Sorry! (game)

Last updated

Sorry!
Sorry diamond edit.jpg
A 1950s edition of the game
Publishers
Publication1934;90 years ago (1934)
Players2–4
Setup time1–5 minutes
ChanceHigh (card drawing)
Age range6 and up
Skills

Sorry! is a board game that is based on the ancient Indian cross and circle game Pachisi . Players move their three or four pieces around the board, attempting to get all of their pieces "home" before any other player. Originally manufactured by W.H. Storey & Co in England and now by Hasbro, Sorry! is marketed for two to four players, ages 6 and up. The game title comes from the many ways in which a player can negate the progress of another, while issuing an apologetic "Sorry!"

Contents

Objective

The objective is to be the first player to get all three of their coloured pawns from their start space, around the board to their "home" space. The pawns are normally moved in a clockwise direction but can be moved backward if directed. Movement of pawns is directed by the drawing of a card.

The board game is laid out in a square with 16 spaces per side, with each player assigned their own coloured Start location and Home locations offset towards the centre, one per side. Four five-square paths, one per colour, lead from the common outer path towards a player's Home and are designated their "Safety Zone". On each side are two "Slides", grouping four or five spaces each.

Older versions of Sorry! contain a coloured "diamond space" directly one space back from each start square; a pawn of the diamond's colour may not move forward over this square. Instead, a pawn of that colour must diverge from the outer space square towards their "Home". The diamond space and corresponding rule were removed from subsequent editions.

History

The U.S. patent for the Sorry! board US1903661 Sorry game patent drawings.png
The U.S. patent for the Sorry! board
Original Sorry! board from 1934 Sorry 1934.jpg
Original Sorry! board from 1934

William Henry Storey of Southend-on-Sea filed for a patent for the game in England, where it was registered as a trade mark on 21 May 1929 (UK number 502898). It was subsequently sold in the United Kingdom by Waddingtons, the British games manufacturer who sold it from 1934. [1] [2]

In the United States, U.S. patent 1,903,661 was filed for Sorry! on 4 Aug 1930 by William Henry Storey. A Canadian patent followed in 1932. [3] The US patent was issued on 11 April 1933. Sorry! was adopted by Parker Brothers in 1934. Hasbro now continuously publishes it.

Classic rules

Each player chooses four pawns of one color and places them in their Start. One player is selected to play first.

Each player, in turn, draws one card from the deck and follows its instructions. To begin the game, all of a player's four pawns are restricted to Start; a player can only move them out onto the rest of the board if they draw a 1, 2 or Sorry! card. A 1 or a 2 places a pawn on the space directly outside of Start (a 2 does not entitle the pawn to move a second space). One must move a pawn if possible; if multiple options are available, they may choose which one to take. If there are no available movements, their turn is forfeited.

A pawn can jump over any other pawn during its move, counting it as one space. However, two pawns cannot occupy the same square; a pawn that lands on a square occupied by another player's pawn "bumps" that pawn back to its own Start. Players can not bump their own pawns back to Start; if the only way to complete a move would result in a player bumping their own pawn, the player's pawns remain in place and the player loses their turn.

If a pawn lands at the start of a slide (except those of its own color), either by direct movement or as the result of a switch from an 11 card or a Sorry card, it immediately "slides" to the last square of the slide. (In the 2013 version, each slide contains three colors which are different from the color of that board side, so one may slide at the start of a slide with their color.) All pawns on all spaces of the slide (including those belonging to the sliding player) are sent back to their respective Starts. [4]

The last five squares before each player's Home are "Safety Zones", and are specially colored corresponding to the colors of the Homes they lead to. Access is limited to pawns of the same color. Pawns inside the Safety Zones are immune to being bumped by opponents' pawns or being switched with opponents' pawns via 11 or Sorry! cards. However, if a pawn is forced via a 10 or 4 card to move backward out of the Safety Zone, it is no longer considered "safe" and may be bumped by or switched with opponents' pawns as usual until it re-enters the Safety Zone.

A pawn may only move to its Home space by exact count; that is, only cards with the correct number of required spaces can bring the pawn Home. Any pawn that is in its Home space stays there for the rest of the game. The first player to get all of their pawns in their Home space wins.

