New Rule

Introduction: Word games can be a bit much for those who are weak in the knees when it comes to the mother tongue. But if you’re light on your feet, quick as a whip, and can keep your cool while others are all over the place, you’ll be in the gravy while your opponents are scraping the barrel. Careful, though: don’t count your chickens before they hatch or you’ll find your score is just a house of cards. Keep your head up and take no prisoners and you’ll be right as rain. Get my drift?

Players: 2+

Materials:

• Pens or markers of different colors, one per player.
• One sheet of standard, letter-sized (A4) paper.
• Several smaller sheets of scrap paper, one per player, for scorekeeping.
• A stopwatch or timer capable of measuring one minute.

Setting Up: Lay the sheet in the center of the table and distribute the pens or markers to each player. Roll off to see who goes first; play proceeds to the left. Beginning with the first player, each player takes turns writing a letter on the sheet of paper. Players may write any letter they choose, one letter per turn. Letters should be kept to a modest size, though there is no restriction as long as room remains to add more letters. Each player should write their letters so that they can read them — do not conform all letters to the same orientation. Continue until each player has taken ten turns and written ten letters.

How to Play: The goal of the game is to create the most elaborate words and phrases from the letters on the board before they are all used up. Once the board has been populated with letters, players take turns attempting to create words and phrases from the letters on the board. On their turn, players create words by marking the letters they wish to use. However, each letter may only be used three times during the game. When using a letter, mark it as follows to indicate its status:

1. The first time a letter is used, the player who chose it draws a circle around it.
2. The second time a letter is used, the player draws a line across the circle.
3. The third time a letter is used, the player draws a second line perpendicular to the first, forming an ‘X.’ The letter is now crossed out, and may not be used again by any player for the remainder of the game.

Players may make only one word per turn, and they have one minute, measured by the timer, to do so. When they have chosen a word, they mark the letters they are using and write the word on their score sheet. If they cannot form a word by the end of one minute, their turn is ended and the next player may begin. Players may elect to pass their turn if they choose.

Words and Phrases: Words are worth points equivalent to the square of the number of letters in the word (a 3-letter word is worth 9 points, a 4-letter word is worth 16, and so on). However, players may form phrases from the words on their score sheet, as long as the phrase is an English idiom. Phrases such as “rise and shine” or “all ears” or “last laugh” are all examples of English idioms, as are all the italicized phrases in the Introduction above. If a player has the words to form an idiom, the combination is scored separately from the words that compose it (for example, “all ears” would be worth 49 points for the 7 letters in the phrase). A comprehensive dictionary of idioms can be found here.

Winning the Game: Play continues until all letters have been crossed out or all players have passed in turn. Each player scores all their words and writes out any idioms they think they have completed. Once every player has written their idioms, they read them off in turn — any idioms that seem suspect are compared against the dictionary. The player with the highest score is the winner.

Next: Designing “The Cat’s Pajamas”:

Since I started making “draw-the-board” games, I’ve considered the possibility of using writing and making letter- or word-based games. I abstained until now because I couldn’t think of an interesting twist. I’ve played so many in my life that I believe I’ve seen everything the pattern has to offer. Even this game isn’t a far stretch from games like Boggle or Scrabble. The basic action remains the same: compose words from a scrambled mess of letters.

By having players write letters at the outset, I’m hoping to invite enough inconsistency between play sessions to keep the pattern interesting. Word board games come with pre-balanced sets of letters and savvy players know the math and can count on certain letters being available or scarce. With this game, even if players evolve a favorite set that they will always write, it’s still based entirely on what the players feel like adding in. At the least, it means that every game is different and strategy is difficult to prepare in advance. In this way, it shifts the emphasis from rote memorization of a tile set to hip-shot symbol recognition: players who are adept at fast unscrambling have the advantage over players with lots of experience.

Adding the bonus for idioms was a mechanism to differentiate the game and encourage creative thinking. As anyone who plays cutthroat Scrabble (such as myself) knows, it’s a game of math, not words. You play the board. The result is games with few creative words but plenty of creative word placement. My goal with this game is to reverse that. By awarding exponentially greater rewards based on word or phrase length, it encourages players to strive for the most elaborate plays they can find. This, I believe, will contribute much more to the depth of the interaction and the memorability of the experience.

Tags: Game Design //