Alphabet Stoop
Alphabet Stoop Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Prove that you run the best delivery company around! Drop off your packages on stoops and form words with newspapers (vowels), magazines (wild letters), and other packages (consonants).
Components
- 15 Stoop Cards
- 15 Parcel Carriers
- 60 Package Tokens
- 21 Newspaper Tokens
- 7 Magazine Tokens
- 25 Player Stamp Tokens
- 19 Envelope Tokens
Goal
Be the first player to drop off all your packages OR earn NINE Victory Points (1 point per Stoop Card you occupy and 1 point per active Stamp Token you have placed).
Setup
Randomly place Stoop Cards building-side up as shown on the following page. Return extra cards to the box.
Randomly place one Magazine Token or Newspaper Token on each building.
Each player chooses a color and takes the 3 Parcel Carriers, 12 Packages and 5 Stamp Tokens of that color. Randomly fill your Carriers with your Package Tokens (Consonants). Place all Carriers left of the left-most row of Stoop Cards. Place your Stamp Tokens in front of you.
Example Layout: The rulebook shows an example layout with three players' Carriers (Player 1's Carriers, Player 2's Carriers, Player 3's Carriers) placed to the left of the Stoop Cards, and Magazine/Newspaper Tokens placed on each building.
Whoever was the last to order something online goes first.
Second and Third players get ONE Envelope Token.
Fourth and Fifth players get TWO Envelope Tokens.
Player Count Setups
The rulebook gives a building layout diagram for each player count, showing the Stoop Card arrangement and the colored Carrier rows for each player:
- 2-3 Player Setup: diagram of the Stoop Card layout for two or three players.
- 4 Player Setup: diagram of the Stoop Card layout for four players.
- 5 Player Setup: diagram of the Stoop Card layout for five players.
Stamped Stoops
When you drop off a package on a green Stoop Card with a Stamp, place your Stamp Token in the top-right corner. If another player has already placed a Stamp Token on that Stoop Card, replace it with your own and return the stamp to that player. Stamp Tokens count as one Victory Point.
Example 1: After Red player forms a word, they place their stamp in the corner, awarding them ONE Victory Point.
Example 2: Yellow Player forms a new word, thus claiming the Stamp space. Red player removes their stamp, and loses their Victory Point, yellow gains a Victory point.
Scoring and Ending the Game
There are two ways to win and end the game: Be the first player to drop off all your packages OR earn NINE Victory Points.
You earn 1 Victory Point for each:
- Stoop Card you occupy. As long as a player has one package in a formed word on a Stoop Card, that counts as occupied.
- Stamp Token you have placed that is currently active.
Example Above: Both Yellow player and Red player receive 1 Victory Point for occupying a Stoop Card in Example 2. Yellow player would also receive a Victory Point for their active Stamp Token, equaling 2 Victory Points.
Mailbox Stoops and Envelope Tokens
When the word on a pink Mailbox Stoop Card grows to the length on the card (example: 5-letter word), the player who completed that word gets one Envelope Token (or 2 if on the 7-letter word Stoop Card). This only happens ONCE per Mailbox Stoop Card. Envelope Tokens can be used as a Wild. Placing an Envelope Token DOES NOT count as an action.
Example: Blue player moves onto the Stoop Card, and uses Yellow player's packages and their own packages to form a 5 Letter Word (as indicated in the top left of the Stoop Card). Only Blue player is awarded an Envelope Token. NOTE: For an easier game, every player with a package on that Stoop Card receives Envelope Tokens.
On Your Turn
Players can choose to take up to 3 Actions per turn. The actions they can choose from are Move, Drop off a Package, or Flip a Tile. The same action can be taken multiple times per turn, but each player only gets 3 actions per turn. For example, a player can use one action to Move their carrier, and two actions to drop off two packages.
Players take turns clockwise.
After 3 actions, your turn is complete.
Move your Carrier to an ADJECENT Stoop Card (Costs 1 action per movement)
NOTE:
- Each Carrier's first move must be onto any Stoop Card in the left-most row.
- There is NO limit to the amount of Carriers that can be on a single Stoop Card.
Example: A diagram shows a Carrier moving between adjacent Stoop Cards in the building grid.
Drop off a Package on a Stoop Card (Costs 1 action per package dropped off)
- When dropping off a Package, it MUST form a word, using Magazines, Newspapers, and possibly other player's placed Packages, as needed. Using Magazines or Newspapers DOES NOT count as using an action.
- Magazines function as a Wild, and count as any letter.
- There can only be one word on each Stoop Card. If there's already a word there, you must combine your Packages with those letters to form a new word, rearranging and taking Magazines and Newspapers from buildings as needed.
- Letters cannot be taken off a Stoop Card once they have been used to form a word. Magazines and Newspapers cannot be placed back onto a building once used to form a word.
- If you have enough remaining actions to drop off multiple Packages, they can be used at the same time to form a word.
- When dropping off Packages, you may add any of your Envelope Tokens, which count as any letter. They do not have to be carried by a Carrier, and adding Envelopes is NOT an action.
- You can only use words found in a dictionary (players' choice).
- There is no limit to the length of a word spelled on any Stoop Card.
Example 1: Blue places ONE of their packages as an action, and uses a Newspaper to spell a word.
Example 2: Yellow uses one of their actions to move onto the Stoop Card, and places TWO of their packages as their last two actions, and uses Blue player's played package to form a new word.
Example 3: Yellow places ONE of their packages as ONE action, uses the the Magazine as a wild, and uses one of their Envelopes as a wild to form a new word - WONTONS.
It's important to note that Magazines and Envelopes always function as Wilds, and can be changed to any letter to form a new word at any time.
Flip one of your Carrier's Packages (Costs 1 action per package flipped)
If a player is struggling to form a word with their remaining packages, they may use one of their actions to blindly flip one of their packages that is still on their Carrier Card in an attempt to have a more advantageous letter. An action point must be used to re-flip.
If one of your Carriers is out of Packages, remove them from the game.