reach it, with the side that best suits your group facing up. For a speedier game, use the 6 level side. For a longer experience, use the 8 level side.

Each player takes a Mind pawn in their chosen color and places it at the top of the Hive. Note that Hive Mind™ comes with 12 Mind pawns, but if you have more players, feel free to use other small objects as pawns.

Place the question box to the side of the board so it is easily accessible by all players, and set the die next to the board.

The person who thought to play Hive Mind™ goes first.

Playing the Game

The person taking a turn is called the active player. During their turn, the active player will:

Roll the die. The die result determines how many low scores will trigger Mind pawn movement at the end of the turn (see Move the Mind Pawns below).

Ask a question. Draw a card from the question box, choose one of the three questions from its front side, and read it out loud. You may also make up your own question: it's fun to be creative!

Answer the question. All players, including the active player, answer the question by writing down their responses on their own piece of paper. Most questions ask for multiple responses. Players have 2 minutes to finish their answers; use any available timer to track the time. Once the question has been asked, no discussion is allowed until the active player's answer is revealed.

Compare answers and tally points. The active player starts by reading their answer, one response at a time. Players automatically score 1 point for each response they wrote, plus 1 additional point for each other player that wrote down a matching response.

Players raise their hands each time one of their responses matches another player's response. All players should tally their points as responses are read.

After the active player has read their entire answer, go clockwise around the table and have the next player read and score their responses that have not yet been mentioned. Do this until all players have read their responses, and then each player will have their total score for the turn.

It doesn't matter if an answer is factually correct. If a player is asked to name a planet, for instance, and they answer Atlantis, they still get 1 point for the response. (If another player also happened to write down Atlantis, they will earn another point!)

EXAMPLE: The question is "What are 3 air vehicles?" Richard answers plane, blimp, and train. Four other players also wrote down plane, so Richard scores 5 points for plane (1 point for his own answer and 4 points for the four matching answers). No other players listed blimp, so Richard scores only 1 point for his own answer. Three other players listed train, so Richard gets 4 points there, bringing his total to 10 points for that turn. It's important to note that while a train is technically not an air vehicle, accuracy doesn't matter. All that matters is matching the answers of the other players!

If you need help figuring out whether an answer matches, read the Do These Answers Match? section at the end of these rules.

Move the Mind Pawns

Note the number of dots on the die that was rolled at the start of the turn. That number shows how many of the lowest score totals will cause Mind pawns to be moved down in the Hive.

If the die shows one dot, then all players that had the single lowest score for the turn move their Mind pawn down one level on the Hive Mind board.

If the die shows two dots, then all players with the two lowest scores for the turn move their Mind pawn down one level on the Hive Mind board.

If the die shows three dots, then all players with the three lowest scores for the turn move their Mind pawn down one level on the Hive Mind board. NOTE: In a 3-player game, treat this die result as if it had two dots instead.

If the die shows one dot surrounded by a star, then all players that had the single lowest score for the turn move their Mind pawn down one level on the Hive Mind board. Then, all players who had the highest score for the turn move their Mind pawn up one level on the Hive Mind board.

EXAMPLE: The die shows two dots. This means players with the two lowest scores will move down on the Hive Mind board. Kristine is the lowest-scoring player with 6 points. Risa and Randy are tied for the second-lowest score with 7 points each; therefore, all three players move their Mind pawns down one level on the Hive Mind board.

Now it's the next player's turn! Pass the die to the person to the active player's left, who becomes the new active player. Repeat all the previous steps outlined in this section.

Ending the Game

As soon as one or more Mind pawns exit the Hive Mind board, the game ends immediately and all players with Mind pawns remaining on the board win! It is possible for all Mind pawns to exit the board at the same time, ending the game in a tie. In this case, all players actually win the game because they lost together.

Do These Answers Match?

Sometimes it can be tricky deciding whether players' answers match or not. Here are some guidelines:

What you are referring to is important—not how you refer to it. For example, in naming U.S. presidents, Lincoln, Abe Lincoln, and Abraham Lincoln all match. Spelling doesn't matter if the other players understand what is meant. In this case, as a group, players can even choose to accept the 16th President as a match.

Plurality doesn't matter. For example, cats is the same as cat.

Less general does not match more general. Snoopy doesn't match beagle, which doesn't match dog, which doesn't match mammal. Answers of different levels of generality should not be considered matches, because players may then be motivated to always write down the most general thing.

You can't get the same matches on more than one reference within an answer. If players decide that stone and rock match, and one player wrote down both stone and rock, then that player may count other players' answers as a match with only one of these; however, that player still earns an automatic point for the other answer not counted as a match.

Credits

Game Design: Richard Garfield Game Development: Chris Leder and Ray Wehrs Art Direction: Andy Hepworth Cover design and illustration: Amanda Lien Logo design: Jonathan Warobick Card Layout: Mark Quire Editing: John Michael Arnaud Special Thanks to Ken Franklin and Risa Petrone