Trivial Pursuit

Trivial Pursuit

Game data
author	Scott Abbott , Chris Haney (1950-2010)
graphic	Michael Wurstlin
publishing company	Horn Abbot (1981), Chieftain Products (1982), Selchow & Righter (1983), Parker Brothers (1989), Hasbro (1992)
Publishing year	1981
Art	Knowledge game
Teammates	2 to 6 groups
Duration	90 minutes
Age	from 12 years
Awards
Select canteen 1990

A token with all the knowledge corners

Trivial Pursuit ( English trivial everyday, inconsequential (cf. general knowledge ), pursuit (pursuit) hunt (as leisure-time pursuit also in the sense of pastime, occupation), corresponding to, for example, trivial hunt or the hunt for general knowledge , pronunciation [ˌtrɪviəl pɜːˈsjuːt ]) is a well-known board game . The aim of the game is to be the first to fill your game piece with all six corners of knowledge or "pieces of cake" by correctly answering questions from different categories.

The game is offered in 19 languages and 33 countries and has already been sold over 90 million times (as of 2012). Hasbro has owned the full rights to the game since 2008 .

Emergence

Trivial Pursuit's origins go back to December 1979 in Montreal , when two friends Scott Abbott, sports editor at Canadian Press , and Chris Haney, photographer for the Montreal Gazette , argued over which of the two was better at a game of Scrabble Player would be. That gave her the idea to create her own board game. On the evening of December 15, 1979, the principle of Trivial Pursuit was born. However, when they realized that they would need help and money for this project, they brought Chris' older brother John Haney, a former ice hockey goalkeeper at Colgate University , and his friend Ed Werner, also a former ice hockey player and lawyer, on board .

The four friends founded Horn Abbot Ltd. for the first development and marketing activities. , named after Chris Haney's nickname The Horn and Scott Abbott's last name, shortened by one letter. 18-year-old unemployed artist Michael Wurstlin designed the game in exchange for five shares in the company. In November 1981, the first 1,100 copies of the game were ready for sale. For a then very high price of $ 29.95, of which $ 15 went to the inventors, all games were sold. However, considering the production cost of $ 75 per game, it wasn't a real success.

At toy fairs in early 1982, expectations were disappointed when fewer than 400 copies were requested and large toy companies were not interested in the game. Still, the four didn't give up because the Canadian stores that had sold the first edition wanted more of Trivial Pursuit. So they developed a second edition of the game with a focus on the film industry. With the help of a $ 75,000 loan, they managed to produce and sell 20,000 copies at a still high cost, but ultimately covered all costs.

The Canadian company Chieftain Products Ltd. provided the decisive impetus for the later success of the game . when she sent a copy to the large US game company Selchow & Righter . There, three executives played the game and were immediately hooked. They saw the game as a real competitor against the emerging video game market in the early 1980s.

The US company decided to produce and sell Trivial Pursuit and launched an advertising campaign in which 1,800 major customers of the New York Toy Fair 1983 and various Hollywood stars were written directly. The campaign was very successful, with 2.3 million copies sold in Canada and another million in the US by the end of that year.

In the following year, Selchow and Righter was barely able to meet the explosion in demand. In 1984 a record 20 million games were sold in the US alone. Income exceeded the one billion dollar mark. The four inventors of the game won the Ontario Business Achievement Award in Toronto at the end of the year .

Trivial Pursuit started in Germany in 1984 with the Genus Edition. Between 1986 and 2012 all questions (according to him, over 200,000) for the German editions came from a single person, the Hamburg journalist Willi Andresen .

Since 1985 Genus and other editions with questions that are tailored to Austrian players have been published regularly .

In 1988 Parker Brothers , a division of Tonka Corporation , acquired the rights to Trivial Pursuit for the US and Canadian markets and began distributing the game in 1989. In 1992, Parker Brothers was taken over by Hasbro , with Milton Bradley, the Hasbro Games Unit. forms.

In 2008 the rights were completely sold to Hasbro for $ 80 million.

Trivial Pursuit was also presented as a TV quiz show in several countries, including in Germany on VOX from 1993 and in Austria on ORF in 1991 . The German version with Birgit Lechtermann had 300 issues. VOX broadcast the quiz in its early days. In Austria, Trivial Pursuit was shown as a quiz show with children on Saturday afternoon . Bernadette Schneider hosted the 20 episodes from February 9, 1991 to December 28, 1991.

