Game, Set, Match
Written: Mar 01 '06
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Pros: Clever game of visual perception with endless variations suitable for adults and kids alike.
Cons: Color-blind players will be confounded by the poor ergonomic design.
The Bottom Line: Great game of visual perception and logical reasoning, suitable for the whole family and endlessly variable. Solitaire or multiplayer, competitive or cooperative. Its only downside: poor accommodation of colorblind players.
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| theeye's Full Review: SET |
Introduction: In Which We Meet a Much-Beloved Game
Packing for vacation when you've got a five-year-old math whiz and game addict in tow is an experience not dissimilar to packing when bringing a baby along. Instead of carefully checking that you've got enough diapers and wipes, though, you find yourself worrying about how you can fit an acceptably diverse collection of puzzles and games into your luggage, with an eye to maximizing the Diversion to Volume ratio, while minimizing the Small Pieces Which Will Surely Be Lost factor.
We did pretty well on our recent Florida trip. Along with several favorite ThinkFun solitaire puzzles, we brought along some workbooks and a couple of multiplayer card games to play with Grandma and Grandpa: Aquarius and a new favorite, Set. We managed to pack quite a lot of fun into that little suitcase along with The Kid's clothes.
Care to guess which suitcase Continental misplaced upon our return to New York?
The Kid was only mildly alarmed when it became apparent that no more bags were coming off the carousel. He got a bit fidgety in the baggage claim office, but seemed to accept my assurances that the suitcase would be delivered to us at home before long. A few tears and a half-suppressed sob escaped him that evening when I had to explain that all of his favorite pajamas were in that bag, but he put on a less-favored set without too much complaint.
It was when he then asked to play one game before bedtime and picked Set that all hell broke loose. I cringed as I broke the news that Set was in the wayward bag.
Why did you put it in that suitcase, Mommy? How could you do that to me? Will I ever get it back?, he wailed as tears poured down his face.
When my son takes to a game, you see, he takes to it hard. Thankfully, the suitcase was in our apartment by morning and, once he'd confirmed that his beloved Set game was really there, The Kid was finally mollified.
Ready, Set, Go
So what kind of card game is it that has so captivated my young gamer?
Unlike most kids' card games, which amount to slightly modified versions of standard playing cards, Set consists of a largish deck of 81 cards (conveniently packaged in a double-sided hard plastic case) unlike any cards you've ever seen before. There are no numerals or suits, per se, in evidence here, just some starkly abstract symbols on a plain white background.
Each card face features:
(a) one of three different shapes (diamonds, ovals and a shape we've dubbed the 'squiggly'),
(b) one, two or three copies of the shape,
(c) solid, hatched or empty shading of the interior of the shape(s),
(d) red, purple, or green coloring.
With every possible combination of these four characteristics (shape, number, shading and color) represented, the deck comprises 81 unique cards. (Do the math, folks: it's good for you. Three raised to the fourth power.)
The object of the game, which can be played either competitively or cooperatively, is to identify sets of cards. In this context, a set is defined as a group of three cards such that, for each of the four characteristics (shape, number, shading, color), one of the following two conditions obtains: (a) the characteristic is the same on all three cards or (b) the characteristic is different for all three cards.
Okay, stop hyperventilating. I'll rephrase for those among you who aren't math geeks.
For three cards to constitute a set, they've got to be all the same color. Or all different colors. And they've got to feature the same shape. Or all different shapes. The shading's got to be the same or different on all three and the colors must all match or all be different.
Got it? If exactly two of your three cards match in one of the four characteristics and the third card doesn't match -- if One of These Things Is Not Like The Others -- then you haven't got a set. They've got to be all the same or all different.
Getting Into the Right Mindset
I taught my five-year-old son this concept in about three minutes by using the following method. Deal two random cards face up. There is exactly one card which will complete the set: if you understand the concept, you should be able to describe that card.
For example, if you've got (a) two solid purple diamonds and (b) one hatched purple oval, what do you need to complete the set? (Give it a little thought before you read on.)
