Categories: Official Rules

Name something in the category, on the beat, without repeating anyone.

Three or more players sit in a circle. Choose a first player.

Rule 1. The rhythm

Rule 1.1. The table sets a beat: two slaps on the knees, two claps. It keeps the beat for the whole round.

Rule 1.2. On the beat, the first player says "Categories," then on the next beat names a category: "Breakfast cereals."

Rule 2. Answering

Rule 2.1. Going left, each player names something in the category on their beat.

Rule 2.2. A player drinks for repeating an answer, giving an answer that isn't in the category, or missing the beat.

Rule 2.3. The player who drinks starts the next round with a new category.

• No rhythm. Players answer in turn, without the beat, within three seconds. Approved.
• The category-maker must be able to name five answers. Challenged and unable, they drink. Approved. It discourages "types of eighteenth-century lute."
• Rhymes instead of categories, as in the Kings Cup Nine. Approved.

"Cheerios" and "Honey Nut Cheerios." Repeat? No. They are different cereals. "Cheerios" and "Cheerio" are a repeat.

Who decides if an answer belongs in the category? The Official. A player who disagrees may challenge (Challenges and Instant Replay); the table votes, and the category-maker does not.

• Miss, repeat or wrong answer. Penalty: one drink. Signal: the Official claps twice, then points at the player.

Categories is played inside Kings Cup more often than it is played on its own, which the Commission regards as an injustice. Given its own table, Categories is the purest test in this book of what a player knows under pressure, and of how many breakfast cereals that is.

Play with any non-alcoholic drink. The beat is unchanged.