How to play ThoughtMatch

ThoughtMatch is a party word game for 3 to 12 players. One player guards a secret word. Everyone else works together to pry it loose, one letter at a time, by thinking the same thought at the same moment.

By Ansh R. Suryavanshi, creator of ThoughtMatch

The goal

Each round has one Dener and a team of players.

• The Dener picks a secret word and reveals only its first letter. Their aim is to stop the team getting any further.
• The team wants to uncover the whole word. They get a letter each time two or more of them prove they're thinking of the same word, before the Dener can say it first.

The players then take turns as Dener, so everyone gets to defend a word.

Setting up a round

The Dener types a secret word privately. It has to be:

• a real dictionary word, or a common place, day, month, festival or language like "paris", "monday" or "diwali";
• 4 to 15 letters long, letters only;
• not a person's name.

The dictionary rule keeps games fair: nobody can win with a word only their best friend would know. The host can relax it before a round with the Words setting: Any word accepts any word made of letters (rude words are still blocked), and Hinglish also lets Hindi typed in English letters match loosely, so "pyaar" and "pyar" count as the same word.

As soon as the word is locked in, everyone sees its first letter and how many letters it has. For example, a P followed by five blank tiles.

Giving clues

Any player except the Dener can give a clue at any time.

1. Think of any word that starts with the revealed letters.
2. Type that word privately. Only you see it.
3. Write a clue that everyone can read. The clue can't contain the word itself, or its plural or singular.

Your clue's job is to make your friends think of your word, without making it obvious to the Dener.

Each player can have up to three of their own clues open at once, and there's no limit on the total. A busy table is part of the fun.

Making contact

When you think you know the word behind someone else's clue, press Contact! and type your guess privately.

• A ten-second window starts, and everyone can see the countdown.
• Other players can join the same contact while the timer runs.
• Only one contact runs at a time. While it does, other clues have to wait, which gives the Dener a fair chance to focus.

When the ten seconds end, the game compares the words.

• If every contacter wrote the same word as the clue giver, the contact holds.
• If even one person wrote something different, the contact fails. Nobody is penalised. Everyone, the Dener included, sees what was written, and those words are used up for the rest of the round.

Matching ignores capital letters, and singular and plural count as the same word, so "apple" matches "apples".

Breaking clues

The Dener's weapon is guessing. At any moment, including during a contact's ten seconds, the Dener types a word into their guess box, and it's checked against every open clue at once.

• Every clue the word matches is broken: its word is shown to everyone and no letter is given away.
• Wrong guesses cost the Dener nothing. They can keep guessing as fast as they can type.

That's why the ten seconds after a contact are the tensest part of the game.

Flagging an inside reference

Some clues only make sense to two friends, like "what we ate after the wedding". If the Dener thinks a clue is an inside reference nobody else could get, they can flag it once with Inside reference?.

• The clue freezes: nobody can contact it, and a running contact on it pauses.
• The players who aren't involved (not the clue giver, and not anyone already in its contact) get 20 seconds to vote Fair clue or Inside reference.
• If most say inside reference, the clue is voided: it scores nothing and its word stays free. Otherwise it goes back in play, and a paused contact restarts with a fresh ten seconds. A tie keeps the clue.

New letters

When a contact holds, the Dener reveals the next letter of the secret word, so a P becomes PL.

• From then on, every clue word must start with all the revealed letters.
• Open clues whose words no longer fit are cancelled automatically, and their words stay secret.
• A word that has already been revealed this round can't be used for a new clue.

Guessing the secret word

The team shares three guesses at the Dener's secret word each round. Because they're shared, nobody spends one alone: any player can suggest a guess, and it only goes ahead if every other player agrees within 20 seconds. One "Disagree", or running out of time, drops it without using a guess.

• A correct guess wins the round immediately, and the player who suggested it counts as the one who cracked it.
• A wrong guess uses up one of the three, so the team has to judge when they're sure enough.

Winning a round

The players win if:

• every letter of the secret word is revealed through contacts; or
• a contact holds on the secret word itself; or
• one of their three guesses is right.

The Dener wins if:

• the team uses all three guesses without getting it; or
• the optional round timer runs out; or
• more than half of the players vote to give up.

A full example round

Notice how everything turned on matching. Bo's clue was obvious to Cy, but the Dener had to think of the exact word. The strategy guide goes deeper into how to pitch clues at that level.

Scoring

Scores add up across the game, and the leaderboard at the end shows who read the room best.

Game settings

The host chooses these in the lobby:

• Next Dener: take turns, give the role to whoever cracked the last word, or let the host pick each time.
• Round timer: off, or 3, 5 or 8 minutes. When it runs out, the Dener wins.
• Rounds: 3, 5 or 8 rounds, or everyone is Dener once.

Not sure what to pick? The game night guide suggests settings for different groups, and the FAQ covers the close calls.