GeoTriple:  2 Players

What You Should Know Before You Play

The object of the game is to be the first player to get 100 points by using your knowledge of U.S. geography, your quick reflexes and your card playing skills.  If you love variety, you’ll love this game.

Play one round at a time until someone wins the game.  Each round has three stages: Guess the State, Race for Borders, and Play the Ranks, played in that order. In Stage 1 of a round, you use what you know (or learn) of U.S. geography to guess the state of the GeoPlunge card your opponent has.  Don’t worry, you’ll get clues about your opponent’s card before you have to guess.  Of course, your opponent is trying to guess your card too.

In Stage 2 of each round, your goal is to --  as fast as you can -- find winning groups of cards among those you were dealt.  Make no mistake about it – THIS STAGE IS A RACE.   You use what you know (and learn) about U.S. border states to help you quickly find the winning groups of cards.

In Stage 3 of each round, 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, determine 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 2 of each round. 

Stage 1:  Guess the State

*         Deal both players 1 GeoPlunge card.  Each player tries to guess the state of the other’s card.

*         The players get 3 guesses each. The dealer makes his or her guesses first.

*         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 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.  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).

*        Each round, you win this stage if you guess your opponent’s card in fewer guesses than he or she takes to guess your card.  It’s a tie if you each take the same number of guesses before guessing correctly, or neither of you ever guesses right.

Stage 2:  Race for Borders

Ø        For each round, to start this stage deal 18 GeoPlunge cards to each player.  Don’t look at your cards until they’re all dealt, and the dealer shouts “Go.”

Ø      Then using only the cards you are dealt, try to – as fast as you can -- find two groups of 3 cards each, in which for each group

o       1 state in the group borders the other two states in the group.

Ø        You cannot use the same card in both groups.

Ø      Shout “GeoPlunge” as soon as you find 2 winning groups.

Ø      The first player to shout “GeoPlunge” and then immediately place face-up the 2 winning groups of cards (and no other cards) wins this stage.

 Stage 3:  Play the Ranks

D        Whoever wins Stage 2 of a round is the dealer for Stage 3 of that round. To start Stage 3, deal 8 GeoPlunge cards to each player. Each player then chooses 2 cards to discard so each has only 6 cards left.

D       Beginning with the dealer, each player then announces whether he or she is “GeoPlunging” on this stage of that round.  GeoPlunging does not impact the play of the game, it only impacts the scoring (see “Keeping Score” below).

D        Play 6 “tricks”, one at a time, with the remaining cards. On each trick, each player plays 1 of his or her cards.

D        To begin a trick, one player plays a card face-up first (this is called “leading” on the trick). The other player then plays a card face-up.  At that point, the trick is over.  You’re now ready to begin the next trick.  This continues until all 6 tricks are played.

D       The dealer leads on the first trick.  After that, 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.)

D       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.

D       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 a better size ranking than the card played by your opponent.

D       For each round, you need to win at least 4 tricks to win this stage.  However, if both players win 3 tricks, you win this stage for the round if YOU WON THE LAST TRICK PLAYED. 

Keeping Score

You get 10 points for winning Stage 1 during a round (and both players receive 5 points for tying in Stage 1), and 10 points for winning Stage 2 during a round. 

The winner of Stage 3 during a round wins 5 points, except that if either player is GeoPlunging on Stage 3 of that round, the winner of that stage receives 10 points, and if both players are GeoPlunging on Stage 3, the winner of that stage receives 20 points.