Answer: The third card would have to feature three empty purple squigglies. Your set will then consist of three cards whose numbers, shading and shapes are all different and whose colors are all the same.
For a little practice in identifying sets, take a look over here: http://www.setgame.com/set/test.htm
Now that you've got the hang of identifying sets, you're ready to play. The basic rules couldn't be simpler. Deal out twelve cards into a three by four array visible to all players. The first person to find a set calls out 'Set!' and shows the other players the putative set. Once everyone's confirmed that it's a valid set, the three cards are given to the player who found them and three new cards are dealt in their place.
Of course, it's not as simple as it sounds. Even experienced players, in the heat of competitive play, may prematurely call a set only to find, after closer inspection, that, say, one of those shapes is not like the other two. The official rules call for a penalty point to be assessed against the player; in practice, we find that keeping score in this game is highly optional. The fun (and there's a lot of it for kids and adults alike) is all in the process.
Occasionally, you'll find that there's no set at all to be found in a group of twelve cards. Confirming the negative finding can be a surprisingly involved task: finding a set requires good visual perception skills, but proving the absence of one is a problem in pure logical reasoning. Once you've demonstrated to the satisfaction of all players that there is no set to be found, the rules call for dealing out another three cards and continuing play. When the next set is identified, the cards are NOT replaced, reducing the number of cards on the table back to twelve.
Doing It Your Way
As you might well imagine, the game lends itself well to solitaire play and to all sorts of inventive alternate rules. There are poker-like variants in which you have to make sets by combining cards in your hands with cards on the table and variants in which you can create overlapping sets. After you've played around with the cards for a while, you'll probably invent some of your own.
The math geeks among my readers have already realized that the game also implicates all sorts of interesting math puzzles; they are undoubtedly already scribbling away trying to decide how many cards you need to guarantee that there will be at least one set represented. I encourage you to explore the footnote section of this review for links to a number of interesting on-line resources for some more creative uses and analyses of Set.
Color Me Just a Bit Disappointed
Along with my puzzle-loving, game-addicted five-year-old, our entire family has enjoyed playing many hours of Set. It's a cleverly designed game with lots of replayability, suitable and challenging for all ages and conducive to endless variation. So why, you may be wondering, am I rating it with only four stars instead of five?
My son, you see, is color-blind. He has been diagnosed with red-green deficiency, a not uncommon problem among boys and men. Normally, this creates remarkably few problems: color-blindness is more complex than people generally realize and even people with clinical red-green deficiency can distinguish certain shades of the colors depending on how saturated the tones are and just how the light falls on them.
Unfortunately, SET Enterprises selected shades of red and green for this game that are particularly difficult for my son to distinguish. While he enjoys playing the game, he frequently has to ask us for confirmation of the color of a particular card. It hasn't dampened his enthusiasm for the game, but it clearly slows him down a lot. (This is one reason we tend to favor a more cooperative mode of play.)
With only three colors in use, it would seem to be a simple matter to consult an ergonomics expert with experience in color-blindness accommodation to identify three colors easily distinguishable by the vast majority of the population. I dearly hope that SET Enterprises will take this simple step to correct this highly unfortunate design flaw in a second edition of the game.
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Additional information and resources:
Manufacturer's page: http://www.setgame.com/set/
Alternative rules: http://www.setgame.com/set/otherules.htm
For math geeks only: http://www.setgame.com/set/mathtricks.htm
Play SET on-line (daily puzzle): http://www.setgame.com/puzzle/set.htm
Information on color-blindness: http://www.firelily.com/opinions/color.html
Some solitaire brainteaser games for puzzle addicts young and old: Amaze, River Crossing, Rush Hour, Jr., Roadside Rescue, Hoppers
Multi-player games: Aquarius, Fluxx,Kill Dr. Lucky, Loco!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): (gift)
Type of Toy: Game
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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Epinions.com ID:
theeye
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Location: New York, NY (it's a hell of a town!)
Reviews written: 66
Trusted by: 165 members
About Me:
Company president, math geek, first time mom at 39, epinion addict. Sleep? Not lately.
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