

In the case of general categories, broad interpretation is allowed for fun and creative game play.Note: This rule does not apply to book titles, such as 'The Count of Monte Cristo.' President, and therefore is not a valid answer, rewarding zero points. Truman, as his middle name is the letter 'S.' Martin Sheen, however, was never a U.S. Presidents using the letter 'S', an acceptable answer would be Harry S. In the case of proper nouns, all parts of the answer will be counted as adequate provided one begins with the letter in play.

The die is rolled again (and re-rolled if the same letter as the previous round is duplicated), and the second round starts.If the vote is a tie, the vote of the player who is being challenged is thrown out. When challenged, all players vote on the validity of that answer. If for some reason a player thinks someone's answer does not fit the category (for instance, 'knuckle' for the category 'types of sandwich') a player may challenge that answer.(In the 'Junior' version, players earn 2 points for an answer that begins with the chosen letter, and 1 point for an answer that does not begin with the chosen letter, but no points for a duplicate answer.) Acceptable answers that are proper nouns using alliteration score one point for each word using the letter. You cannot have more than one answer on a line for each number. 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. Following the list, each player, in turn, reads their answer for each category. All players stop writing when the timer is finished.For example, 'citrus' is 'vegetable' in the sense referring to the entire plant kingdom, i.e. 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.Alliteration is encouraged with proper nouns in one game variation Ronald Reagan is worth 2 points, and Hubert Horatio Humphrey is worth 3. 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). Any number of words in the answer is allowed, as long as the first word starts with the correct letter. 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. The timer is set for up to three minutes. One player rolls a 20-sided letter die to determine the first letter used.All players must agree on the list to use. In new versions of the game, each card has 2 lists of 12 unique categories, for a total of 16 lists and 192 categories. In addition, the category cards have 4 lists, each with 12 unique categories, for a total of 144 categories in the game. Each sheet in the answering pad has three columns of 12 blank lines. Each player takes a folder with an answering pad and 3 category cards.I used to play often and my friends and I would make up our own category cards, write them large print on a piece of looseleaf and put them on the table in the middle of everyone (my favorites - course in college catalog, beach I’d rather be at, vacations I’ll never take, careers, wedding gifts, nicknames for your SO, shoe designers, crayola colors - I can’t remember more but none of these were in the box already). I haven’t played in a while so I don’t remember specific categories but I do remember that categories in each list come from various topics and vary in how broad they are. Each round, everyone uses the same category list and the same letter and has the same amount of time answers duplicated by multiple people net zero points, unique answers get 1 pt, unique answers that have multiple words that start with the same letter (like Pinky Pie) get a point for each correct beginning letter. Scattergories doesn’t really have questions - it has a list of 12 Categories (hahaha) per card and you roll a dice to see what letter you start with.