The game

Game board

The Trivial Pursuit playing field is a six-spoke wheel. The six end points of the spokes are the corner fields on which the player can collect the wedges or knowledge corners for his token, the so-called knowledge memory. In the middle, all the spokes meet in a neutral central field. Depending on the version, there are five or six fields between each two corner fields and on the spokes. These fields indicate the different question categories by different colors. Furthermore, there are some versions of the so-called knight fields, which are located exactly in the middle between two corner fields and allow the player to jump onto the corresponding color corner field in order to get a corner of knowledge there. In other versions there are no knight squares, but there are two “roll again” squares between the corner squares.

A special feature that gives children and adults almost equal opportunities is the ability to use several sets of cards at the same time. So z. B. Children answer questions from the Junior Edition and play against adults who have to answer questions from the Baby Boomer or Genus Edition. The family issues already include two sets of cards for children and adults.

Some editions contain special rules, so the deluxe version has cards with different levels of difficulty in one category, the 2000 edition has a completely different playing field. The family edition from 2014, as well as other compact editions of Winning Moves , smaller playing fields with 3 fields between the spokes. There are also smaller (optional) special rules for various editions, such as the World Wide or the Disney 2005 Edition.

Classic game board
Transparent token
Trivial Pursuit Cards

Rules of the game

The game begins for all players on the center field. The dice are rolled to see who starts. The game is played clockwise. The first player throws the die and moves his marker forward by the number of points rolled in any direction. An opposing player pulls the first card out of the card holder and asks the question of the category that corresponds to the field color. In the standard edition there are the categories geography (blue), entertainment (pink), history (yellow), art & literature (brown or purple), science & technology (green) and sport & pleasure (orange). If the player answers the question correctly, he may roll the dice again. If he is on a corner field, he receives the knowledge corner in the corresponding color for the correct answer. Only when a question is answered incorrectly is it the next player's turn.

If a player who does not yet have all the wedges hits the center square, he may choose the category of the question asked there.

When the player has collected all six wedges, he must take his token to the center field in order to answer a question from a category previously selected by the other players. If he succeeds, he has won the game. Should he fail with the question, the game continues and he must try again to reach the center field in the next rounds.

In newer editions (Master, DVD, Food & Drink, ...) the color brown has been replaced by purple. In the edition The Lord of the Rings the colors are arranged differently.

Editions

The Genus Edition and some other editions, such as the Family and Junior Editions, have been and are constantly being revised and brought up to date. The first genus edition had 6,000 questions; in the second edition, half were replaced by new ones. The 1994 Genus III Edition contained a total of 4,800 new questions. The revised version of the following year, without any additions and in a new design, contained around a fifth of new questions.

Some editions - Genus II, Junior, Baby Boomer - came in two versions with 3,000 or 6,000 questions. The 6,000-question version contained all the questions in the 3,000-question version.

If you add up all the questions, around 150,000 different questions were asked in the German versions alone by 2009, and over 200,000 by 2012.

Over the years, numerous variants and additions of Trivial Pursuit have appeared in German-speaking countries:

Board games & supplements

Classic Edition (2017)
Master Edition (2009)
Deluxe (2007)
Genus II (card set expansion, 1986, 1989)
Genus Edition (from 1984, several editions)
Genus Edition Austria (from 1985, several editions)
Genus Edition Switzerland
Junior Edition (1985, 2011)
Junior Edition (1990, set of cards)
for kids (2004)
Children's Edition (1995)
Family Edition (from 1995, several editions)
Family edition Austria

80s (2000)
90s (2005)
2000 edition (2016, heavily modified game principle ¹ )
Millennium Edition (1998)
1993 edition (1993)
1994/1995 edition (1994, also as Austria edition)
1996 Edition (1995, also for Austria)
1997 Edition (1996, also for Austria)
1998 Edition (1997, also for Austria)
20 Years Edition (2004)
250 Years of the Austrian Numbers Lottery (2002)
40 Years Edition (2018)
50 Years of Germany Edition (1999)

