Scattergories

Scattergories is a creative-thinking category-based party game originally published by Parker Brothers in 1988. Parker Brothers was purchased by Hasbro a few years later, which published the game internationally under its Milton Bradley brand. The objective of the 2-to-6-player game is to score points by uniquely naming objects within a set of categories, given an initial letter, within a time limit. The game is based on a traditional game called "Categories". Gameplay The game is played in sets of 3 rounds. Each player takes a folder with an answering pad and three category cards. Each sheet in the answering pad has three columns of 12 blank lines. In addition, the category cards have four lists, each with 12 unique categories, for a total of 144 categories in the game. In new versions of the game, each card has two lists of 12 unique categories, for a total of 16 lists and 192 categories. All players must agree on the list to use. One player rolls a 20-sided letter die to determine the first letter used. The timer is set for up to three minutes. One player starts the timer. In the time allotted, each player must attempt to think of and write down, in the first column on the pad, a word or term that fits each of the 12 categories and starts with the rolled letter. Any number of words in the answer is allowed as long as the first word starts with the correct letter. For example, with a category of "vegetable" and a letter of "C", words such as "cauliflower", "carrot" and "collard greens" are acceptable, but "broccoli" is not (wrong initial letter), nor is "citrus" (wrong category). Alliteration is encouraged with proper nouns in one game variation; Ronald Reagan is worth 2 points, and Hubert Horatio Humphrey is worth 3. Writing a bad answer is still better than no answer though because there is always the possibility that the group playing will accept the answer. For example, "citrus" is "vegetable" in the sense referring to the entire plant kingdom, i.e. neither "animal" nor "mineral". All players stop writing when the timer is finished. Following the list, each player, in turn, reads their answer for each category. Players score zero points for an answer that duplicates another answer in that round, and one point for an answer no other player has given. You cannot have more than one answer on a line for each number. Acceptable answers that are proper nouns using alliteration score one point for each word using the letter.