Sophie's World Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Overview and Object of the Game
• Sequence of Play
  • The Epochs
  • The Movement of the Game Pieces
  • Board Spaces
  • The Major Control Space
  • The Control Disc
  • The Place of Forgetting
  • The Lake
  • End of the Game

Components

In the box:

• 1 round game board
• 1 transparent control disc
• 1 metal screw to fasten the control disc to the board
• 1 die
• 6 Sofie game pieces
• 1 set of Philosophy Cards
• 1 set of Historical Cards: Mythology
• 1 set of Historical Cards: Hellas and Rome
• 1 set of Historical Cards: Middle Ages
• 1 set of Historical Cards: Renaissance and Baroque
• 1 set of Historical Cards: Enlightenment
• 1 set of Historical Cards: 19th and 20th Century
• 1 set of Big Question Cards
• 36 Epoch markers (6 in each player colour)
• 1 set of Wisdom Points in the values 10 and 50

Setup

• Fasten the control disc to the board with the enclosed metal screw: push the lower half through the hole in the middle and screw on the upper part. The disc should turn smoothly.
• Determine a starting player. Beginning with the starting player, each player chooses a colour and then places his Sofie game piece (there are 6 differently coloured Sofies) in the middle of any one of the 6 epochs (Mythology, Middle Ages, etc.). Only one Sofie may stand in each epoch.
• Going around the table, all players now place one of their Epoch markers (a disc in their player colour) on each of the 6 epochs.
• Sort the Wisdom Points (notes) by value and place them beside the board. One player is designated to be responsible for handing them out.
• Shuffle the yellow Philosophy Cards and place them face down beside the board. Do the same with the blue Big Question Cards.
• Shuffle the 6 sets of Historical Questions for the 6 epochs (Mythology, Middle Ages, etc.) separately, and place each as a stack around the board, near the respective epoch.

Overview and Object of the Game

After answering two starting questions, the players move their Sofie game pieces along the paths of the board and answer questions from the fields of philosophy and history. Correct answers earn Wisdom Points. Each player starts in a different epoch. During the game each player seeks out four of the six epochs and must answer two questions correctly in each of them.

Once a player has successfully completed an epoch, he moves his Sofie game piece by rolling the die to the next epoch of his choice. In most cases he must do so by moving across the rotatable control disc in the middle. On the paths there, and on the control disc itself, the players encounter various events that they must overcome.

As soon as a player has successfully completed four epochs, he can earn additional Wisdom Points in a final round. Whoever has the most Wisdom Points at the end wins the game.

Note: the printed rules refer to "two starting questions" in this overview, but the setup and the sequence of play do not describe them further. They are transcribed as printed.

Sequence of Play

The Epochs

• At the start of the game each player places his game piece on a historical epoch.
• The starting player begins by asking the player to his left (the "Vorleser", or reader) to draw the top card of Historical Questions from the epoch in which his game piece stands.
• The player announces aloud whether he wishes to answer Question 1 or Question 2 from the face-down stack. The question is then read aloud to him, together with the three answer options. The correct answer is printed at the bottom of the card, upside down.
• If the player answers the question correctly, he receives 10 Wisdom Points, which he collects in front of him. He also keeps the question card as a sign that he has already answered one question correctly.
• Immediately afterwards, another question from the same epoch follows. The reader takes the next card. The player again chooses Question 1 or 2, and the reader reads out the question and the three answers.
• When a player has answered 2 questions from one epoch correctly, he places the answered question cards in the box, takes his Epoch marker from the board and sets it down in front of him.
• If the answer is not correct, the player next clockwise is on turn. The incorrectly answered question card is placed in the box. If the player had already answered one question correctly, he must in his next turn answer only one further question of this epoch correctly.
• Once a player has answered two questions correctly in an epoch, that epoch is finished for him.

The Movement of the Game Pieces

• When a player is next on turn after completing an epoch, he begins his journey to a different epoch. He rolls the die and moves forward along the path (the one leading away from his current epoch) as many spaces as the die shows. He may not return to the epoch he has just left.
• A game piece must always move forward (that is, in the direction the Sofie game piece faces), never backward.
• The player must always carry out the instruction of the space on which his game piece has landed. See "Board Spaces" below.
• Only one game piece may stand on each space. Exception: several pieces may stand on the epochs. If a player moves onto a space already occupied by another piece, he must decide whether to stop on the first empty space before it or on the first empty space after it.
• Where one path crosses another path by a bridge, it is not possible to move from one path onto the crossing path. However, directly before the lake there is a possibility of switching from one path to the other.
• An epoch need not be reached with an exact number of points; surplus points are lost.
• Once a player has reached a new epoch, his turn ends. On his next turn he attempts to answer the questions of that epoch, as described above.
• If, at the start of his turn, a player is standing on an epoch and believes he cannot answer its questions, he may roll the die and leave the epoch along the path to seek out a different epoch. This should not be done often, since a great deal of time is lost.