Bayern Edition (map set expansion, 1989)
BILD Edition (2002)
Baby Boomer Edition (card set expansion, 1986)
Disney Edition (card set expansion)
Disney DVD Edition (2005)
Disney Edition (1999, 2005)
Disney Edition (2010, heavily modified gameplay ² )
Disney Family Edition (2009)
DVD Edition (2005)
Entertainment Edition (1988, card set expansion)
Evergreen Edition (1991)

Holiday Edition (1990, card set expansion)
Kronen Zeitung 1900-2000 Edition
Musik Edition (1989, as a standalone game (including MC / CD) and as a card set extension)
Olympic Edition Austria (2000)
Olympic Edition (1992, card set expansion)
Star Wars Classic Trilogy Edition (1997)
Star Wars Edition Black (2016)
Star Wars DVD Edition (2005)
TV Edition (1992)
World Cup Edition (1998)
Worldwide Edition (2003)

^{1: Question cards with individual subcategories, own playing field}
^{2: Own question cards, own playing field.}

Compact & travel editions

Travel Edition (1991)
Genus Compact Edition (2003)
Genus Compact Edition Austria
Family compact edition (2003)
Family compact edition Austria

The Big Bang Theory (2015) [1]
Disney Travel Game (1995)
Disney Pixar Compact (2008)
Dinosaur Compact (2017) [2]
German Football Association trip (2014) [3]
Food and drink travel game (1995)

Eating and Drinking Compact (2008)
FC Bayern Munich travel game (2001)
Football Compact (1993)
Football Worldwide Compact (2007)
Girls vs Boys Compact (2007)
The Lord of the Rings Compact (2018) [4]
Harry Potter Compact (2014) [5]
Cinema travel game (1995)

Münster (2018) [6]
Music Compact Edition 1990-today (2006)
Celebrity Compact Edition (2004)
Rock & Pop Travel Game (1995)
Star Wars Compact Edition
World of Warcraft (2016) [7]

Computer game implementations

At least 18 computer games based on the Trivial Pursuit license have been released since 1986 . The first implementations were carried out by the British publisher Domark , who had secured exclusive rights. Over the years, variants appeared with the Star Wars film series and the animated series The Simpsons as a theme.

More games from the brand

Shuffle (2014)

Card game with both action cards and quiz cards with 330 questions. Optional use with a smartphone application. Quiz cards can also be used for normal expenses.

Party (2013)

Board game for groups with a reduced set of rules, answers are always alternating, the aim here is also to gain six knowledge corners, but these are free in the choice of categories. 1200 questions. Quiz cards can also be used for normal expenses.

Bet & Win (2011)

Board game with 1800 quiz questions. Instead of just using correct answers, knowledge corners can also be gained by assessing the answers to questions from fellow players. Quiz cards have a wider format and cannot be easily combined with other editions.

Steal (2009)

Card game with both action cards and quiz cards with 330 questions. Quiz cards can also be used for normal expenses.

Team (2009)

Board game for groups with question sets. These cannot be used with other editions.

Question categories

The different colors on the question cards represent different question categories. The following table lists the individual categories for some editions:

Edition	year	ask	matchfield Fields between spokes	blue	pink	yellow	Brown / purple	green	orange
Gender I	1984	6000	6 fields	Geography	entertainment	history	Art and literature	science and technology	Sport and fun
Genus II	1986	6000	-
Genus III	1989	4800	6 fields
Genus (1995)	1995	4800	6 fields
Genus (2005)	2005	2400	6 fields
Deluxe	2007	3600	6 fields
master	2009	3000	6 fields	Geography	entertainment	history	Art and literature	science and technology	Sport and fun
Classic	2017	2400	6 fields	Geography	entertainment	history	Art and literature	science and technology	Sport and fun
Familys	1995	2400	5 fields	Geography	entertainment	history	Art and literature	science and technology	Sport and fun
Familys	2014	2400	3 fields	Geography	entertainment	history	Art and literature	science and technology	Sport and fun
Baby boomer	1986	6000	6 fields	Radio and television	Screen and stage	news	pressure	Trends and scene	Rock and pop
Bavaria Edition	1989	3000	-	geography	history	White-blue Bavarian	entertainment	Art & Literature	Sports & Freetime
The Big Bang Theory	2015	600	-	Seasons 1 + 2	season 3	Season 4	Season 5	Season 6	Season 7
BILD Edition	2002	1800	5 fields	Headlines	Gossip & Celebrities	Germany and the world	Scene & premieres	Soccer	Cars & Sports
dinosaur	2017	600	-	Popular culture	behavior	features	Friends, enemies and families	Lots of names	Discoveries
Disney (set of cards)	1992	1500	-	Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse	Donald, Daisy and Disney family	Cartoon films	Feature and animal films	Disney world	Songs and stories
Disney (travel game)	1995	600	-	Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse	Donald, Daisy and Disney family	Cartoon films	Feature and animal films	Disney world	Songs and stories
Disney Edition (1999)	2005	1800	5 fields	There was once...	Disney's wonder world	Monsters and villains	Heroes and heroines	Helpers & good spirits	Locations & all around
Disney Edition (2005)	2005	1200	6 fields	Heroes and heroines	Monsters and villains	Supporting roles	Locations and props	Action	Sayings and quotes
Disney DVD Edition	2005	2200	6 fields	Heroes and heroines	There was once...	Monsters and villains	Helpers & good spirits	Locations & all around	Disney's wonder world
Disney Family Edition	2009	1200	6 fields	Heroes and heroines	There was once...	Monsters and villains	Helpers & good spirits	Locations & all around	Disney's wonder world
German Football Association	2014	330	3 fields	National player and coach	Women's national team	History of the DFB	European Championship	World Championship	DFB Cup
DVD	2005	1950	6 fields	TV	Lifestyle	Gossip	music	Movie	Sports and games
entertainment	1988	3000	-	Hollywood	The German film	media	Way of life	People	music
Food and drink trip	1995	600	-	Cooking baking	Starters & desserts	Restaurants & Chefs	Wine, water & beer	Hard liquor & cocktails	Health & Nutrition
Eating and drinking compact	2008	600	-	beverages	Gourmets and chefs	Fast food	International kitchen	ingredients	culinary arts
Evergreen	1991	3000	6 fields	Sport and entertainment	health and nutrition	Travel and recreation	People and celebrities	History and politics	Culture
FC Bayern Munich travel game	2001	600	-	Player & coach	Club history	International triumphs	Goals, victories & defeats	We'll see	Club & Stadium
Football compact	1993	600	-	Player & coach	Bundesliga & amateur football	World championships	International tables & leagues	German football abroad	renewal
Football worldwide compact	2007	600	-	World football	Heroes & Strategists	Football history	World championships	Offside	Free kick
Girls vs. Boys	2007	1200	-	G: TV B: men's toys	G: women’s films B: sports	G: women's novels B: action films	G: Fashion & Style B: Music	G: Music B: Hot ladies	G: Great guys B: TV
Harry Potter (Compact)	2015	600	-	The dark arts	Hogwarts	Spells and Potions	Magic objects	magician	Magical animals and creatures
The Lord of the Rings (Compact)	2018	600	-	Objects	Bad guys	Heroes	Places and history	Arms and wars	Film production
Holiday (set of cards)	1990	2400	-	Dream destinations	Around the Mediterranean	Our neighbours	Winter vacation	Through German land	Travel tips
Millennium Edition	1998	1800	5 fields	Today and tomorrow	Hits and flops	Milestones	Ideas and visions	Geniuses and Stars	Science and cosmos
Junior	1985	6000	6 fields	country and people	Rock and pop	Technology and science	Culture and history	animals and plants	Sport and hobby
	1990	2400	-	country and people	Rock and pop	Technology and science	Culture and history	animals and plants	Sport and hobby
	2011	1500	3 fields	World history	Nature and life	Around the world	Show & Hobby	Sports & games	World of wonders
for kids	2004	1500	3 fields	World history	Nature and life	Around the world	Show & Hobby	Sports & games	World of wonders
children	1995	1500	3 fields	Comics and fairy tales	Songs and poems	Sports and games	plants and animals	Technology and geography	Motley and all sorts
movie theater	1995	600	-	Actors & Directors	The European film	The American film	Classic & cult films	Film genres	Behind the scenes
Muenster	2018	600	3 fields	Münster some time ago	Münster curious	Münster in general	Münster in numbers	Münster - city, country, people	Münster is unique
Music Edition (1989)	1989	3000	-	Teen idols	What mother should know	Swinging Sixties	After the Beatles	Between the notes	Everything in it
Musik Edition Kompakt (1990 to today)	2006	600	-	Soundtracks	Secondary notes	Bands	Solo artist	Pure music	Downloads
Olympic Edition Austria	2000	1800	5 fields	General	Austria	Heroes & Records	Summer games	Winter games	Oddities
Olympic	1992	1500	-	Olympic venues	Medals winners	Winter games	Summer games	Olympic highlights	Five rings
Celebrity Edition (set of cards)	2004	600	-	Brief fame	Affairs and relationships	Cinema highlights	Flashback	Second career	Gossip
Travel edition	1991	1200	-	Hearing and seeing	to eat and drink	to travel	sport and freetime	country and people	Current affairs
Rock & pop	1995	600	-	Bands & Groups	Men	Ladies	Hits & flops	Tours & scandals	Super mix
Star Wars complete set	1997	2100	6 fields	Weapons and vehicles	Across space	history	Heroes and scoundrels	Star world	Droids and Creatures
Star Wars Black	2016	1800	6 fields	The cantina	The power	Heroes & Villains	The saga	A galaxy far, far away	Hyperspace
Complete TV output set	1992	4800	6 fields	Stage and feature film	Music and entertainment	Familiar faces	Detective stories and series	Images and data	Sports and games
World of Warcraft	2015	600	6 fields	geography	Player characters	background knowledge	prey	Bad guys	Skirmishes
World Cup Edition	1998	1800	5 fields	Football from all over the world	Heroes & Strategists	Football history	The way to the cup	Offside	renewal
Worldwide Edition	2003	1800	6 fields	North America	South America	Australia / Oceania	Africa	Europe	Asia
20 years edition	2004	1800	6 fields	Around the world	entertainment	Facts, facts	Poet, thinker & artist	new technologies	Sports & Games
50 Years of Germany Edition	1999	1800	5 fields	Country & people	Art & entertainment	Data & facts	German heads	Economy & Science	Sports & Freetime
1980s	2000	1800	5 fields	News and events	Cinema and TV	Zeitgeist and the scene	Celebrities and Stars	Music and show	Medals and records
1990s	2005	1800	6 fields	Global village	Celebrities and Stars	Top news	Zeitgeist and the scene	Music and show	Heroes and Failures
2000s	2016	1800	5 fields	Here there	entertainment	Yesterday Today	All about art	Nature & technology	Leisure & sport
1993 (card set)	1993	1500	-	Headlines	show business	World events	Gossip	Sports news	Panorama
1994/1995 (card set)	1994	1500	-
1996 (card set)	1995	1500	-
1997 (card set)	1996	1500	-
1998 (card set)	1997	1500	-

