Geombination:  2 To 5 Players

What You Should Know Before You Play

The object of the game is to be the first player (or team) to get 50 points by using your knowledge of U.S. geography and your card playing skills.  If you like games that involve trivia and card playing, you’ll love this game.

Play one round at a time until someone wins the game.  Each round has two stages: Stage 1 and Stage 2.  In Stage 1 of a round, you use what you know (or learn) of U.S. geography to guess the state of 1 of the GeoPlunge cards an opponent has.  Don’t worry, you’ll get clues about your opponent’s card before you have to guess.  Of course, one of your opponents is trying to guess the state of 1 of your GeoPlunge cards too.

In Stage 2 of a round, how well you did in Stage 1, your card playing skills, and the state rankings (from 1^st to 50^th) in size, statehood and population of the GeoPlunge cards you play, determines how well you’ll do. The Alaska card has the best (i.e., 1^st) size ranking, Delaware has the best statehood ranking, and California has the best population ranking.

Use the GeoPlunge cards throughout the game, and also use the GeoChallenge cards in Stage 1 of each round.  Shuffle each deck after every round, and also shuffle the GeoPlunge cards after Stage 1 of each round. 

How to Play

To start each round, deal each player 7 GeoPlunge cards.

Stage 1

*          To start Stage 1 of a round, each player chooses 1 of his or her cards to be that player’s “selected card” for that round.

*          With 2 players, you try to guess the state of your opponent’s selected card, and he or she tries to guess the state of your selected card. 

*          With more than 2 players, the player to your right tries to guess your selected card, and you try to guess the player to your left’s selected card.  The dealer guesses first, then the player to the left of the dealer guesses and so on in clockwise order around the table.

*          When it’s your turn to guess, pick the top card in the GeoChallenge card deck and read it out loud.  Based on what that GeoChallenge card says, your opponent gives you a clue about his or her selected card.  Then make your guess.  If you get it wrong, pick the next GeoChallenge card in the card deck and read it out loud.  Your opponent will then give you another clue about that same selected card.  Make your second guess.  This continues until you guess right – or you miss all 3 guesses.  (Place GeoChallenge cards at the bottom of the deck after use).

*          If you guess correctly on the first guess, take 3 extra cards from the top of the GeoPlunge deck.  If you guess correctly on the 2^nd guess, take 1 extra card from the top of the GeoPlunge deck.

*          If you guess correctly on the third guess, your opponent (whose card you were trying to guess), takes 1 extra card from the top of the GeoPlunge deck.  If you miss all three guesses, your opponent takes 3 extra cards from the top of the GeoPlunge deck.

*          After all of the guessing is done, if you have more than 7 GeoPlunge cards, discard some of your cards (face-down) so that you only have 7 cards left.

Stage 2

¨         Play 7 “tricks” during Stage 2 of a round, one at a time.  On each trick, every player plays 1 of his or her GeoPlunge cards.  

¨         To begin a trick, one player plays a card face-up first (this is called “leading” on the trick). From there, play proceeds in clockwise order around the table until each player has played one card face-up. At that point, the trick is over.  You’re now ready to begin the next trick.  This continues until all the tricks are played.

¨         The dealer leads on the first trick played during a round.  For the rest of the round, the player who wins a trick leads a card to start the next trick.  (Whenever you win a trick, put the cards played during that trick face-down in a separate pile next to you.)

¨         Whenever you’re leading on a trick, before playing your card you must choose (by saying out loud) whether the cards to be played on that trick will be ranked based on Size, Statehood or Population.

¨         To win the trick, you must play the best ranked card played on the trick in the category announced by the person leading. For example, if the player leading says “Size”, you’ll win the trick if the card you played has the best size ranking of all of the cards played on that trick. 

Keeping Score

The player (or team) that wins the most tricks in Stage 2 of a round receives 10 points.  If there is a tie, they each get 5 points.  The winning player or team in a round also gets 10 bonus points if they win at least 5 tricks, and 25 bonus points for winning all 7 tricks.   

With teams, add up the tricks won by each teammate to determine how many tricks the team won during that round.