Letter Based Word Games by Mechanic - List #1 - Recognition
Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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I would like to suggest 5 mechanics for letter-based word games. Some games may involve aspects of several mechanics, but usually one of them impacts the score more than the others. For example, Jarnac involves simple word formation, but the game is won by rearranging and expanding those words to increase their point value.
1. Recognition - identify words from a jumble of letters. Players are not allowed to manipulate the letters, only observe them (Boggle).
2. Simple Word Formation - here players form words from their own pool of letters without using other players' letters or being concerned about board position (Quiddler).
3. Complex Word Formation - players form words, but they may/must also use letters from already played words. Crosswords style games dominate this category (Scrabble). Are there other games where you play off of already exposed letters, but that DON'T involve cross-word style play?
4. Guessing - players try to discover words formed and hidden by other players (Hangman, Probe).
5. Rearrangment - players may begin with simple word formation or recognition, but the real scoring opportunities are offered by rearranging existing letters to form more valuable words (Jarnac, Word Search).
You can access these lists from my Metalist at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...
List #1: RECOGNITION
Which games require players to recognize words from a collection of letters they are not allowed to manipulate?
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1.
Board Game: Boggle
[Average Rating:6.24 Overall Rank:1273]
Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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I'll start this genre with Boggle, probably the most famous and easiest (in terms of rules) word-recognition game.
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Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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Bigger and better...
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Mark McEvoy
Canada
Ottawa-ish
Ontario
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Overturn. Boggle meets Othello.
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4.
Board Game: Razzle
[Average Rating:5.71 Overall Rank:5564]
George Kinney
United States
Bellefontaine
Ohio
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Odd little game here. Only 6 cubes to work with, players alternate trying to find words, or can also advance by challenging their opponent if they can't find anything.
I liked playing it as a kid.
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Lourdes Tallet
United States
Unspecified
Massachusetts
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Description here on the Geek:
A dealer turns over cards, each card having a single letter or a two-letter combination; as soon as any player spots a word that can be formed using any set of three or more cards, s/he shouts it out and claims the cards (if the word was valid). Once the deck is exhausted, each player gets one point per card claimed. Play as many rounds as there are players.
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Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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Boggle with cards
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7.
Board Game: Spuddle
[Average Rating:6.50 Unranked]
Philip Poulton
United Kingdom
Upminster
Essex
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BOGGLE ON SPEED!!!
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Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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Plastic toy combining a timer and a one-armed-bandit which shuffles 9 letters, which you then use to find the longest word before the timer runs out.
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Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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From the game's description:
Players are set down on a 10x10 grid of letters and wild spaces. Each turn a player must make a word in the style of Boggle, then pick up the tiles used. As tiles are removed, scoring opportunities become more sparse, and players are eliminated when they cannot make a legal word. Bonus points are scored for isolating a player on one tile, and points are scored based on the tiles each player picks up. First to fifty points over as many rounds as it takes wins.
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10.
Board Game: Outwords
[Average Rating:0.00 Unranked]
Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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From the game's description:
The caller takes a card and rolls the dice to see which word is going to be played (the words are numbered from 1 to 6). The caller then announces the number of letters in the word and a letter from the middle of the word (i.e. not the first or last letter of the word). The other players mark this information down on their scorepad.
Going clockwise round the table players may ask for a letter to be added to either the immediate right or the immediate left of the starting letter (or chain of letters as the word develops). The word therefore grows outwards from the original starting letter.
At any time from the giving of the first letter any player may try to guess the word by calling it out aloud.
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Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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From the game's description:
A set of 9 lettered dice are rolled simultaneously and players form as many words as possible as quickly as possible with points scored for non-duplicated words and for longer words.
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Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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From the rule book: "Spell-a-Word is a crossword dice game The object of the game is to build words and run up the highest point total before time runs out. The Winner is the player with the hichest score after 6 rounds of play."
The letter-dice are rolled, and arranged so all players can see the letters and their scores clearly. The egg timer is started, and each player tries to spell words using only the exposed letters. These words must be recorded on a crossword-style scoresheet, which contains several spaces with word-value multipliers. After time runs out, both vertical and horizontal scores are taken, a penalty is applied for each letter left unused, and scores are compared.
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Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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Connect Four meets Boggle.
From the game's description:
Tumblewords: It’s like a cross between that game where you make words with tiles and that game where you drop checkers into a vertical grid.
On your turn, Place a tile from your hand in a vacant space at the top of a column. That tile 'falls' down the collumn until it reaches the bottom or lands on another tile.
Look for words that can be formed that use the tile you just played. Words can read up, dowm, left. or right, but must be in a straight line. Score one point for every letter in each word you find; palindromes count twice. If your tile set has blank or 'wild' tiles, declare what letter the blank represents when you play it. That tile continues to represent that letter for the rest of the game.
When you feel that you’ve found all the words you can, draw a tile and end your turn. Play passes to your left.
The game ends when there are no vacant spaces on the board.
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Vince Londini
Canada
London
Ontario
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From the game's description:
On your turn, you shoot a letter disc into the ring if the number present so far is insufficient or if, after studying the letters, you can't think of a word. First player to shout out a word captures the discs that spell the word. Extra discs remain there and help in the next round. You can challenge words if you think them illegal or incorrectly spelled.
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Björn Kalies
Germany
Hannover
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This one is great to... a bit like boogle.
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.sanders .
United States
Florida
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In Keesdrow (wordseek backwards) there are 64 double sided tiles (each has 4 letters on each side) that you draw from a bag and place on the board at random.
Then:
"Players compete for high score by identifying words within the maze of letters on the board. As players identify words, they insert a colored peg in the hole of each letter used to form the word. Adjoining letters may be up, down , left, right, or diagonal. The letters must be joined in sequence, and may be used more than once within the same word. Letters have varying point values, and may be used a maximum of three times during the game.
The first time a letter is used it counts as a single point value, and a green peg is inserted in the hole of the letter. The second time a letter is used, the point value is doubled and a yellow peg replaces the green peg. The third and final time a letter is used, the point value is tripled, and a red peg replaces the yellow peg. Once a letter has been used three times, it is expired and may not be used again for the remainder of the game. "
Well there is no pictures currently on BBG - you can see it at: http://www.pywacketgames.com
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Sue Hemberger
Washington
Dist of Columbia
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Device gives you first and last letter of a word. Players try to be first to come up with (the longest?) word that fits.
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Sue Hemberger
Washington
Dist of Columbia
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Players race to be the first to think of a word that includes all three consonants on display.
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R C
United States
Phoenix
Arizona
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Find words on the board, which consists of individual tiles with four letters placed next to each other. Supposedly inspired by something pressmen would do to pass the time.
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