Perfect Mismatch
Perfect Mismatch Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 voting board:
- 1 double-sided main part
- 5 additional segments
- 150 double-sided attribute cards
- 30 beads (+ a few extra ones)
- 110 double-sided task cards
- 1 explanation tablet
- 90 victory point tokens:
- 1 point x 56
- 5 points x 24
- 10 points x 10
- 40 voting tokens (8 sets of 5 tokens)
- 8 double-sided "Afterthought" tokens
Contents may differ from those pictured.
Goal of the Game
Score as many points as possible by explaining and guessing the secret words of the task cards.
Competitive Mode
Note: Competitive mode is suitable for playing with 3 to 8 players.
Setup
- Place the main part of the voting board in the center of the table, yellow side facing up. If there are more than 3 players in the game, add additional segments to the board one by one depending on the number of players (the segments are marked with 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 icons, which correspond to the number of players). Make sure everyone can easily reach the board.
- Prepare the explanation tablet by placing 6 beads in the center of each of its 5 slots.
- Shuffle the task cards and the attribute cards separately and form them into piles.
- Place a reserve of victory point tokens nearby.
- Give each player:
- a set of 5 voting tokens (with numbers 1–5 on their face side) of the same color,
- 1 "Afterthought" token which must be placed face up.
Example of a setup for a 5-player game.
All set? Then let's jump into it!
How to Play
During the round, each player takes turn being a leader and explaining a secret word to others. The game consists of 2 rounds when playing with 3-4 players and of 1 round for 5-8 players.
The player who seems to be rather soft than warm becomes the first leader. After that, proceed clockwise.
Each turn consists of several phases:
- PREPARATION
- EXPLANATION
- VOTING
- SCORING
1. Preparation
Place the explanation tablet with the beads in front of the leader. Take 10 random attribute cards and place one on the left and right of each of the 5 slots on the tablet. Take the top one of the task cards and place it in front of the explanation tablet.
Make sure that the explanation tablet with the beads, as well as task and attribute cards are clearly visible to all players!
Now the leader must shuffle their voting tokens, draw one of them at random and look at its number without showing it to anyone. The word with the same number on the revealed task card is the one they will have to explain to the others.
The leader places the chosen voting token face down next to the open task card.
Everyone except the leader picks up voting tokens and the next phase begins.
Example: Andy becomes the first leader. Randomly he takes one of his voting tokens. He got the token with the number "1", which means he will have to explain the word "cream", indicated first on his task card.
2. Explanation
On their turn, the leader must distribute the beads in each slot of the tablet depending on the correspondence of the secret word with the attributes to the left and right of it. You can swipe all the beads to one side of the slot or distribute them to the sides in any proportion, but you cannot leave the beads in the center of the slot.
The leader must distribute the beads sequentially following the direction of the arrow on the tablet: first for the upper pair of attributes, then for the second one, and so on. You cannot skip one pair and then return to it!
While the leader distributes the beads, the other players watch their actions and try to understand which of the 5 words on the task card they are hinting at.
During the explanation, the leader and other players should not comment on the distribution of the beads or anything connected to the words!
Example: Andy starts the explanation. He believes that the word "cream" is more likely to be described as "commercial" than "iron", and therefore swipes all the beads in the first slot to the right. At the same time, he is sure that cream can be both sweet (if it is a confectionery cream) and expensive (if it is cosmetic), so in the second slot he divides the beads equally in both directions.
3. Voting
Once you think you have guessed the word, place your voting token with the corresponding number face down on the voting board as soon as possible! Note that you do not have to wait for the leader to finish the explanation. Hurry to place your voting token on a free spot with the largest bonus as soon as you have an idea to get more points!
Example: "Commercial, sweet and expensive? The word is "cake", it's a sure thing!" — decides Chloe and rushes to place a token with the number "4" on the top spot of the voting board.
If one of the players has already voted, but later concluded that their answer is wrong, they can use the "Afterthought" token — after flipping it to another side, the player can vote again and place a second voting token on an empty spot (face down). However, keep in mind that you only have one "Afterthought" token, therefore only one opportunity in a game to vote twice per round!
Note: A player can use the "Afterthought" token if there is at least 1 free bonus spot on the voting board.
Example: Andy continues his explanation, and Chloe realizes that she was most likely mistaken, since a cake can hardly be medical and wearable... The rest of the players had already guessed which word the leader is hinting at and placed their tokens under her first token. Fortunately, Chloe still has a chance to get points! She flips the "Afterthought" token to another side and places on the board her second voting token, this time the one with the number "1".
4. Scoring
After the leader has finished explaining and all players voted (don't forget to ask if anyone has an "afterthought") or there's no spot to place another voting token left, you can proceed to scoring. Open the leader's voting token. Now that everyone knows the secret word, turn over the players' tokens on the voting board, starting with the top spot of the voting board.
- If a player made a mistake, or didn't place their token at all, alas, they do not receive points. Their voting token is removed from the board, and all tokens below are shifted up to a free spot.
- If a player was right, they receive the points indicated next to the bonus spot on which their voting token is placed at the end of revealing and shifting tokens.
Note: If a player used the "Afterthought" token and one of their answers proved to be right, that player gets points only for the voting token with the correct number, while the other one is removed from the board. If both answers are incorrect, then both voting tokens must be removed from the board.
The leader gets the number of points equal to the number of players who guessed the word.
- If all players guessed the word, the leader receives 1 point for each correct answer, as well as 1 additional point.
- If no one guessed the word, the leader loses 1 point.
