Sorry is a game of sliding and ‘accidentally’ sending an opponent back to the start as players make their way around the board. If they find themselves at the peak of a slide that matches their pawn, should they still free-fall across the board, taking out any pawns in their wake?
When playing Sorry, players should not slide if they land on a slide the same color as their pawns. This is against the rules; it is only possible to slide when the slide is a different color from the pawn.
As well as not being able to slide on your own color, some other conditions of the slide are important to understand when playing Sorry. Read on for a more in-depth look at how the game works.
How Does The Slide Work In Sorry?
The slide is a feature of the Sorry board. It starts with an arrow and ends with a circle. During a game, if a player lands on the arrow of the slide, their pawn moves or slides to the circle space at the end of the slide.
If there are any pawns on the slide or at the end, they are pushed off their space and go back to the start zone. This is how the slide works.
Players should only slide if they land on the arrow space at the top of the slide as the final count of their turn. They don’t slide if the final count lands on a space in the middle of the slide.
When a player lands at the top of a slide that is the color of their pawn, they don’t slide. The turn ends with the pawn at the top of the slide.
How Do You Know Which Slide Is Yours In Sorry?
Players can identify which slide is theirs as the color of the slide will be the same as their chosen pawns. The board will have two slides of each color covering four or five spaces.
Each side of the board will have two slides of the same color next to their color’s start and finishing points.
Each player will choose or be assigned a set of pawns when starting the game. There are four different color pawns: blue, green, red, and yellow. Players will place their pawns on the start zone of the same color.
The slide which matches the color of their pawns and starting zone is their slide. They cannot slide down their own slide.
Can You Send Your Pawns Back To Start With A Slide?
When sliding, if the player’s pawns are in the slide, these will also get sent back to the starting point. No one is immune to the slide, so keep this in mind when moving your pieces around the board.
The only time pawns are safe is when the color of the slide matches the color of our pawns. As we cannot slide on our own color, we can’t send any pawns on that slide back to the start.
If another player lands on our slide, they can take advantage of this and send pawns of any color back to the start, so keep an eye on the opponent’s movements.
Can You SORRY Your Color?
In standard gameplay, players can’t get SORRY their own color. When they pick up a Sorry card, they must use it against opponents. If there are no opponents on the board, they will forfeit a turn, and the next player will go.
When playing a game of Sorry, players will take cards from a pack that will tell them what action to take. When pulling a Sorry card, they can take a pawn from the start zone and place it in a space occupied by another player.
The pawn originally occupying that space must return to its start zone.
If we’re able to utilize a Sorry card, this will give us a great opportunity to get ahead in the game. There are four Sorry cards in each pack. While it’s unlikely, we could randomly pick up all four; this could quickly secure us a win.
It’s also a great card to disrupt gameplay and can quickly switch places from losing to winning the game.
Can You Slide Or SORRY A Partner In Partner Mode?
In partner or team mode, where different colors are combined to play together, there will be occasions where players can slide or SORRY the color of their teammate, though this will set them back.
When it is not possible to use these features against the opposing team, but their partner’s pawn is available, they must take action.
When playing in a team, yellow and red are always partnered, and green and blue are always partnered, making two teams. If the team consists of yellow and red, and we move a red pawn onto a slide that isn’t red, then we will bump any pawns in the slide’s path back to the start.
The above includes red or yellow pawns.
During a team game where players are on the red/yellow team, and they pull a SORRY card while playing with a red pawn, and the only other pawn on the board is yellow, they must take this space.
Taking this space will send the yellow pawn back to the start. It’s impossible to forfeit a turn to save pawns from being moved.
Key Takeaways and Next Steps
Whether playing on our own or as part of a team, we now have all the know-how on using slides and sorry cards. They are great features that can shoot us ahead of other players and closer to winning.
But if we’re not careful, we might take out our pawns or say SORRY! to our teammates.
And hey – at least SORRY! isn’t Monopoly: Why Does Monopoly Cause Fights? (2 Ways to Avoid Game Fights!)
Happy gaming, friends!
Resources
Learning from your own experience is important, but learning from others is also smart. These are the sources used in this article and our research to be more informed as gamers.
- Triple S Games. (2015, December 23). How to Play Sorry! YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMdylyrST6w
- Playing SORRY! a ridiculous number of times with our family.