Facts in Five



Facts in Five: The Game of Knowledge is a trivia game for two or more players. It was originally published in 1964 by Advanced Ideas Co of Arlington, Massachusetts. In 1967, Facts in Five was acquired by the 3M Company for its bookshelf game series. In 1976, 3M divested its game business to Avalon Hill of Baltimore, which published it until 1998, when it disbanded. Hasbro bought the rights to Avalon Hill's games, but stopped publishing Facts in Five; the rights reverted to the game's inventor, Rick Onanian. In 2007, a new edition was published by University Games.

The game is based on the parlor game Categories. Onanian got the idea for the game after reading in the newspaper supplement This Week that Categories was the favorite word game of the recently deceased President John F. Kennedy.

Each game set included a number of cards, each containing one or more Class; within each Class may be one or more Category. The game also included tiles, one for each letter of the alphabet, a five-minute sand timer, and scorecards.

A round of the game begins with players taking turns drawing cards and selecting a Category (or a Class on certain cards). Five Categories are selected this way. Next, players draw five letter tiles in turn, and the timer is started. Before the timer runs out, players must write down as many items as possible that fit each category and begin with each letter, for a maximum of twenty-five answers. Five rounds make up a complete game, with scoring based on the number of valid answers given.

Scattergories is a similar game.