Game, set and maths
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Set is a board game created by Marsha Falco. Very popular in Britain, it is published in France by Gigamic. It consists of eighty-one unique cards. Each displays symbols combining three shapes (diamond, oval and squiggle), three colors (red, purple and green), three numbers (1, 2 and 3) and three types of shading (striped, solid and open). The game can be played by two to eight people.
Twelve cards are laid out on a table in a 3 × 4 rectangle. The aim is to find as many sets as possible. A set consists of three cards that meet the following criteria: the three shapes are either all identical or all different; the three colors are either all identical or all different; the three numbers are either all identical or all different; and the three types of shading are either all identical or all different. In the example below, the club's bouncer is wrong not to let the three cards in, since they are all completely different…
As soon as a player spots a set, they must call it out and show the three cards to the other players for verification. The three cards are then removed from the table and replaced with three more from the deck. If the twelve cards contain no set, three cards are added. If there are still no sets, another three cards are added. The game ends when the deck is empty and there are no more sets on the table.
