How to Play Trivial Pursuit

Setting Up the Game

Familiarize yourself with the board's layout. The Trivial Pursuit game board is shaped like a 6-spoke wheel. Players begin at the center, then move out to earn a wedge from each of the wedge-marked spaces where a spoke meets the outer wheel, and finally return to the center to answer a final question. On all but the oldest sets, a "Roll Again" space is set two spaces to either side of each wedge space. The wedge spaces are six spaces out from the center space.

Decide whether to play as individuals or teams. Trivial Pursuit is designed for up to six players or teams. If more than six people want to play, or if players aren't comfortable playing by themselves, you may wish to divide into teams. Team play is a bit more casual and may work well if you are having a party. The benefits as a team would be that you have more minds available to answer questions.

Set your house rules. Before you start playing, you should figure out if you will play by any special rules. For example, you may want to set a time limit for answering questions. If you do set a time limit, make sure that you have a timer handy. Or, you may want to set a rule that players must be very specific about their answers, such as with names or dates.

Choose a playing token. There are six playing tokens in different colors. The colors are blue, green, yellow, pink, brown, and orange. Playing tokens are circular in shape with slots for the wedges. Place a token at the center of the board for each player or team. Some editions of Trivial Pursuit include track pawns that match the color of the pie pieces. You can use one of these track pawns to keep track of your spot on the board and use the pie token to keep track of your score.

Get out the question cards. Older editions of Trivial Pursuit come with two cardboard boxes full of questions. With these editions, if players are divided into two teams, you may wish to give one box to each team; if players are divided otherwise, you may wish to use only one box at a time. Some editions, such as the 25th Anniversary Edition, have one plastic box for each category; in this case, place each box by the matching color wedge.

Roll the die to determine who starts the game. The player or the team with the highest roll starts the game. After the first player goes, play passes to the left (clockwise). If two or more players or teams tie for the highest roll, have them roll again to see who starts.

Playing Trivial Pursuit

Roll the die and move your pie the number of spaces indicated on the die. You can move your token in any one legal direction: toward a wedge or toward the center when on a spoke, clockwise or counterclockwise when on the outer wheel. You can also move from a spoke to the outer wheel or from the outer wheel to a spoke. However, you cannot reverse direction in the middle of a roll. If you land on a "Roll Again" space, roll the die again. (You can move in any legal direction, including the opposite direction from your previous roll.)

Move again if you give the correct answer. In Trivial Pursuit, you get to move again if you give the right answer. You can keep rolling, moving, and answering questions until you get one wrong. Just keep in mind that the questions you answer must correspond with the color space you land on. For example, if you land on a blue space, then you must answer a blue question. If you are in the center space and have not earned all six wedges, you may answer a question in any category of your choice. In the 25th Anniversary Edition, the question you must answer is also determined by the roll of the die, as each box contains questions for a single category. The higher you roll, the more difficult the question you receive.

Earn pie pieces if you land on a wedge space and give the right answer. You can earn pie pieces by correctly answering questions, but you can only earn a pie piece when you are on a pie space. These spaces look different from the others on the board because they show an image of the pie token with a wedge in it. For example, if you land on a brown wedge space and answer the question correctly, then you would earn a brown pie piece.

Keep playing until someone has all six wedges. When a player gets all six pie pieces, that player may begin moving to the center or the board. You must keep rolling and moving each turn as usual until you get to the center space on the board. You need to roll the exact number of spaces to get to the center space. Keep in mind that you may spend several turns coming up short of or overshooting the center until you land on it.

Answer a question in a category chosen by the other players. When you get to the center space, your fellow players may choose any category and ask you a question from that category. If you answer this question correctly, you win the game. If you miss it, your turn ends, and play passes to the next player or team. The other players may not look at the questions before choosing the category. They must select the category without looking at the card and then read the question. If you miss the question, you will have to roll again during your next turn and try to answer a different question when you get into the center space again.