Board Spaces

• Travel space (Reisefeld): If a player stops on a travel space, he must roll again immediately. If that brings him to another travel space, he rolls again, and so on. He may not remain on a travel space. He must follow the instruction of the space on which he finally lands.
• Philosophy space (Philosophiefeld): If a player stops on a philosophy space, a Philosophy Card is drawn and a philosophical question is posed, as described above. If the player names the correct answer, he is rewarded with 10 Wisdom Points. The card is placed in the box, and the next player is on turn.
• Gadfly space (Bremsenfeld): If a player stops on a gadfly space on a path, he may, if he wishes, immediately jump to the gadfly space on the control disc, provided it is free. He is not obliged to do so. If he remains on a gadfly space on the control disc, he may immediately jump to a gadfly space on any path.

Note: the Greek philosopher Socrates (470–399 BC) compared the challenging role of a philosopher to that of a gadfly: "Athens is like a sluggish mare," he said, "and I am the gadfly that stings her flank to keep her conscious."

• Big Question space (Große-Frage-Feld): If a player stops on a Big Question space, he must immediately draw a Big Question card from the stack and, for about 1 minute, state his opinion on that question. There are no right or wrong answers, but the questions should be treated seriously. The player receives 10 Wisdom Points as a reward for the answer. The other players have the right, if they all agree, to award together an additional 10 Wisdom Points for a particularly good answer, or no points at all if they all feel the answer deserves none. Strategic considerations in awarding points should be avoided; they are in any case detrimental to the fun. The card is then placed in the box, and the next player is on turn.
• Place of Forgetting space (Vergessenheitsfeld): If a player stops on a Place of Forgetting space, he must immediately place his game piece on the Place of Forgetting and wait there until his next turn, to try to leave it.

The Major Control Space

• If a player stops on a Major Control space (Major-Kontrollfeld), he must turn the control disc clockwise by as many segments as are shown on the space (for example "x 4"). If game pieces are standing on the disc, they are moved along with it to other spaces.
• If a player's game piece has been moved in this way, the following happens on his next turn:
  • If it was moved onto a Place of Forgetting space or onto a space next to an open rabbit hole, he may not roll the die, but must follow the instruction of that space.
  • If it was moved onto any other space, he must roll the die and move as usual.

The Control Disc

To get from one epoch to the next, players must in most cases move their Sofie game piece across the rotatable control disc.

• The control disc may always be entered and left, regardless of whether a solid line, a broken line or a boat is at its edge. The solid lines apply only to the Place of Forgetting (see the following section). The boat matters only when one wants to cross the lake.
• On the control disc, movement is always clockwise.
• If a player ends his turn on the control disc next to an open rabbit hole, that is, when a white rabbit is visible in the window, he immediately jumps with his Sofie game piece to a historical epoch of his choice that he has not yet visited.

The Place of Forgetting

• To leave the Place of Forgetting, the player must roll the die on his next turn and leave the place through an "open" exit (a broken line) on the control disc. The boat with waves does not count as an exit.
• If there is no open exit in front of the Place of Forgetting, the player may still leave it by answering a Big Question (see above), after which he rolls the die and leaves the place. For answering the Big Question he receives no Wisdom Points, but the other players may still jointly award bonus points for a particularly good answer.
• If the player does not wish to face a Big Question, he may instead try to roll a "6". If he succeeds, he may leave the place (the exit need not be open). Otherwise he must remain there and, on his next turn, has the options described above again.
• When the player leaves the Place of Forgetting, he moves onto the control disc by advancing his Sofie game piece as many spaces as he rolled.
• Several Sofie game pieces may stand on the Place of Forgetting at the same time.

The Lake

• The lake consists of three spaces: the water surface, and the two landing stages above and below the water surface.
• To cross the lake, the control disc must be positioned so that one of the boats depicted on the disc is located exactly above the lake.
• If this is not the case, the player must stop at the landing stage in front of the lake. The landing stage counts as one space, and any remaining points are forfeited. On his next turn, and on each following turn, he tries to roll a "6" or a "3", and he waits at the landing stage until one of these results occurs.

End of the Game

• The game ends when the first player has visited 4 epochs (and has answered two questions correctly in each of them). That player must now answer 3 different questions: 2 from the epochs he has not visited, and 1 philosophy question. For each correct answer he receives 30 Wisdom Points.
• The players add up their Wisdom Points.
• The player with the most Wisdom Points has won the game.
• If several players have the same total, there are several winners.