Note: If the leader is obliged to lose a victory point but they don't have one yet, nothing happens.
Example: Since Chloe's first answer was incorrect, her top voting token is removed from the board, and all the others move up one spot. The rest of the players guessed the word, and therefore they receive the points indicated next to the bonus spots where their voting tokens ended up after the shift. Thanks to the "afterthought", Chloe's second answer was correct, and she managed to receive 1 point. Andy gets 5 points (4 + 1), since everyone guessed the word he was explaining. Outstanding job, Andy!
Take the victory point tokens according to the points scored.
Now you can freely discuss your versions and compare them with the leader's logic — this will help you understand each other better and have more fun.
Next Player's Turn
After scoring, players take back their voting tokens. The attribute cards and the task card are turned over to the other side. The next player in clockwise order becomes the new leader — hand them the explanation tablet with all the beads in the center of the slots. As in the previous turn, the new leader shuffles their voting tokens, takes one from them randomly, and the game continues as described above.
Note: On the next (third) turn, discard task and attribute cards that were used on both sides and open the new ones, next time turn them over again, and so on.
End of the Game
| Players | Game length |
|---|---|
| 3–4 players | The game ends after the second round (when everyone was the leader twice, i.e. after 6 or 8 turns) |
| 5–8 players | The game ends after the first round (when everyone was the leader once, i.e. after 5–8 turns) |
Each player adds up the points scored for all rounds. The player with the most points is declared the winner! If several players score an equal number of points, they share the victory.
Co-op Game Modes
Note: Co-op game modes are suitable for playing with 2 to 8 players. A game with 2 players consists of 4 rounds (each player becomes the leader 4 times).
In co-op modes, you play as one team and work together to score as many points as possible. The number of rounds does not change, so does the core gameplay — all players take turns becoming leaders and try to explain the secret words to others, but the actions of the other players are somewhat different.
We suggest trying these two options:
1. "Let Them Talk"
In this mode, you have to vote collaboratively, discussing your choice with other players. When playing this mode, follow the rules of the basic competitive mode with the following changes:
Setup
Turn the main part of the voting board over to the black side. Do not attach additional segments to it; regardless of the number of players, the top bonus spot will be the one with the number 6.
Leave any two sets of the voting tokens on the table: one for the leader to use, and the other one for all other players. You can return unused voting tokens to the box. Return the "Afterthought" tokens to the game box too — you won't need them playing this mode.
How to Play
Voting
- After the leader is done with the explanation, you can discuss out loud (excluding the leader) the answer options and try to reach a consensus about the hints.
- Then place all 5 voting tokens face up on the bonus spots starting with the most likely options on the top spots and ending with the least likely options on the lower spots.
Example: The leader finished explanation, so the other players can start discussing their choice now. The team is almost sure that the secret word is the second one on the task card, so they place a token with the number "2" on the top spot. They also agree that it might be word number "4", therefore they place a corresponding token on the spot below. The other options seem to them less likely, but they place the rest of the tokens on the board anyway: "3", "5" and finally "1".
Scoring
- Reveal the leader's voting token: if the same number is on the top spot of the voting board — great, you get 6 points! If the token with the required number is on the second highest spot — 4 points and so on. If the secret word seemed to you the least likely answer and you put its number last, unfortunately, you do not get a single point.
- The leader doesn't score any points. The team receives points as a whole, and the total will show how well you understand each other.
Example: Surprise, surprise! The secret word was the one with the number "3"! Thus, the players score only 2 points on this turn. Well, that's better than nothing, right?
End of the Game
Add up the points scored for all rounds combined. Now all that remains is to evaluate the result using the table!
| Result | 2 players | 3 players | 4 players | 5 players | 6 players | 7 players | 8 players |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of rounds | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Quite sad… Maybe next time? | 0–21 | 0–16 | 0–21 | 0–13 | 0–16 | 0–18 | 0–21 |
| Could have been worse! Shall we try again? | 22–28 | 17–21 | 22–28 | 14–18 | 17–21 | 19–25 |
2. "Without a Word!"
Here, just as in the competitive mode, all the players will vote for the options that seem most likely to them without commenting on their choice. However, the points for all correct answers will add up and become the team's total score! Will you take the responsibility of being the first to vote?
When playing this mode, follow the rules of the basic competitive mode with the following changes:
Scoring
- After the explanation, reveal all the voting tokens on the board. Do not remove the tokens with incorrect numbers from the board.
- All points received by the players added up are the overall team score — the more players answer correctly, the better your joint result!
- The leader does not score any points. They also receive neither bonuses nor penalties if all players answered correctly or made a mistake.
Example: The secret word of this turn is the word number "4". The only players answered right were Daniel and Joseph. They score points next to the bonus spots where their voting tokens are placed, so in total the team receives 3 + 2 = 5 points. Unfortunately, Andy, who placed his token first, as well as Taylor, made a mistake and didn't bring the team additional 4 and 1 points.
End of the Game
Add up the points for all rounds and find out your result!
| Result | 2 players | 3 players | 4 players | 5 players | 6 players | 7 players | 8 players |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of rounds | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Quite sad… Maybe next time? | 0–7 | 0–8 | 0–21 | 0–22 | 0–40 | 0–66 | 0–100 |
| Could have been worse! Shall we try again? | 8–9 | 9–10 | 22–28 | 23–30 | 41–54 | 76–88 |
The higher your score in co-op modes, the better you understand each other. But, whatever result you got, we suggest you play again and check if you can improve it.