📋 Contents
1 Overview
Trivial Pursuit has been testing friendships and revealing embarrassing knowledge gaps since 1981. Players move around a wheel-shaped board answering questions in six color-coded categories. Landing on a Category Headquarters and answering correctly earns you a scoring wedge. Fill all six wedge slots on your playing piece, reach the center, and answer one final question chosen by your opponents to win.
The game rewards broad general knowledge, and mercilessly punishes specialists. You might know everything about sports but blank on Art & Literature. That's the point.
2 What You Need
- 1 game board
- 6 player tokens (pie-shaped, with 6 wedge slots each)
- Trivia cards (usually 1000+ questions)
- 2 dice
- 36 scoring wedges (6 per color/category)
- Card holder box
3 Setup
- Each player picks a token and places it on the center hub (Start).
- Shuffle and stack trivia cards in the card holder.
- Youngest player rolls first.
4 How to Play
- Roll both dice and move your token that many spaces in any direction.
- The space you land on has a color. The player to your left reads you a question in that category.
- Answer correctly: roll again and keep moving (unless you're on a special space).
- Answer incorrectly: your turn ends. Pass dice left.
Special Spaces
- Roll Again (center or spoke spaces): Roll again regardless of answer.
- Category Headquarters (6 spokes): Answer correctly here to earn the matching colored wedge for your token.
- HQ Strategy: You must actually land on a HQ space to earn that wedge, you can't earn it from a matching color elsewhere on the board.
The 6 Categories
- 🔵 Geography, Countries, capitals, rivers, landmarks
- 🩷 Entertainment, Movies, TV, music, celebrities
- 🟡 History, Events, dates, famous figures
- 🟤 Art & Literature, Books, art, theater, poetry
- 🟢 Science & Nature, Biology, physics, space, nature
- 🟠 Sports & Leisure, Sports stats, hobbies, games
5 Winning
Once you've earned all 6 wedges, move to the center Hub. You choose which Category Headquarters to move to. The other players collectively choose which category you must answer. Answer correctly, you win! Answer wrong, keep moving and try again on your next turn.
6 Tips
- Specialize your route early. If you know Sports cold, camp near that HQ and collect that wedge first. Save your weak categories for last when you're desperate.
- Watch the dice options. You can move in any direction, plan your path to hit multiple HQs efficiently.
- Don't rush to the center. Wait until you have all 6 wedges, being forced back by a wrong final answer wastes a turn.
- Use Roll Again spaces strategically. If a Roll Again space is en route to an HQ, prioritize landing on it.
- Choose your final category wisely. Your opponents pick, so they'll choose your weakest. Go in with your strongest first to give them fewer choices.
7 The 6 Categories in Detail
| Color | Category | Topics Covered |
|---|---|---|
| 🔵 Blue | Geography | Countries, capitals, rivers, mountains, oceans, maps, flags |
| 🩷 Pink | Entertainment | Movies, TV shows, music, celebrities, pop culture, theater |
| 🟡 Yellow | History | Wars, historical events, dates, famous leaders, inventions, ancient civilizations |
| 🟤 Brown/Purple | Arts and Literature | Books, authors, art movements, paintings, poetry, theater, opera |
| 🟢 Green | Science and Nature | Biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, nature, medicine, mathematics |
| 🟠 Orange | Sports and Leisure | Sports statistics, athletes, hobbies, games, leisure activities, Olympics |
8 Hub Movement and Roll-Again Rules
The Trivial Pursuit board has a wagon-wheel shape with a center hub (Start), 6 spokes, and an outer rim. Movement works like this:
- Roll both dice and move that many spaces in any direction along the rim or up/down a spoke.
- You can change direction at any intersection (where rim meets spoke).
- You can move to the hub from any spoke end, or from the hub down any spoke.
- Roll Again spaces: Landing on any Roll Again space (marked on the board) earns you another roll regardless of whether you answered a question (there's no question on Roll Again spaces).
- HQ spaces (Category Headquarters): Located at the end of each spoke. Answering correctly HERE earns a wedge of the matching color. You must physically land on this space to earn the wedge.
- If you answer a question correctly on any space other than an HQ, you roll again but do NOT earn a wedge.
