During the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak, many of us rediscovered just how fun board games can be. Due to the restrictions, this often happened remotely through video conferences or video calls! One game that is popular due to its relative simplicity whilst still being fun, challenging and flexible is Scattergories. Scattergories is a best-selling board game but all you really need to play is something to write with and at least 2 or 3 other players for best results! This makes it an ideal board game to play remotely since you don’t need a physical board to advance in the game or keep score!
How to play
The key and foundation of this game is memory and creativity. Essentially, what players have to do within an agreed upon time-limit is to find either a word or an example that fits into each of the 12 Scattergories categories beginning with a letter chosen at random. The letters Q, U, V, X, Y and Z are usually excluded, but you can always leave them in if you really want a challenge! When players recite their choices for each category at the end of the time limit, only choices that weren’t repeated will receive points. This is where each player’s own creativity will come into play in order to be able to win!
For example, if a category on the list is “Actors”, and the chosen letter is “L”, “Leonardo di Caprio” is very likely to be a choice for one of your friends so you might be better off saying “Liam Neeson”.
That’s all well and good, where are the categories?
If you own the Scattergories board game, you’ll know it comes with a set amount of categories so you can play straight away. This might have made your recent Scattergories games quite repetitive if you’ve played it a lot recently, or maybe you don’t own the game at all. An easy solution to either problem is to make up your own categories! If you know who you’ll be playing with beforehand, you can perhaps think of some categories that will be particularly amusing or interesting to you and your friends. If you don’t know who you’ll be playing with or haven’t got time to think of any, feel free to use some of these examples below!