Classic cards and function

The modern deck contains 45 cards: there are five 1 cards as well as four each of the other cards (Sorry!, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12). The 6s or 9s are omitted to avoid confusion with each other. The first edition of the game had 44 cards (four of each) and the extra 1 card was soon introduced as an option for quicker play. [5] A 1996 board from Waddingtons had 5 of each card.

Cards are annotated with the following actions:

1Either move a pawn from Start or move a pawn one space forward. (In the 2013 edition, the player may also "move ice" before doing so.)
2Either move a pawn from Start or move a pawn two spaces forward. Drawing a two, even if it does not enable movement, entitles the player to draw again at the end of their turn. (In the 2013 edition, the "draw again" rule is removed, but the player may also "move fire" as part of this card's effect.)
3Move a pawn three spaces forward.
4Move a pawn four spaces backward.
5Move a pawn five spaces forward.
7Move one pawn seven spaces forward, or split the seven spaces between two pawns (such as four spaces for one pawn and three for another). This makes it possible for two pawns to enter Home on the same turn, for example. The seven cannot be used to move a pawn out of Start, even if the player splits it into a six and one or a five and two. The entire seven spaces must be used or their turn ends. The player cannot move their pawn backwards with a split.
8Move a pawn eight spaces forward.
10Move a pawn ten spaces forward or one space backward. If none of a player's pawns can move forward 10 spaces, then one pawn must move back one space.
11Move eleven spaces forward, or switch the places of one of the player's own pawns and an opponent's pawn. A player who cannot move 11 spaces is not forced to switch and instead can end their turn. An 11 cannot be used to switch a pawn that is in a Safety Zone.
12Move a pawn twelve spaces forward.
Sorry!Take any one pawn from Start and move it directly to a square occupied by any opponent's pawn, sending that pawn back to its own Start. A Sorry! card cannot be used on an opponent's pawn in a Safety Zone or at the Home base. If there are no pawns on the player's Start, or no opponent's pawns on any space that can be moved to, the turn ends. (In the 2013 version, the player can also move any of their pawns forward four spaces. If the player cannot move forward 4 after there are no pawns in start or no opponent pawn on any space, their turn is forfeited.) [4]

Strategy

The 7 can be split; it is often possible to do so such that one of the pieces ends up on a slide, thus increasing the value of this card. It also provides an additional opportunity for pawns to get Home, so long as there's another pawn on the board to use up the remaining spaces.

All other things being equal, moves that cause a pawn to end up in front of an opponent's start square are poor choices, due to the high number of cards that allow that opponent to enter. Some feel that leaving a pawn on one's own square just outside "Start" (also known as the "Dot") is a poor position to be in since new pawns are blocked from entering play.

There are numerous strategies and tactics employed by skilled players. One such strategy is to leave the last pawn in the "Start" square and move the other pawns around the board while waiting for a Sorry! card. [6]

Due to the 11 (switching places), 4 (moving backwards, as noted above), and Sorry! (allowing the player to send virtually any pawn back to its start) cards, the lead in the game can change dramatically in a short amount of time; players are very rarely so far behind as to be completely out of the game. This should be considered when playing a Sorry! or an 11.

Leaving one of your pawns near your start space will allow give you the advantage to move backwards and make it into your safety zone or close enough without having to go all around the board. [6]

Slowing the game down is a risky yet effective move when given the opportunity. Essentially, when a player has the chance to switch with or hit the apparent leader, even though the move will not be to the player's immediate advancement around the board, the move should be made to keep the leader out of "Safety" and more importantly, out of "Home".

Official variants

Point-Scoring Sorry!

The 1939 edition of the game includes "Point-Scoring Sorry!", a variant where the game is scored at the end. [7] The game also gives players a hand of cards, each player being dealt five at the start of the game. On a player's turn, they play one card from their hand to determine their move, and then draw a replacement card from the remaining deck. If a player cannot play any of their cards, they may discard a card and draw a replacement.

