Rules for Every Trivial Pursuit Edition — Plus House Rules

Ah, Trivial Pursuit! This popular Canadian board game is a real test of general knowledge, and we must admit that we love it here at Trivia Bliss! Since its release in 1981, there are a bunch of different editions so we decided to create this ‘Trivial Pursuit for Dummies’ – an explanation of the rules of the most popular versions. Read on and avoid family game night confusion for good!

Standard Trivial Pursuit Rules

Let’s start with the OG of the series, the traditional Trivial Pursuit. The aim of the game is to move around the board by correctly answering trivia questions. There are a bunch of different categories that correspond to the colors on the board. Blue is geography, pink for entertainment, yellow is history, arts & literature purple (originally brown), green for science & nature while orange is for sports & leisure. 

During the game, players move their pieces around the board, which is shaped like a wheel with 6 spokes. How do you start? Well, you roll the die to decide who goes first. The person who rolls the highest takes the first turn and play begins clockwise. Then off you go, answering questions and moving along as you respond correctly.

The crux of the game? Keep rolling, keep moving, until you answer a question wrong. And yes, the questions you answer must correspond with the color space you land on. If you land on purple, you can’t answer a question about history. You can continue to roll as long as you keep answering the questions correctly. If you land on a ‘wedge’ space and answer correctly, you add that wedge to your scoring piece.

Once your scoring piece is complete, you have to try and land on the center space on the board. When you succeed in getting there, your competitors can choose any category they want to quiz you on. If you answer this correctly, you win!

Trivial Pursuit Rules PDF

Looking just to quickly download or print out a copy of the rules? Here you can see the instructions from Hasbro, the manufacturers of Trivial Pursuit. We’ve collected the links for various different editions for you here:

Trivial Pursuit Family Edition 

Trivial Pursuit Family Edition was launched in 2013 as a special edition of this well-loved board game. While the original game was advised for players aged 16 and over, this edition is suitable for kids from the age of 8 upwards. It includes 600 questions for kids and 600 questions for adults, allowing for a fun family night in.

In a nutshell, the Family Edition is not too dissimilar to the original board game. Many elements are the same, you get a single die – although this one has numbers on it (1-5) and a wild roll side which is really fun – you can move anywhere you want to the board if you roll this. The board is also slightly more stylized – an updated version from the original. 

It’s important to remember that yellow cards are for kids and blue cards are for adults! Don’t go getting those confused as it might lead to a somewhat awful evening. You can, of course, choose to combine the cards depending on the ages of the kids in your group. This would allow for more variety of questions, but wait and see how your children are dealing with the yellow questions before you go mixing it up.

Trivial Pursuit Junior

So, Trivial Pursuit Junior is essentially what it says on the box – an edition of Trivial Pursuit that is tailored specifically towards kids (unlike the Family Edition which was for adults and children to play together). What’s the difference? Well, the categories for starters! With Every Day, Fun, Science, Stories & Songs, Nature, and Games, these categories are much more interesting for our younger friends! 

Everything else remains exactly the same. This would make the perfect gift for any kid who has an awesome interest in the world and who is constantly asking ‘why’ and ‘what’!

Trivial Pursuit 2000s

This. Is. Amazing. A special Trivial Pursuit edition solely for the 2000s? What more could you possibly ask for? An updated interface? Sure, you can have that too! 

Trivial Pursuit 2000s includes 1800 questions from 6 categories. The categories include Places, Entertainment, Events, The Arts, Science & Tech, and Sports & Hobbies. Sounds exciting, right? That’s not all … this edition also allows players to choose to answer a question or stump their opponents based on the topic at the top of each card. What does this mean exactly? The opponent must answer the question instead. If there are more than 2 people playing, then all opponents must reach a unanimous answer. If this answer is incorrect, the player takes a color wedge and advances. If the opponents are correct, the player stays where they are while everyone else moves forward one space. 

Trivial Pursuit Bet You Know It

Oooh this is a fun edition of Trivial Pursuit, bringing higher stakes than ever to the game! On each turn, you have to bet as to whether your opponent knows the answer. If you guess correctly, you can use your winnings to buy the wedges you need for your scoring piece. You can also earn them by answering questions (the normal way!) What is cool about this edition is that you don’t have to know all of the answers to win – you just need to know your friends’ limitations!

Suggested House Rules for Trivial Pursuit

So you love Trivial Pursuit but you want to spice it up a little. Here are some ideas for House Rules you can implement next time you play! One word of advice? Make sure everyone is aware in advance so there are no nasty surprises or hard feelings!

1. The higher you roll, the harder the question

This basically means that the question on the card is based on the number rolled on the die. This variant certainly adds more of an element of random luck to the game which we certainly appreciate!

2. Play nice

If the question-asker doesn’t know the answer and believes the person answering wouldn’t have any idea, they can replace the card and draw again. This would be a cool rule to implement if you are playing as a family and you don’t want anyone singled out for not knowing answers.

3. You said WHAT?

The moment someone pauses or hesitates using the words ‘hmm’ or ‘errrrm’, everyone must stand up and do a silly dance. That’s the family-friendly version. Are you over 21 and drinking? Then that person has to do a shot! 

4. “No pinks”

If you’re stuck in a cross-generational situation playing the original Genus Edition of Trivial Pursuit, the entertainment questions are downright impossible for non-Boomers. Sky King anyone?? Unfortunately not everyone’s an expert on 1950s kids shows nowadays.

If all the more “seasoned” players are on one team, they could be kind and spot the younger teams the pink pie or even agree not to ask a pink question for the final challenge. Have mercy!

Maybe the most famous Trivial Pursuit rules dispute ever was a plot point on the show Seinfeld back in the 90s. You can read more about this famous episode — and decide what you would do in the same situation — in our article here.

Still on the fence about Trivial Pursuit? Not to worry, there are a variety of themed editions that you can try. From the World of Harry Potter to Dragonball Z, from 007 to Lord of the Rings, you are sure to find a Trivial Pursuit edition to suit!