How to play Sorry!

What you need

• The Sorry! board, with a Start circle, a Safety Zone and a Home for each of the four colors
• 16 pawns, 4 in each color
• The Sorry! deck. It has no 6s or 9s; the cards are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 and Sorry!

No dice, no money, no score sheet for the standard game. Everything is driven by the card you draw.

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Set up the game

1. Each player picks a color and puts all four pawns on that color's Start space.
2. Shuffle the deck and place it face down on "Place Pack Here" to form the draw pile. Discards go face up on "Discard Here."
3. Pick a first player. Pawns move clockwise around the board unless a card says otherwise, and turns pass to the left.
4. Faster option from the rulebook: put three pawns on Start and the fourth already out on the circle just below your Start.

Playing Sorry!

1. Draw and move. On every turn, take the top card, do what it says if you can, and discard it.
2. Getting out of Start. Only a 1 or a 2 moves a pawn from Start onto the circle just outside it. A 2 also gives you another draw. No other card starts a pawn, not even a 7. (A Sorry! card is the exception, see below.)
3. Jumping and bumping. You may jump over any pawn in your path, counting its space. If you end your move on a space holding an opponent's pawn, that pawn goes back to its own Start.
4. Slides. Land exactly on the triangle at the start of a slide that is not your color and you slide to the end, bumping every pawn along the slide back to Start, including your own. On a slide of your own color, you do not slide.
5. Safety Zone and Home. Only your pawns may enter your Safety Zone. Opponents cannot reach you there. You cannot move forward past your Safety Zone entry on the outer track. Pawns reach Home only by exact count; once Home, they never move again.
6. Must move. If any legal move exists, you must take it, even if it hurts you. If none exists, you forfeit the turn. Two of your own pawns can never share a space, so if your only move would land on your own pawn, you forfeit.
7. Winning. First player with all four pawns Home wins. If you play again, the winner goes first.

On your very first turn, if you have no pawn on the track and do not draw a 1 or 2, you skip that turn.

What every card does

The details that settle most arguments:

• 7: you may not use it to start a pawn. If you use part of a 7 to get a pawn Home, you must be able to use the rest on another pawn.
• 11: the switch only works between pawns on the open track, never in Start, Home or a Safety Zone. If you cannot go forward 11 and do not want to switch, you may forfeit. If the switch lands you on another color's slide triangle, you slide.
• Sorry!: take a pawn from your Start, put it on any space occupied by an opponent, and bump that pawn to its Start. With no pawn in your Start, or no opponent you can reach, the card is wasted.
• 4 and 10 backward: a pawn that moves backward at least two spaces past your own Start space can, on a later turn, go straight into your Safety Zone without lapping the board. No pawn may enter a Safety Zone by a backward move, but a pawn may back out of one and return on a later turn.
• Your start circle: you can never have two pawns on it. If an opponent's pawn sits there when you start a pawn, bump it.

A sample round, turn by turn

Four players: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green. Early game, each has one pawn out.

Red draws a 2. Red can start a second pawn or move the existing one 2. Red starts a pawn, then draws again as the 2 requires: a 5. Red moves the first pawn 5 and lands exactly on the triangle of Blue's slide. Red slides to the end. Blue's pawn was sitting partway along the slide, so it goes back to Blue's Start.

Blue draws a 3. Blue has no pawn on the track any more. A 3 cannot start a pawn, so Blue's turn is lost.

Yellow draws a Sorry!. Yellow takes a pawn from its Start, places it on Red's furthest-ahead pawn, and that Red pawn returns to Red's Start.

Green draws a 4. Green's only pawn has just left Start. Moving it backward 4 puts it behind Green's own Start space, more than two spaces back. On a later turn it can move forward straight into Green's Safety Zone instead of lapping the whole board. A bad-looking card turns into a shortcut.

Red draws a 7. Red has one pawn 4 spaces from Home and another on the track. Red moves the first pawn 4 into Home and the other pawn 3 forward. Both parts have to be legal for the split to count.

Scoring, with a worked example

The standard game has no points: first to get four pawns Home wins. The rulebook includes an optional adult variant that is played for points (see Variants). Its scoring:

• Every player scores 5 points for each of their pawns in Home.
• The winner also scores 5 points for each opponent's pawn not in Home.
• Winner bonus: 25 if no opponent has more than two pawns Home, 50 if no opponent has more than one, or 100 if no opponent reached Home at all.