Film, literature and pop culture

At the end of Spies Like Us (1985), disarmament negotiations between the USA and the Soviet Union are decided on trivial pursuit issues.
In the female version of the play An Unequal Couple (1985) by Neil Simon , friends meet for a trivial pursuit game.
In The Ghosts I Called ( Scrooged , 1988) Relatives of Francis Xavier Cross ( Bill Murray ) play Trivial Pursuit.
In the 47th episode of Seinfeld ( Have a Nice Weekend! / The Bubble Boy , 1992), George has to play Trivial Pursuit against an insufferable boy who has to live in a bubble for medical reasons. A dispute over a typo will damage the bladder.
In the Australian comedy My beloved Feind ( Dating the Enemy , 1996), singles without a date meet on Valentine's Day to play trivial pursuits.
In the music video for White & Nerdy (2006) by Weird Al Yankovic , a fictional trivial pursuit question card is shown.
In the bestseller Desecration ( Fasandræberne ; lit. Die Fasanenmordern , 2008) by Jussi Adler-Olsen , the children of a Danish detective, Jørgensen, are brutally murdered while playing trivial pursuits.
In Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010), Dale and Allison get closer while playing trivial pursuits.
In The Penguins from Madagascar , Trivial Pursuit is the favorite game of the penguin Kowalski.
In the 29th episode of The Goldbergs ( Not for wimps / Big Baby Ball , 2014) Barry is struggling with the fact that his sister Erica in Trivial Pursuit is better than him.
In Adaline Forever After (2015), Adaline ( Blake Lively ) ends the winning streak of William ( Harrison Ford ) at Trivial Pursuit in one scene .
In the US series The Originals , the game appears in the 19th episode of season 3 (2016).