Unplug Play

MATCHMAKER,
MATCHMAKER

DO YOU HAVE A PULSE ON POPULAR OPINION?

Each player comes up with five categories that will lead to many possible answers (see pages 1–9 for ideas) and places them in a hat or facedown on a table mixed in with all of the others.

A player’s goal is to match his or her selections with as many of the other players’ selections as possible in every chosen category. When a category is selected, players list the items that they think will be the most popular choices, meaning the items in a given category they predict will be on most of the lists of the players in the group. The more players a person matches for each of his or her selections, the more points he or she earns.

Players take turns drawing categories out of the hat without looking. Once Player 1 selects a random category for the first round, he decides how many items (from five to ten) everyone will list in that category.

TIP: On your turn, if you feel you can list a lot of items in your category, pick a high number, giving yourself the chance to earn more points than other players in the game who aren’t as knowledgeable about that category.

Once the category is announced, no players may speak until all players have completed their lists. Allow players two minutes to create their lists. If a player cannot finish his or her list in that time, that player will have fewer chances to score points.

IMPORTANT: Players may not list more items than the number required!

Once every player has read and/or received points for all listed items, each player gives his or her total points for the round to the scorekeeper, and play continues as Player 2 draws a new category. If you pick a category from the hat that was evidently submitted by more than one person and has already been used, pick again.

Once all players have completed their lists, players take turns going around the room announcing items they have listed one at a time. Players earn 1 point for every person who matched one of their items—including a point for themselves. (For example, if a player matches an item on his or her list with three other players, all four players receive 4 points for that item.) Add up the points for each item to determine the total for that category. Players receive no points for an item if they were the only one who listed it.

NOTE: There is no need to repeat an item that has been said by another player since everyone already has a point total for that item.

Let’s say you have a game of seven players. Player 1 goes first and randomly selects from the hat the category Things that are green. He then decides that he wants everyone to list eight things that are green. Players have two minutes to list their eight items.

NOTE: If you can’t come up with eight, then you simply will have fewer chances to score in the round than those who have eight listed. It certainly doesn’t mean you won’t get a high score, but, ideally, you want to give yourself the best chance by listing the maximum number of items requested.

After every player writes down eight items that are green, players take turns reading the items on their lists. Player 1 goes first. If his first item is broccoli and five out of the seven players (including Player 1) had broccoli on their lists, then all five of those players receive 5 points (1 point per player). The other two players receive nothing.

Player 2 goes next and reads one of her items. If that item is grass and three of the seven players said grass, then those three get 3 points for grass. Player 3 then reads one of his items, and so on until every player reads all eight of his or her green things.

Again, no points are awarded if only one player has a specific item. In other words, if Player 4 has traffic light on her list and nobody else wrote traffic light, Player 4 would not get any points for that item. If one other player had traffic light, he and Player 4 would both get 2 points.