Worked example. Three players. Red wins with 4 pawns Home. Blue has 2 Home, Green has 1. Red scores 4 × 5 = 20 for its own pawns, plus 5 for each of the 5 opponent pawns not Home (2 Blue, 3 Green) = 25, plus a 25 bonus because nobody else has more than two Home. Red's total is 70. Blue scores 10 and Green scores 5. Only the highest of the three bonuses applies, which is how most groups read it.

Beginner strategy tips

1. Get more than one pawn out. With only one pawn on the track, you often face a forced bad move or a wasted card. Two or three pawns give you choices.
2. Use 4s on purpose. A pawn just past your Start that goes back 4 can head straight to your Safety Zone on a later turn, skipping almost the whole lap.
3. Park outside the danger zone. Pawns sitting just behind an opponent are bumping targets for small cards. Sitting in your own Safety Zone makes you untouchable.
4. Do not empty your Start too fast. A Sorry! card does nothing if you have no pawn in Start. Keeping one back means that card is always a weapon.
5. Use the 11 switch as a catapult. Swap your rearmost pawn with an opponent's leading pawn near your Safety Zone. You jump forward and they jump back.
6. Split 7s to finish. Late in the game, a 7 split can bring one pawn Home exactly and move another.
7. Watch slide triangles. Moving onto an opponent's slide start is a free boost and a way to clear pawns off it.

Common mistakes and rule disputes

• Starting a pawn with any card. Only 1, 2 or a Sorry! brings a pawn out of Start.
• Forgetting the extra draw on a 2. You always draw again, even if you could not use the 2.
• Stopping short of Home. Home needs an exact count. If the card overshoots, move a different pawn if you can.
• Skipping a move you dislike. If a legal move exists, you must make it. The single exception is the 11, which you may forfeit when you cannot go forward 11 and do not want to switch.
• Bumping your own pawn by landing on it. Not allowed; you cannot land on your own pawn at all. But a slide does bump your own pawns in its path.
• Sliding on your own color. You stay put on your own slide's triangle.
• Backing into the Safety Zone. No pawn may enter a Safety Zone by a backward move.
• Using the 11 switch on a pawn in a Safety Zone. Not allowed; switches only involve pawns on the open track.
• Mixing up editions. The three-pawn edition plays differently. This guide covers the 16-pawn classic.

Variants and house rules

Official, in the 00390 booklet:

• Team play. Red partners Yellow and Green partners Blue. You may move or bump your own or your partner's pawns. Sorry! cards must be used even if that means bumping your own team. A 7 may be split among any of your team's eight pawns. First team with all eight pawns Home wins.
• Play for points (adults). Each player holds a hand of five cards, plays one per turn and draws back up to five. If no card can move, discard one and draw, and your turn ends. Score as described above.
• Fast start. Begin with one pawn already out on the start circle.

House rules (not official, agree first): some families let any card start a pawn on the first turn to avoid early skipped turns, and some allow passing on any card, which removes the "must move" sting. Both make the game gentler and longer.

Teach it in 5 minutes

1. "Get all four of your pawns from Start, around the board, into Home. First one done wins."
2. "On your turn, draw a card and do what it says."
3. "You need a 1 or 2 to leave Start. A 2 also gives you another card."
4. "Land on someone and they go back to Start. Sorry!"
5. "4 goes backward. 10 can go back 1. 7 can be split between two pawns. 11 lets you swap places with someone."
6. "Land on the start of someone else's slide and zoom to the end, knocking everyone off it."
7. "Your colored lane near Home is safe. You need the exact number to get Home."

Ages and group size

Six and up, as the box says. Younger children can play on a team with an adult using the official team rules. The game is best with four, when the board is crowded and bumping is constant. With two players it still works, but it is less dramatic; the team rules with each player running two colors are a good fix. Adults who find the standard game too random usually enjoy the five-card hand variant.

Check yourself

Questions about this game

Sources and edition notes

Hasbro Sorry! classic 16-pawn edition, distinct from A5065 three-pawn edition.

Rules re-checked against the Hasbro 00390 instructions October 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing. House rules above are labeled and are not part of the official game.

• Hasbro: Sorry! classic 16-pawn product instructions
• Hasbro: Sorry! 00390 instructions (PDF)

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