Game. SET. Score!

Been a while since I last wrote about a game. Our eldest was away at one set of Grandparents and so game playing with a 6 month old is a little harder when sleep is at a premium. But our eldest is back and so are the games!

In looking through our game closet I realized several of our games are by the same manufacturers. In other words - once you play enough games you begin to have favorite features/game mechanics. Think of it like  authors and books - you tend to like books by the same author or genre - games are the same way (see the last post on Fluxx). Today I'll look at another game where we own three of the four games made by the company.


So -- right now I'm balancing a baby and a laptop while the husband and eldest play SET on the floor. This is a game that can be played by yourself or with others. And it's great to watch from across the room and yell SETs as you see them.  Made by SET Enterprises Inc it is one of those card games played with a specialized deck.

So how does it work? Well the picture to the left shows how the cards are initially laid out, 12 cards face up. You then try to match sets. From the game's website this is how it works:

A SET is three cards that are either all the same or all different in each individual feature

There are no turns exactly - you call a set and you pick them up. So, if you and I were around the cards shown in the picture I would exclaim, "SET!" I would then declare my set of:

• 1 solid green squiggle
• 2 solid green squiggles
• 3 solid green squiggles

And then we would deal out three cards to replace the SET I just located. You might then say, "Set!" and then declare:

• 3 solid purple diamonds
• 2 empty green ovals
• 1 red striped squiggle

Then we would deal out three more cards to replace the SET you located.

If we had 12 cards out that didn't have any sets then we would lay out 3 more cards in a row. We continue this process until we make it through the entire deck. To see who the winner is we count up all the sets we've collected and highest number wins.  

You can give it a try yourself with their Daily Set Puzzle available online.
Or there is a great walk through tutorial which shows you a wide variety of the different 'sets' available.

I like this game more than a traditional matching game because it requires you to think outside the box for your matches - because you also get to work in the concept of 'one of these things is not like the other' (so what are the similar not like the others) to find matches based on no similarities. And because the game is based on observational skills it doesn't require reading - just a keen eye (or two or more). 

Our eldest actually got introduced to the game in 1st grade during an enrichment class. She was so excited to come home and tell us about this game. We laughed, because we hadn't thought to introduce it to her yet - but we quickly went out to the game closet and retrieved it to play together.

We just play the standard game of SET - but they do make Junior versions of all their games. Not sure what the major difference is but they would, no doubt, be good in a classroom setting.

The other games we have from the makers of SET are Xactika and Quiddler. Both of which we like and help develop other skills. I'll talk about them later. 

So go forth and try SET online then go out and buy yourself a deck to play with by yourself (it beats facebook games) or with friends.