9 The Final Question
Once you've collected all 6 colored wedges, you must get your token to the center hub. You can move to the hub from any spoke end. The other players collectively decide which of the 6 categories you must answer. If you answer correctly, you win. If not, you must leave the hub and try again on a future turn, but your opponents can choose a new category each attempt.
Team Play Rules
Teams can play Trivial Pursuit with a simple modification. The team rolls together and one designated player (rotating or chosen) gives the official answer. Team members can confer quietly before answering. Team wedge earning works the same as individual play. Teams work well with 6-12+ players when split into 2-4 groups.
10 Editions Overview
| Edition | Notes |
|---|---|
| Genus Edition (Original) | The classic 1981 edition; questions now very dated (TV shows, sports from 1970s-80s) |
| Master Game | Updated question sets; most common retail edition through the 1990s |
| Millennium Edition | Updated for 2000s, includes questions about the 20th century |
| Digital (App) | App-based version, questions updated regularly; can mix with board |
| Family Edition | Two tiers of difficulty per card (adult side, kids side) |
| Pop Culture Edition | Replaces Arts and History with heavier pop culture focus |
Tip: If buying Trivial Pursuit new, look for an edition published within the last 5 years to ensure questions are current. The original Genus Edition is a collector's item but many questions are now obscure.
11 Wrong House Rules
- "You get a wedge for answering any question correctly" (WRONG): Wedges are ONLY earned by landing on a Category Headquarters space and answering correctly. Correct answers elsewhere just earn you another roll.
- "You must move in one direction" (WRONG): You can move in any direction at any intersection. Plan your path to hit the HQ you want.
- "You need to land exactly on the hub to win" (WRONG): You can move to the hub from any spoke. You don't need an exact count, arriving via any connected path is fine.
- "You can choose your own final category" (WRONG): When you reach the center for the final question, the OTHER players collectively choose which category you must answer.
- "Partial answers count" (RULE CHOICE): Official rules require the complete, correct answer. Partial credit is a common house rule but not in the rulebook.
12 History of Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit was invented by two Canadian journalists: Scott Abbott (a sportswriter for Canadian Press) and Chris Haney (a photo editor for the Montreal Gazette). In December 1979, the two friends were playing Scrabble and realized their set was incomplete. While looking for another game to play, they conceived the idea for a trivia-based board game.
Abbott and Haney spent the next two years developing the game, creating thousands of trivia questions across six categories. They formed Horn Abbot Ltd. to publish it. In 1982, Trivial Pursuit launched in Canada to modest success. In 1983, Selchow and Righter acquired rights for the United States.
The 1984 US launch was a phenomenon. Trivial Pursuit sold 20 million copies in North America in 1984 alone, the biggest board game launch in history at that point. The game was perfect for the era: it rewarded the knowledge accumulated from watching television, reading newspapers, and general cultural awareness.
Parker Brothers (later Hasbro) acquired the game and has since released dozens of themed editions, everything from Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings to 90s nostalgia. Scott Abbott and Chris Haney became wealthy from the game's success. Haney passed away in 2010; the game continues as one of the best-known trivia brands worldwide.
13 Trivial Pursuit FAQ
How do you win Trivial Pursuit?
Collect one wedge in each of the 6 categories, then move your token to the center hub and correctly answer one final question (in a category chosen by your opponents). The first player to do this wins.
How do you earn wedges in Trivial Pursuit?
Wedges are only earned by landing on a Category Headquarters space (at the end of a spoke) and correctly answering a question in that category's color. Correct answers elsewhere let you roll again but do not award wedges.
What happens if you answer incorrectly on an HQ space?
Your turn ends and you do not earn a wedge. You must move off the HQ on your next turn. Return later to try again.
Can you move in any direction in Trivial Pursuit?
Yes. At any intersection of the outer ring and a spoke, you can change direction. Plan your route to collect multiple wedges efficiently.
Who invented Trivial Pursuit?
Scott Abbott and Chris Haney, two Canadian journalists, invented it in December 1979. They published it through Horn Abbot Ltd. and it became a global phenomenon in 1984.
🎲 House Rules
Play Trivial Pursuit your way?
Save your house rules and share a link or QR code — friends can pull them up at the table.