Categories
Global pencil-and-paper game — fill columns like Name, Place, Animal, Thing with words starting with a random letter, unique answers score.
What is Categories?
Categories is the ancestral pencil-and-paper game commercialised as Scattergories. Players prepare a grid of columns (traditionally Name, Place, Animal, Thing — or in German Stadt, Land, Fluss). A random letter is chosen; everyone races to fill in a word starting with that letter for each column. Unique correct answers score full points, duplicates score half, blanks nil. Played worldwide under many names — Indian schoolchildren know it as 'Name, Place, Animal, Thing'; German pupils as Stadt-Land-Fluss.
Quick facts
Category
Puzzle Games
Type
Individual
Players
2–8
Where played
indoor
Country of origin
🇩🇪 Germany
Estimated origin
Traditional across Europe; German Stadt-Land-Fluss documented since 19th century; Indian Name-Place-Animal-Thing modern
Olympic
No
Popularity
global