Chris Snyder
United States
Selinsgrove
Pennsylvania
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I recently purchased Word Yahtzee as a 'girlfriend game' because she is new to board games and enjoys both Scrabble and Yahtzee. I wasn't sure how well it would go over with her, but after the first game I knew that I had made the right choice. Basically, if you like Scrabble and Yahtzee, this game is for you as it is a great blend of both games.
The components for Word Yahtzee are very similar to those of the original Yahtzee: dice, a dice cup, and a pad of score sheets. The seven dice are significantly different though, because instead of numbers they represent the letter tiles that might be found in Scrabble. In fact, I believe that the proportion of letters on the dice are roughly what are found in a Scrabble game. Also included in the game is a sand timer to speed along a players turn, but it's use is optional.
Word Yahtzee is played just like Yahtzee, with a player rolling all seven dice at the beginning of their turn. Then they may choose to reroll any or all of the dice. After their second roll, they may choose to reroll any or all of the dice again. After the third roll, they must arrange the letters on the dice to form words.
Scoring is played much like Yahtzee as well. For instance, in Yahtzee a player scores on 1's, 2's, 3's, etc as well as 3-of-a-kind, 4-of-a-kind, straights, etc. In Word Yahtzee, players score with 2-letter words, 3-letter words, 4-letter words, etc as well as 2 words, 3 words, all vowels, all consonents, etc. A Yahtzee in Word Yahtzee is a 7-letter word. Here's an example of the score sheet:
When determining the value of words, players often add up the 'word letter value'. This is accomplished in the same way as in Scrabble, where common letters like A and E are worth 1 point, while uncommon letters such as Z and Q are worth much more. In this way, choosing which dice to keep and which to reroll is much more strategic than in Yahtzee because the point values really vary. With Yahtzee you know that each die has a 1 to 6 printed on it, while Word Yahtzee dice vary much more. Also printed on one of the dice is a 'wild' which functions like a blank tile in Scrabble.
As I stated earlier, gameplay functions very simliar to the original Yahtzee game. There is definitely a press-your-luck feel as players try to get the letters they need to make a certain word. Unlike Yahtzee, each die is different so before choosing which dice to roll, it's a good idea to look at them and see what letters may possibly be rolled. It's a game of hard choices, and having a good 'word mind' like one used in Scrabble is certainly helpful.
All in all, I have to say that Word Yahtzee is a great game. It's deeper and more interesting than Yahtzee but quicker and lighter than Scrabble. And though it's lighter than Scrabble there are a lot more decisions to make, especially knowing when to try to roll for certain things. This is definitely a thumbs-up game for me.
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