At the end of the game, each player scores a point for every man they got home. The winner also scores one point for every man their opponents had got home, and a bonus of either 24 (if no opponent has a man home), 16 (if no opponent has more than one man home) or 8 (if no opponent has more than two men home). [7]

Teams

Players can elect to play the game in two teams of two. [7] The team pairings are always colours on opposite sides of the board (i.e. Red and Yellow vs. Blue and Green). The game is then played as if two players had eight pawns each: for example, the yellow player may move a red pawn for any legal move. A 7 card could be split between a yellow pawn and a red one but can still be split between no more than two pieces. However, a partner's pawns are not immune to bumps: if yellow were to draw a Sorry! card with only red pawns on the board, or land on a red pawn's occupied space, yellow would have to bump its teammate.

Once one of the partners has played all of their pieces into home, he continues to draw and play cards on their turn, if possible, for their partner. The first partnership to play all eight pieces in its home wins. [7]

Sorry! with Fire and Ice Power-Ups

In the 2013 edition, several rules were changed. Two additional items known as Fire and Ice were added, and depending on which card is drawn, can be placed on certain pawns on the board, modifying the playing rules for those pawns. In short, fire gives a pawn the ability to move ahead quickly before the player's turn, and ice stops a pawn from being moved (or removed from play) at all. [8]

Furthermore, each player only has three pawns. A pawn can be moved out from Start upon any positive number card. A Sorry! card gives the alternative option of moving forward 4 spaces. The 2 card no longer allows one to pull another card. [8]

Video games

An electronic gaming version of Sorry! was released in 1998 as a Sorry! computer game. Also, a handheld version was released in 1996.

In the Hoyle Table Games collection of computer games, the game Bump 'Em is similar to Sorry! Pawns are represented as bumper cars, and the board follows a path akin to a freeway cloverleaf instead of a regular square. There are no partnerships allowed.

Sorry! Express

Parker Brothers has released a travel version called Sorry! Express. [9] The game consists of three dice, four home bases, a start base, and sixteen pawns, four in each color. Up to four players can play this game. To play, each player takes a home base and sets it on a different color and all of the pawns are put on the start base no matter how many people are playing. The first person rolls all three dice and gets one of four possibilities for each die:

  1. Color pawn – The player takes the corresponding color pawn from the start base and, if it matches up with the color of their home base, puts it in their home section. If not, it is put in their waiting area. When there are no more pawns of a particular color in the Start base and a player rolls that same color, he can take that color pawn from another player's waiting area, not their Home section.
  2. Sorry! – Take a pawn from the home section of one player's home base and keep it.
  3. Wild Pawn – The player may take any color pawn from the Start base or waiting areas (not the Home section of another player) and keep it.
  4. Slide – Change either one's own Home section or someone else's Home section to a different color.

The first person to get four pawns of the same color in their home section wins.

In 2021, Hasbro re-released the game under the name Sorry! Diced!. [10]

Sorry! Not Sorry!

Sorry! Not Sorry! is an adult-themed edition of Sorry! which consisted of the classic game, but added several cards each containing a "Have you ever...?" question. Upon drawing, the player must ask an opponent the fill-in-the-blank question printed on the card. [11] If the opponent answered yes, both the player and opponent move six spaces; if the answer is no, then they can only move three spaces.

This game was part of Hasbro's collection of parody versions of their classic games, which included The Game of Life , Operation , and Clue , which were respectively retitled The Game of Life: Quarter Life Crisis, Botched Operation, and Clue: What Happened Last Night? Lost in Vegas. [12]

Reception

Games magazine included Sorry! in their "Top 100 Games of 1980", praising it as an "old classic in the pachisi mold" that was "Especially recommended for family play" even though "The title gives us cause for regret". [13]

Games magazine included Sorry! in their "Top 100 Games of 1981", praising it as an "exciting race game, ideal for family play" that is "not as mindless as it may appear". [14]

Games magazine included Sorry in their "Top 100 Games of 1982", noting that many of the movement cards "give interesting options" and that "The game is never dull, and is never decided until the last play." [15]

Reviews

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludo</span> Strategy board game

Ludo is a strategy board game for two to four players, in which the players race their four tokens from start to finish according to the rolls of a single die. Like other cross and circle games, Ludo is derived from the Indian game Pachisi. The game and its variations are popular in many countries and under various names.

