Set is a card game designed by Marsha Falco and published by Set Enterprises, Inc. in 1991. The deck consists of 81 cards varying in four features: number (one, two, or three); symbol (diamond, squiggle, or oval); shading (solid, striped, or open); and color (red, green, or purple). Each possible combination of features (e.g., a card with three striped green ovals) appears precisely once in the deck. Set placed 9th in the 1995 Deutscher Spiele Preis.

Games

Several games can be played with these cards, all involving the concept of a set. A set consists of three cards which satisfy all of these conditions:

• They all have the same number, or they have three different numbers.
• They all have the same symbol, or they have three different symbols.
• They all have the same shading, or they have three different shadings.
• They all have the same color, or they have three different colors.

The rules of Set are most elegantly described thus:

Iff two are and one is not, then it is not a set.

Given any two cards from the deck, there will be one and only one other card that forms a set with them. One example of a set would be these three cards:

• One red striped diamond
• Two red solid diamonds
• Three red open diamonds

In one game, the dealer lays out cards on the table until either twelve are laid down or someone sees a set and calls "Set!" The player who called "Set" takes the cards in the set and the dealer continues to deal out cards until twelve are on the table. If a player sees a set among the twelve cards, he calls "Set" and takes the three cards, and the dealer lays three more cards on the table. It is possible that there is no set among the 12 cards; in this case, the dealer deals out three more cards to make fifteen dealt cards, or eighteen or more, as necessary. This process of dealing by threes and finding sets continues until the deck is exhausted and there are no more sets on the table. At this point, whoever has collected the most sets wins.

Variations

One more common variation on classic Set is Chain Set. In Chain Set, one card from the previous set must be used to make a new set. This means that the set possibilities are different for each player and additional deals are much less likely. There is also Memory Set, where the cards are face down and three are turned face up at a time, a la the classic game Memory.

Mathematics of Set

• Given any two cards, there exists one and only one card which forms a set with those two cards.

• The largest group of cards you can put together without creating a set is 20.

• The probabiliy of getting a particluar set is:

• There are 18 possible 20-card groups without a set , therefore you have a probabiliy of of getting one. So, you have almost no chance.