If you love trivia and board games, why not blend the best of both worlds by playing Trivial Pursuit? While the game’s primary goal is pretty simple: answering the questions correctly, this general knowledge board game has its mechanics and twists, making things a little complicated but genuinely a lot more exciting! So, be ready to show off your mastery of various topics like pop, science, art, culture, sports, literature, and many more. Here’s our guide on playing Trivial Pursuit – all you’re left to do is set things up and enjoy!
History of Trivial Pursuit
Though Trivial Pursuit may seem to be an older game, this board game was only made available on the shelves in the early 1980s and was the brainchild of photo editor Chris Haney and sports editor Scott Abbott.
The two men were preparing to play Scrabble. However, a missing piece brought them to invent their own game instead, which led to the creation of one of the most popular board games of the decade -Trivial Pursuit. The game was officially released in 1981, with numerous publishers handling the game until 2008 when Hasbro finally purchased the rights for Trivial Pursuit.
Various editions have been released since it arrived on the board game scene, such as the All-Star Sports, Baby Boomer, Silver Screen, Young Players, RPM, Welcome to America, The Vintage Years, Back to the 80s, and Star Wars editions.
Today, Trivial Pursuits remains a well-loved among family, friends, and colleagues looking for a game to spice up their weekend nights, parties, or any random occasion.
Things You’ll Need in Playing Trivial Pursuit
Typically, all you’ll need to play the game is the Trivial Pursuit set. With the game’s relative popularity, you won’t have a hard time finding and purchasing one online. Also be sure to check out all the Trivial Pursuit versions and options as well.
It’s best to start with the original 1981 Trivial Pursuit Master Game – Genus Edition if it’s your first time playing it. You’ll get the hang of it better as the deluxe editions tend to be a little more tricky or offer unique gameplay. You can move to the other editions once you have mastered the classic version.
Here’s what you’ll find in the set:
1 game board
1 die
6 track pawns
6 scoring tokens
6 cardholders
36 scoring wedges
400+ trivia cards
The Game Board
Trivial Pursuit’s game board is colorful and striking, with the gaming space’s shape appearing like a wheel or pizza with six spokes. The boxes’ hue corresponds to the subjects from which the question will be coming.
The Die
An indispensable component in many board games, the die is rolled by the players to determine the difficulty of the question. Only a single dice is needed in this game, though spare ones just in case someone rolls it into oblivion.
Track Pawns and Scoring Tokens
You’ll use the track pawns to know your spot on the game board, while you need the scoring tokens to keep track of your score.
Wedges
You’ll see the hub space at the center of the Trivial Pursuit’s board game. Meanwhile, you’ll find the category six headquarters space at the end of every spoke. These are also called wedges, with each corresponding to different trivia categories. You’ll need to move your track pawn around and collect these wedges to win the game.
Trivia Cards
In most parts of the game, you and the other players will spend time drawing and answering the trivia cards. Usually, there are more than 400 question-and-answer cards included in a set, though the exact number may differ depending on the edition.
Trivia cards are categorized as Easy, Medium, or Hard. Rolling the die determines from what level of difficulty you’d be picking up a card. 1-2 means you’d be answering an Easy question, while 3-4 and 5-6 means you’d be answering Medium and Hard questions, respectively.
The cards also have different colors, each associated with a specific category.
- Blue – Geography
- Yellow – History
- Pink – Entertainment
- Orange – Sports
- Green – Science and Nature
- Purple – Arts/Literature
Place each deck of the allotted cardholder so choosing and drawing cards will be a breeze.
How To Play Trivial Pursuit
Here’s the step-by-step guide on playing Trivial Pursuit:
- Kick off the fun by setting up the game. Begin with taking out the game board. Unfold it and lay it in the center of the floor, the table, or wherever you’d be playing.
- Get the trivia cards, shuffle them, and place them in their respective cardholders. Once done, put the cardholders where everyone can reach them and easily pick up cards throughout the game.
- Each participant will choose A tracking pawn and place them all at the hub space or the starting point at the center of the point. Each player will roll the die, and the one with the highest roll goes first. Should there be any ties, keep rolling to break them and determine the order of the players.
- The gameplay commences with the active player rolling his die. The player will move his tracking pawn according to the number of spaces rolled. Players can move in any direction or spokes that they like. However, back and forth movement isn’t allowed on the same roll.
- Once the active player lands a colored space, the opposite player picks up a card and reads the trivia question for the active player. If the active player gets it correctly, he continues. If not, his turn ends. He’ll continue re-rolling and answering the questions until he gives an incorrect answer.
- The turn moves to the next player. Repeat the steps and pass it on to the next player after an incorrect answer. This will continue until someone wins the game.
- A player needs to land and get the correct answer on the wedges. After collecting all the six-colored wedges, the player must reach the hub space or the center of the board. The catch is that he must roll the exact number to perfectly land on the center space. If the number rolled exceeds the number of spaces needed, he must wait for another turn to re-roll.
- Once a player finally ends ups at the hub space, he must answer one final question chosen by the other players. If he gets it right, he wins the game. If not, he must continue landing on the center space until he pulls off the correct answer.
Other Tips in Playing Trivial Pursuit
- Prior to starting the game, it’s best to set a time limit on how long the player must answer the question. You may set a different time limit based on the difficulty of the question.
- You can set the maximum of turns or correct answers a player can get. This is to avoid never-ending turns and keep the game exciting in case you happen to play with a trivia buff.
- Large groups can play as teams and just arrive at one final answer.
- Older versions may be outdated, and the questions’ answers may have already changed. Anyone can always contest if he or she thinks the answer is incorrect and look up the correct information to verify the answer.
- Listen very carefully as some clues are already within the questions.
Takeaway
Trivial Pursuit is among the few popular board games that take trivia questions to a new level. So, what are you waiting for? Give it a try, test your knowledge, and have fun with your loved ones or colleagues in this challenging and exciting board game!