<i>Monopoly</i> (game) Property trading board game

Monopoly is a multiplayer economics-themed board game. In the game, players roll two dice to move around the game board, buying and trading properties and developing them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents and aim to drive them into bankruptcy. Money can also be gained or lost through Chance and Community Chest cards and tax squares. Players receive a salary every time they pass "Go" and can end up in jail, from which they cannot move until they have met one of three conditions. House rules, hundreds of different editions, many spin-offs, and related media exist. Monopoly has become a part of international popular culture, having been licensed locally in more than 103 countries and printed in more than 37 languages. As of 2015, it was estimated that the game had sold 275 million copies worldwide. The original game was based on locations in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States with the exception of Marven Gardens which is in adjacent Ventnor, NJ.

<i>Cluedo</i> Board game

Cluedo, known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players that was devised in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E. Pratt. The game was first manufactured by Waddingtons in the United Kingdom in 1949. Since then, it has been relaunched and updated several times, and it is currently owned and published by the American game and toy company Hasbro.

<i>Candy Land</i> Board game

Candy Land is a simple racing board game created by Eleanor Abbott and published by Milton Bradley in 1948. The game requires no reading and minimal counting skills, making it suitable for young children. No strategy is involved as players are never required to make choices; only following directions is required. About one million copies per year are sold.

<i>Trouble</i> (board game) Board game

Trouble is a board game in which players compete to be the first to send four pieces all the way around a board. It is based on a traditional game called "Frustration" played on a wooden board with indentations for marble playing pieces and rules similar to Parcheesi. Pieces are moved according to the roll of a die using a contained device called a "Pop-O-Matic".

<i>Parcheesi</i> Abstract strategy board game

Parcheesi is a brand-name American adaptation of the Indian cross and circle board game Pachisi, published by Selchow & Righter and Winning Moves Games USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parchís</span> Spanish cross and circle board game

Parchís is a Spanish board game of the original from the Cross and Circle family. It is an adaptation of the Indian game Pachisi. Parchís was a very popular game in Spain at one point as well as in Europe and north Morocco - specifically Tangiers and Tetouan, and it is still popular especially among adults and seniors. Since it uses dice, Parchís is not usually regarded as an abstract strategy game like checkers or chess. It does not depend entirely on luck either, since the four pawns under a player's command demand some sort of strategy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cranium (board game)</span> Party board game

Cranium is a party game created by Whit Alexander and Richard Tait in 1998. Initially, Cranium was sold through Amazon.com and the Starbucks coffee chain, then-novel methods of distribution. After selling 44 million copies of Cranium and its sister titles, the game's manufacturer Cranium, Inc. was bought by Hasbro, Inc. for $77.5 million in 2008. Billed as "The Game for Your Whole Brain", Cranium includes a wide variety of activities, unlike many other party games. Giorgio Davanzo handles packaging and branding for the game, and the artwork is by cartoonist Gary Baseman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sequence (game)</span> Abstract strategy board and card game

Sequence is an abstract strategy tabletop party game. Sequence was invented by Douglas Reuter and Hamish. They originally called the game Sequence Five. He spent years developing the concept, and, in June 1981, granted Jax Ltd. an exclusive license to manufacture, distribute and sell the board game Sequence and its subsequent variations. The game was first sold in a retail store in 1982. In 2017, Goliath Game Company bought Jax, and in early 2018 also bought all licensor rights and now owns 100% of the game Sequence. Doug Reuter is acknowledged as the inventor of Sequence on all newly produced copies of the game - both on the box and in the printed rules.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonkers! (game)</span> Board game

Bonkers! is a race-style board game designed by Paul J. Gruen and produced first by Parker Brothers, later by Milton Bradley, and briefly reissued by Winning Moves. The object is to be the first player to score 12 points by adding instruction cards to the empty spaces in an attempt to move to several scoring stations. The game's slogan is "It's Never the Same Game Twice!"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tock</span> Board game

Tock is a board game, similar to Ludo, Aggravation or Sorry!, in which players race their four tokens around the game board from start to finish—the objective being to be the first to take all of one's tokens "home". Like Sorry!, it is played with playing cards rather than dice.

<i>13 Dead End Drive</i> 1993 board game

13 Dead End Drive is a murder-themed board game originally released by Milton Bradley in 1993. It was followed in 2002 by a spinoff, 1313 Dead End Drive. Currently, Winning Moves Games USA publishes the game in the USA.

