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How to play Sorry! (2026) — the bump-and-slide board game. This is not the party card game people search as “sorry what.” If you wanted the social bluff deck, use Sorry, What? rules instead.
Family-table picks while you use your own Sorry! set: Yahtzee for dice, Connect 4 for a short duel, Exploding Kittens when the board gets retired for the night. Hub: game night picks.
Same table, different boxes
Sorry! is its own race board and card deck. We are not attaching a random product code to it. These are separate in-stock games if the closet does not have Sorry! tonight.
- Dice pick: Yahtzee — scorecard race with five dice
- Short duel: Connect 4 — one grid, no pawns to bump
- Card chaos: Exploding Kittens — 2–5 players, no board
Setup
Each player takes four pawns of one color and parks them in Start. The track is a shared loop with a color-matched Safety Zone near each home. Shuffle the Sorry! cards into a draw pile. Youngest, or the person who was bumped last week, goes first — pick one and stick to it.
On your turn
Draw one card and do exactly what it says. You cannot pass on a move you are able to take, unless the card gives a choice (some 7s and 11s split or swap). If you cannot move, the turn ends. Discard and continue clockwise.
Cards you will actually see
- 1 or 2: move out of Start, then move that many spaces if the card says so. A 2 often grants an extra draw in classic rules — read your deck; printings differ.
- 3, 5, 8, 12: move a pawn that many spaces forward.
- 4: move backward four. Backward can be how you enter a useful slide.
- 7: split the seven between two pawns, or put it all on one.
- 10: move forward ten, or backward one.
- 11: move forward eleven, or switch one of your pawns with an opponent’s pawn (not a pawn in Safety or Start).
- Sorry!: take a pawn from Start and bump an opponent’s pawn on the main track back to their Start. That is the whole point of the box.
Bumps, slides, safety
- Land on an opponent on the main track: send them back to Start. Two of your own pawns cannot share a square.
- Slide spaces: if you land on the triangle start of a slide that is not your color, ride it and bump anyone in the way, including the end.
- Do not slide your own color. Stop on the triangle.
- Safety Zone: only you may enter, and only with an exact move. Opponents cannot bump you there. Home also requires an exact count.
Winning
Get all four pawns from Start, around the board, through your Safety Zone, and into Home. First player to house all four wins. Do not start a “first to one pawn” variant unless the table voted — it deletes the Sorry! card.
Mistakes
- Drawing a second card because the first move was boring. One card.
- Bumping inside Safety. Illegal.
- Confusing this board with the “Sorry, What?” party game. Different product, different night.
- Forgetting backward 4s can reach a slide you wanted.
FAQ
How many players?
Two to four. At two, it is meaner because every Sorry! card has a target.
How long?
About 30 minutes if people stop negotiating the 11-swap. Use a one-minute sand timer if the swap debates start.