Scattergories

Enrich your word power with Scattergories!

Scattergories is a brain teasing, fast paced category-based party game from Hasbro that was launched in 1988 through the Milton Bradley Company. This game is ideal for all age groups from 12 and is a multiplayer game suited for 2-6 players.

The basic idea is to score points by naming objects that start with the specified alphabet decided by the dice roll within the prescribed time limit of three minutes. Basic version comes with 12 different categories like an ice-cream flavor, a car part or a fruit or vegetable. The extended version has as many as 48 different categories making it more extensive and interesting. The answers of all the players will be compared and unique answers will fetch you points and if you give the same answer as another player you would not score points. There are three rounds in all.

Each player takes a sheet of paper and 3 category cards with a total of 12 lists and 144 categories. To get started, roll a 20-sided letter die to decide the first letter to be used. Within the specified time, each player must try to get words that match all the categories and try to stumble upon innovative and fresh words instead of the words that are worn out due to overuse that every player might tend to use. The die is rolled again to start yet another round.

If the dice comes up with the same letter twice, try again to get a different letter. Players should not use the same word for more than one category. For instance while Rose is the name of a girl as well as a flower, you can only use it for either of these in the same round. In case of contentions, a vote on acceptability of answers is taken and in case of a tie or low turn out, the word is disallowed.

The computer version of the game is more popular these days. This is great fun and helps the students to improve their vocabulary. Speed is not the ultimate criterion and unearthing the original answers is what ensures maximum points to the contenders. The game along with the Excel score sheet can be easily downloaded from the web. If you can manage to spot out complex words made up of two or more words for an answer, you stand to gain more points.

Scattergories is also available for juniors in the age group of 7 to 11 with six simple categories, suited for kids.