Scattergories Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Setup

Choose a category list number to play. All of the players need to find a card that has the same number at the top of the card.
Each player takes a folder. Insert your card on the left side of your folder. Take an answer sheet and insert it on the right side of the folder.
All of the players need a pencil/pen to write down their answers.

How to Play Scattergories

You will play four rounds in a game of Scattergories.

Each round begins with one of the players rolling the die. The player announces the letter that the die landed on. A player then flips over the three minute timer. The round then begins. There are no turns. All of the players play at the same time, and they try to come up with as many answers as they can.

The letter rolled determines what letter each of your answers have to start with. For example if you roll “E” on the die, all of your answers have to start with “E”.

Rolling a S on the die — A S was rolled on the die. All answers this round have to start with a S.

Look at the list of categories printed on the card in your folder. These are the categories for the current round. You need to try to think of an answer for each of these categories that start with the letter that was rolled. You can find answers for the categories in any order. As soon as you come up with an answer, you should write it down in the corresponding line on your answer sheet. Players should not tell the other players what answers they are writing down. You can only write down one answer for each category.

Writing down an answer — For a superhero that starts with S, this player wrote down Superman.

When the timer runs out, all of the players need to immediately stop writing.

Acceptable Answers

What answers you provide for each category is pretty open ended. In fact you will score more points if you are creative with your answers instead of writing down the most obvious answer. There are some rules that you must follow when coming up with answers though.

The first letter for each answer must begin with the letter you rolled. Articles such as a, an, the, etc do not count. For example for a category like kinds of vehicles you can’t use “a truck” if an A was rolled on the die. Truck would work if T was rolled on the die though.

Answers wrote down by a player — This player has wrote down answers to a number of the categories for this round. They wrote down sandwich for something on a fast food menu. They said shirt for something spotted in the room. For things that come in pairs they said shoes. They thought you could open a store. Finally they said Spotify was a subscription service.

In each round you can only use each answer once. Should an answer work for several of the categories, you have to pick one that you will use the answer for.

Should a player think an answer shouldn’t count, they can challenge it. All of the players (including the player that gave the answer) vote on whether the answer should count. If a majority thinks the answer should count, it will count. Should a majority think it shouldn’t count, it does not count as an answer so it can’t score a point.

Should there be a tie vote, remove the vote from the player that gave the answer. The new majority determines whether the answer counts or doesn’t count.

Scoring

Once the round has ended, the players will begin reading off the answers they wrote down for each category.

For each answer that multiple players gave, all matching players cross off the answer.

You will score one point for each answer that you wrote down for a category that no other players wrote down.

Comparing answers given by players — For the first category two players wrote down Superman so neither score a point. The players that wrote down Shang-Chi and Shazam each score a point since they didn’t match anyone. For the second category only the player that wrote down shake scores a point. For the third category the players that wrote down shirt and shelf score one point. No one scored a point for the fourth or fifth categories. Everyone scores a point for the sixth category as they all came up with different answers. For the seventh category the players that wrote down Smith and Simmons score one point. Finally no one scores points for the eighth category as everyone wrote down Spotify.

Once the players have compared all of their answers, write down your total score at the top of the current column.

Starting the Next Round

For the next round each player uses a new column of their score sheet. After the second round you will have to flip your score sheet over.

The players decide whether they want to use the same category list for the next round, or if they want to choose a different one. If the players choose a different list, all of the players need to make sure they have a card with the same number at the top.

For the next round the die is rolled again in order to give the players a different letter to use for their answers.

Winning Scattergories

The game ends after the players have played four rounds. Each player totals up the points they have scored from all four rounds. The player that scored the most points wins the game.

Variant Rules

If you want to change up the gameplay, there are two variant rules that you can choose to use.

Two Answers

In this variant all of the players can provide two answers for each category in a round. Each answer is compared separately to the answers provided by the other players. Each accepted answer that no other player wrote down is worth one point. If neither of your answers were written down by other players, you will score two points.

Double Points

If you are playing double points, you can score two points for an answer if it is two words and both words start with the letter rolled on the die. For example “coffee cup” would be potentially worth two points.

Components

2023 Edition

6 Folders
48 Category List Cards
20 Sided Letter Die
Three Minute Timer
Answer Sheets
Instructions

Year: 1988 | Publisher: Hasbro, Milton Bradley

Genres: Family, Party, Word

Ages: 13+ | Number of Players: 2-6 | Length of Game: 20-30 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.