Set (game)

set

Game data
author	Marsha Jean Falco
graphic	Franz Vohwinkel (FX Schmid)
publishing company	Set Enterprises (1991), FX Schmid (1995), Ravensburger (2001), Amigo (2013)
Publishing year	1991, 1995, 2001, 2013
Art	Card game
Teammates	1 to 8
Duration	20 minutes
Age	from 8 years
Awards
Mensa Select 1991 German Games Prize 1995: 9th place à la carte card game price 1995: 4th place

Set (formerly also Set! ) Is a card game invented by Marsha Jean Falco in 1974 and published by Set Enterprises in 1991. In 1995 the game was published in Germany by FX Schmid , since 2001 by Ravensburger and since 2013 by Amigo . After the takeover of Set Enterprise in 2019, the worldwide rights to the game are held by PlayMonster.

Game material

The game consists of 81 cards. Certain symbols are printed on the cards. These symbols have different colors, shapes and fills and occur singly, twice or three times per card. However, all symbols on a card have the same color, shape, and fill. Each of the 81 cards can be clearly characterized by the characteristics of color, shape, filling and number. There are three possible versions for each of these four properties:

Color: red, green and purple
Shape: oval, diamond and wave
Filling: empty, striped and full
Number: one, two or three

In fact, there is a corresponding card for every combination of these properties, so one comes up with 81 = 3 ⁴ = 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 different cards.

Rules of the game

What is a set?

You can play different variations of this game. But they all revolve around the eponymous set . A set consists of three cards which, for each property, must meet the condition that all cards match in this property or that none of the cards match in this property. So that means:

All cards show the same symbol or each one shows a different symbol.
All cards show the same number of symbols or each show a different number.
All cards have symbols of the same color or each symbol is a different color.
All cards show symbols with the same fill or each symbol has a different fill.

Each property is considered independently of the others. Equivalently , the term “set” can also be defined in just one sentence as follows: three cards form a set if none of the four properties is identical in exactly two of the three cards.

If you remove any two cards from the game, there is exactly one additional card that adds both to a set. For example, three cards that make up a set could be:

three red filled ovals,
a red empty diamond,
two red striped waves.

Different numbers, same color, different shapes, different fillings.

How is the game played?

In the best-known variant of the set, a dealer lays cards on the table until either twelve cards have been laid out or one of the (any number of) players calls "set". This shows that the other player has identified three cards that make up a set. If this is correct, he may take the three cards and the dealer will replace them with new ones if necessary. If the other player is wrong, he is excluded from the game until another player finds a set. Alternatively, calling the wrong "set" can also be punished with the surrender of a set that has already been collected. If no player finds a set with twelve cards on display, additional cards can be given (in fact, there can be up to 20 cards without a set). The game continues in this way until all 81 cards have been laid out and the other players agree that the remaining open cards no longer contain a set. In rare cases, there are no cards left, but usually six or nine cards. Whoever has the most cards at the end wins the game.

Emergence

Marsha Falco invented Set while working as a genetics researcher in Cambridge, England . To make working with blocks of genetic information more manageable, she replaced them with symbols and wrote them on cards. While trying to explain the pile of cards on her table to her colleagues, she came up with the idea of making something fun out of it - she invented the card game set .

German championships

The German championships have been held annually in Set since 2013. Sabrina Grande, who was 36 years old at the time, won her first championship title. One year later, in 2014, Stefan Ziegler became German set master. He had to admit defeat to Sabrina Grande at the 2013 championship. The 2015 championship title went to Syrina Laubvogel. In 2016, eleven-year-old Julius Ziegler, son of the 2014 champion, won the championship. His father came third.

The championships are held by the Amigo game publisher , who introduced the championships immediately after the game was taken over from Ravensburger .

In the championships, the candidates compete against each other in preliminary round matches and thus collect points. The nine players with the most points go to the semi-finals. There they play in groups of three at three tables and a finalist is chosen for each table. The three finalists then compete against each other in the final game, the winner is the new German set master.