Wunschmaschine
Wunschmaschine Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 hint card (showing all 9 items)
- 33 wish cards
- 20 wish coins
- 1 "Hands" hint card (not needed for the basic game)
- These rules
Role Assignment
The oldest player takes on the role of the Wish Machine in the first round.
This role passes from player to player during the game.
All other players become Agents, who must guess what the Wish Machine wished for.
Setup
Place the hint card, which shows all 9 items, in the centre of the table.
Leave the wish coins in the box; you will need them later.
The Wish Machine shuffles the wish cards so that the other players cannot see the face of the cards.
Gameplay
The Machine Makes a Wish
The Wish Machine chooses a card that shows only one item and places it face down on the table so that all Agents can reach it. This card shows the wish the Machine has made.
In this example the Machine has wished for a heart.
Starting the Wish Machine
When all Agents are ready, the Wish Machine lays out 4 cards in a row face down.
If the wished-for item appears at least once in the row laid out, the Machine says: "Yes." If there is no wished-for item in the row, the Machine says: "No."
The Machine then lays out a new row of 4 cards face down and makes another announcement.
Which Agent will be the first to guess the wish?
The Wish Machine keeps laying out cards in rows and announcing whether the wished-for item is in the row or not.
If an Agent thinks they can identify the card with the wished-for item, they slap the card placed face down at the start of the round and name what the Wish Machine wished for.
Example
The example on page 5 of the rulebook shows three rows of four cards each:
- Row 1 is announced as: "Yes."
- Row 2 is announced as: "No."
- Row 3 is announced as: "No."
The rulebook then shows the guess step: "Stop!" with two cards laid out, and the "Solution:" card, which shows a heart.
Scoring
If an Agent makes a correct guess, they take a wish coin from the supply.
If an Agent guesses wrongly, they must give one of their own wish coins to the Agent who has the fewest coins. If two Agents have the same number of coins, the coin goes to the next Agent in turn order. If the Agent who guessed wrongly has no coins, all other players (including the Wish Machine) each receive one coin.
New Wish Machine
The Agent who tried to guess the Machine's wish in the previous round becomes the new Wish Machine.
End of the Game
The first player to collect 5 wish coins wins.
The game also ends when the supply of wish coins runs out. In this case the player who has collected the most wish coins wins. In the case of a tie, both players are winners.
Variant: "Left-Right"
In this variant the Agents must still guess the wished-for item, but to gain a wish coin they must slap the card with the wish using a specific hand.
Only the first 3 rows (12 cards) affect the choice of hand when guessing. If an Agent makes a guess before 3 rows have been laid out, the Machine continues laying out cards until 12 cards (that is, 3 rows) are on the table.
The "Hands" hint card shows which hand to use when guessing. Look only at the first 3 rows:
- If there is an odd number of wished-for items among the laid-out cards, slap the card with your left hand.
- If there is an even number of wished-for items among the laid-out cards, slap the card with your right hand.
If the wished-for item is not among the cards of the first 3 rows, the players choose for themselves which hand to slap the card with.
Once an Agent has slapped the card, they cannot change hands.
In the example on page 5, there is only one wished-for item in the first three rows. In this case the players must slap the card with their left hand.