Category Game
Category Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents of the Box
Category contains a rich set of components, the most notable being 25 attractive coloured glass marbles: 9 light blue, 8 yellow and 8 white. The box also contains:
- 1 special game board made of plastic.
- 4 marble holders ("porta-biglie"), also made of plastic.
- 210 category cards ("cartine-categoria").
- 26 letter tiles ("tessere") of die-cut cardboard, showing the letters of the alphabet.
- 1 score pad ("blocco segnapunti").
- 1 cloth bag for the letter tiles.
- 1 hourglass timer for timing turns.
Game Board Structure
The game board is quite unusual. It is made of plastic and consists of a main section where the 25 glass marbles sit in 25 dedicated hollows. The upper part of the board has 5 slots into which the 210 category cards are inserted, divided into 5 stacks.
The left side of the board has 5 slots for 5 of the 26 letter tiles, which are die-cut cardboard.
Letter Tiles
Before starting, detach the 26 letter tiles from the die-cut cardboard sheet. Two of them are neutral ("neutre"), in case you lose any of the others. Carefully detach the tiles and place them in the cloth bag.
Marble Holders
Category includes marble holders. Each holder can hold up to 12 marbles, which are used to record the points players score during the turns.
Setup
- Shuffle the category cards and divide them into 5 stacks. Place the 5 stacks in the 5 slots on the upper side of the game board, with the side showing the categories facing up.
- Prepare the cloth bag with the 26 letter tiles detached from the die-cut cardboard. Before you start playing, you may decide whether to use all of the letters or only some of them. Shuffle the tiles, then draw 5 from the bag and place them letter-side up in the 5 slots on the left side of the game board.
- Place the 25 coloured marbles at random on the main section of the board, in their hollows.
- Place the hourglass next to the game board. Give each player a marble holder. Keep a pencil (or pen) and the score pad within reach.
- Decide (or draw lots to determine) who starts.
How to Play
The player whose turn it is has the time measured by the hourglass (a few seconds in total) to find words that begin with one of the 5 drawn letters and belong to one of the categories shown.
Each time the player finds one of these words, they call it out loud and take from the board the marble located at the intersection of the corresponding category and letter. The marbles collected determine the points the player scores:
- White marbles are worth 1 point.
- Yellow marbles are worth 2 points.
- Blue marbles are worth 3 points.
Transcriber's note: the source refers to the 9 marbles as "azzurre" (light blue) in the component list and as "blu" (blue) in the scoring list. They are treated here as the same marble colour, the 3-point marble.
Example of Play
Suppose that on the first turn the board looks as shown in the original illustration. The hourglass is started and, in the few seconds available, the player whose turn it is finds the following words:
- Rosa (Flowers with R)
- Mosca (Cities with M)
- Dormire (Verbs with D)
- Dalia (Flowers with D)
For each word found, the player takes the corresponding marble and places it in their own marble holder. The partial score the player earns in this turn is therefore:
- 2 points
- 3 points
- 2 points
- 2 points
Transcriber's note: the point values are listed in the same order as the words in the source layout.
At the start of the second player's turn the board will look as shown in the original illustration, and that player will therefore have fewer possibilities than the player before them. Within the time shown by the hourglass, the second player, who as stated can NO LONGER use the intersections already used by their opponent, finds the words listed below, taking the corresponding marbles:
- Rodano (Rivers with R)
- Roma (Cities with R)
- Mangiare (Verbs with M)
- Russare (Verbs with R)
- Colonia (Cities with C)
The point values listed in the source for this turn are: 1 point, 3 points, 1 point, 2 points, 2 points, in the same order as the words.
At the start of the third player's turn, the board will be arranged as shown in the original illustration. The player whose turn it is must then carry out their search limiting themselves to the combinations still possible. If a player cannot find even a single word, they "pass" the turn to the next player without taking any marble. The game continues this way, turn after turn, and the round ends when there are no more marbles left on the board, or when all players are forced to "pass".
Note: a player who "passes" keeps the right to play in the following turns until the round is over.
At the end of each round, the players add up the points they have earned according to the colour of the marbles they hold. The totals are recorded on the score pad. Then the next round begins: the 5 category cards are replaced, the 25 marbles are placed again at random on the game board, and 5 new letters are drawn (after the letter tiles used in the round just finished have been returned to the bag).
After the first round, the player with the lowest score begins each subsequent round. Play always proceeds clockwise.
End of the Game
The first player to total more than 100 points ends the game and wins the match.
Variants
Timed Play
Category can also be played with a time limit: at the start of the game, decide either the total duration or the number of rounds to be played. In this case the game is won by the player with the highest score at the end of the set time or the set number of rounds.
Team Play
The 4 marble holders included in the box are not a limit on the number of players. If there are more than 4 players, the recommendation is to divide into teams and conduct the search in teams.
Some Considerations
Playing Category does not allow a precise strategy to be set, because the game situation changes in every round and the possible combinations are so numerous that you will never find yourself in exactly the same position twice.
The player who starts has the advantage of being able to use all the possible combinations and intersections, but the other players will have more time to think. Watch the development of the game carefully, trying to identify as many words as possible during your opponents' turns too. If you manage to, always try to take the highest-value marbles (the blue ones), but never forget that you only have a few seconds to complete your turn.