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From Erik Arneson,
Your Guide to Board / Card Games.
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For 2 players

OVERVIEW

Two players create a puzzle consisting of three words arranged in a 5x5 grid. Next, they take turns asking questions about each other's puzzle, hoping to deduce their opponent's words and placement within the grid.

EQUIPMENT

• A set of Scrabble tiles and a bag to draw from
• 5 chips (or other tokens) in 2 colors
• Pencils
• Paper

SETUP

Creating the Play Aids

Each player makes a note sheet consisting of two 5x5 grids. One grid will contain his puzzle, the other will be used to deduce his opponent's puzzle. Label each grid's columns with a letter A-E and the rows with numbers 1-5.

Next, a Question Sheet is drawn on a third sheet of paper. First, make five circles as large as possible. In each circle, write one of these question templates:

• A. How many blank squares are in (specify a row or column)?

• B. What is the contents of either of these squares: (specify two adjacent squares)?

• C. What's the total value of the tiles in (specify a row or column)?

• D. (Set aside 3 tiles and ask.) How many of these letters are in your (specify 3-, 4- or 5-letter word)?

• E. Does (specify a row or column) contain any letters from your (specify 3-, 4- or 5-letter word)?

Forming the Letter Pool

Remove the two blank tiles. Separate the letter tiles into two sets: those worth one point and those worth more than one. Mix each set separately, face down.

Take 8 tiles from the single-point set and 9 tiles from the other set. These 17 tiles form the face-up Letter Pool from which players will create their puzzles.

All other tiles will not be used in the game.

Creating the Puzzles

To create their puzzles, each player must:

• Form a 3-letter, 4-letter and 5-letter word from letters in the Letter Pool; and
• Arrange their words in their 5x5 grid according to the rules below.

Details on word formation:

• Each tile can be used at most once in a puzzle. However, since words may share letters (in crossword fashion), a single tile can be used in two words as long as one is horizontal and the other is vertical.

• Words must be good English words (no proper nouns) that can be found in a dictionary. Agree on one ahead of time if this may be an issue!

• Words can be arranged vertically and/or horizontally but not diagonally.

• Tiles that are horizontally/vertically adjacent to each other in the grid must be part of the same word.

• No more than three words can be formed in the puzzle.

Players should also write the point value of each of the tiles they've used in their puzzle inside the square with the letter, as points will be used later.

GAMEPLAY

Questioning

Give each player a set of five chips and randomly determine who will go first.

On a turn, a player will place a chip on one of the question circles on the Question Sheet which doesn't already have one of his chips on it.

He'll then either ask the question shown in the circle or pass. If the active player asks the question, his opponent must honestly answer the question with a number, letters, a "yes" or a "no" as is appropriate.

A player who chooses to pass simply ends his turn. A player would do this only when he believes he's solved his opponent's puzzle completely. Each time a player passes it should be recorded on the Question Sheet with a tally mark. A player who passes may later ask a question as usual on a later turn.

Details on questions and answers:

• Words in the parentheses on the question templates indicate what the player can ask about. For example, a player choosing question B might say "What is the contents of either of these squares: A3 or A4?"

• When a player answers question B he can name the contents of either square included in the question and he should not indicate which square he chose.

• If, at the start of a player's turn, he has no more chips, he must first take all of his chips back from the Question Sheet. Next, he must remove one of his chips from the game. He then continues as usual by placing a chip and asking a question or passing.

• When both players have discarded their last chip, no further turns can be taken. Likewise, if both players pass consecutively, they can take no further turns.

After turns end, players may take some time to work out their guesses.

SCORING

Compare guesses with puzzles. Points are awarded as follows:

• Each letter tile in the guess that's in the correct square from the puzzle counts 1 point per word it's in. (So a letter can be worth two points if it's in two words.)

• A player scores points for correctly guessing a complete word. The 3-letter word is worth two points. The 4-letter word is worth three points and the 5 letter word is worth five points.

• A player gets 1 point for every two times he passed during the game. In case of an odd number of times, round up. (So, a player who passed once would get one point).

The player with the highest score wins!

In case of a tie, the player who guessed the highest-value word (using points on the tiles) wins. If it's still a tie, the game is a draw.

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