How to Play Trivial Pursuit

Compared to what is this trivial? Life in the fast lane? We say it's more fun. A little less boisterous than Pictionary, Scattergories or Taboo, this game gets your competitive juices flowing with questions and answers in six different color-coded categories of knowledge. Get a correct answer in each category before you can win.

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Card Tables
• Chairs
• Beverages
• Party Snacks
• Trivial Pursuit Games
• Chairs

1. Place playing piece tokens for each player (or each team) in the center hub on the board to start the game.

2. Roll the die to see who gets the highest number to play first. That player gets the die to start the game.

3. Roll the die on your turn to see how many spaces your token moves.

4. Move in any direction and turn any way you like at junctions on the board - but you can't move back the way you came (not on the same move, anyway).

5. Answer the question for the space where you land. Any other player draws a card and asks you the question for the color-coded category of the space you landed on.

6. Get the right answer (it's on the back of the card) and your turn continues. Roll and move again, and try another question. When you get an answer wrong, your turn is over and play rotates to the next player to your left.

7. Land on each of the six category headquarters (at the end of each spoke). Collect a colored scoring wedge the first time you correctly answer a question on each headquarters space.

8. Use your turn to land on the center hub by an exact roll of the die after you have collected all six color wedges.

9. Answer the game-winning question when you land on the hub. The other players decide your category when you land on the hub to end the game.

Tips & Warnings

• If you land on the hub before completing all six categories, the hub is a wild card, and you can select any category for your question.
• When you have collected a scoring wedge for one color and you land on that headquarters again, you still must answer correctly to continue your turn, but you don't collect another scoring wedge for that color.
• Near the end of the game, when you are trying to get to the center hub and your roll overshoots the hub, answer the question for the space you land on. Get it right and your turn continues. Keep rolling the die to get to the center hub.
• Any time you have a choice of which spoke or which path to take, pick a path that lands you on your strongest color category or a headquarters you still have to complete. This helps a lot at the end of the game when you overshoot the hub and can pick the color space for your next question.
• If another player is about to win on the hub, select the question category that has proven to be the most difficult for that player.
• Since a right answer means you get to keep rolling, you could win the game on your first turn. If this happens, any player who has not had a turn gets a chance to do the same thing.
• More than one token can be on the same space at the same time.
• Some versions of the game (Genus 3) have "roll again" spaces. If you land on this space, you're not asked a question until you roll again (on the same turn) and land on a color space.
• Some versions (Know-It-All Edition) don't even use a game board. Dice and score sheets are used instead. See "Things You'll Need" for different versions.

on 11/22/2005 Purchase your own copy of the game and study the cards. Cheating? Maybe. This is just a faster way of playing the game regularly and remembering the answers.

on 11/22/2005 Many trivia cards have the same number of categories as Trivial Pursuit. If you want to spice up your trivia, try to find trivia cards that you can adapt to Trivial Pursuit. Many other companies make cards that are compatible with the Trivial Pursuit board game and concept!