<i>Mall Madness</i> Board game

Mall Madness is a shopping themed board game released by Milton Bradley in 1988.

<i>Sorry!</i> (video game) 1998 video game

Sorry! is a 1998 video game based on the board game of the same name. It offers classic Sorry! and a mode called Way Sorry!, where new cards are introduced, including Bully, Buddy, Punish, and Happy. The animated pawns talk, joke, and make amusing remarks during gameplay that relate to the colors' personalities. There are cutscenes as well, which show what happens afterward when a specific color wins. Rules are identical to normal play; however there are some options for "house rules", such as being allowed to bump teammates. Both the Classic and Strategy games are available.

A number of related games under the Yahtzee brand have been produced. They all commonly use dice as the primary tool for game play, but all differ generally. As Yahtzee itself has been sold since 1954, the variants released over the years are more recent in comparison, with the oldest one, Triple Yahtzee, developed in 1972, eighteen years after the introduction of the parent game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mystery Mansion (board game)</span> Board game

Mystery Mansion is the name of a series of board games in which players search furniture and other objects inside a mansion to locate a hidden treasure or stash of money.

Family Game Night is an American television game show based on Hasbro's family of board games and EA's video game franchise of the same name. The show was hosted by Todd Newton. Burton Richardson was the announcer for the first two seasons; he was replaced by Stacey J. Aswad in the third season, and Andrew Kishino was hired for the fourth season. The 60-minute program debuted on October 10, 2010, on The Hub ; it was previewed on October 9, 2010, on its sister channel, TLC. Seasons 1 and 2 contained 26 and 30 episodes respectively. Seasons 3, 4 and 5 each contained 15 episodes. Season 2 premiered on Friday, September 2, 2011, with additional games being added. The games added to the second season included Cranium Brain Breaks, Green Scream, Ratuki Go-Round, Simon Flash, Operation Sam Dunk, Trouble Pop Quiz, and Spelling Bee. However games from the previous season were still kept.

This glossary of board games explains commonly used terms in board games, in alphabetical order. For a list of board games, see List of board games; for terms specific to chess, see Glossary of chess; for terms specific to chess problems, see Glossary of chess problems.

Cluedo, known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery-themed multimedia franchise started in 1949 with the manufacture of the Cluedo board game. The franchise has since expanded to film, television game shows, book series, computer games, board game spinoffs, a comic, a play, a musical, jigsaws, card games, and other media.

References

  1. ↑ "Search for a trade mark – Intellectual Property Office". Intellectual Property Office. Archived from the original on 1 April 2012. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  2. ↑ "History". Archived from the original on 4 November 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  3. ↑ "Canadian Patent Database / Base de données sur les brevets canadiens". Government of Canada, Industry Canada, Office of the Deputy Minister, Canadian Intellectual Property. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  4. 1 2 "Scan of Sorry! rules at hasbro" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 January 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2005.
  5. ↑ "Sorry 1939 Instructions" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 September 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  6. 1 2 "Tips to win Sorry".
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Rules for Playing the Great Game Sorry! (1939)" (PDF). Parker Brothers. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 August 2019. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  8. 1 2 "Sorry! with Fire & Ice Power-ups (2013)". BoardGameGeek. Archived from the original on 18 February 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  9. ↑ "Sorry! Express Game".
  10. ↑ "SORRY! DICED!". Hasbro Shop. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  11. ↑ Messina, Victoria (1 November 2018). "Sorry! Not Sorry! Parody Edition". POPSUGAR Love & Sex. Retrieved 2 March 2019.[ dead link ]
  12. ↑ Meredith Corporation. "Hasbro Unveils Hilarious New Twists on Classic Board Games Like Clue, The Game of Life and More". PEOPLE. Archived from the original on 2 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  13. ↑ "Top 100 Games of 1980". Games . No. 20. November–December 1980. p. 56.
  14. ↑ "Top 100 Games of 1981". Games . No. 26. November–December 1981. p. 54.
  15. ↑ Schmittberger, R. Wayne, ed. (November 1982). "The Top 100 Games 1982". Games . No. 33. p. 52.
  16. ↑ Lowder, James (19 February 2024). Family games : The 100 best. Green Ronin. ISBN   978-1-934547-21-2.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.