Defenders of the Dictionary
Defenders of the Dictionary Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Getting Started
Mission Play
This is the recommended way to experience Defenders of the Dictionary. There are 17 or more missions to complete in numerical order, starting with Mission 00 - Training. Record the outcome of each mission you play in the Mission Record found on the back of the rulebook.
Quick Play
Quick play is intended as a way to share the game with family, friends, or your gamer group without committing to 17 or more missions. This allows you to jump into a game without the need to progress through the story or record your results. See pg. 7 for Quick Play instructions.
The main focus of the rulebook is explaining the game through the lens of Mission Play (pages 3-6). The Before You Play section on pg. 2 applies to all gameplay.
Before You Play
Cooperative
Defenders of the Dictionary is a cooperative game. You win or lose together as a team.
Word Building
As a team, use your collective brainpower to come up with words using the letters found on the Commons Board. Even when players have a different vocabulary level, everybody will be contributing letters to the Commons Board and the word that uses the most letters isn't always the best word to play for the mission.
Legal Words
All words must adhere to the following rules:
- No proper nouns, abbreviations, prefixes/suffixes alone, or words requiring hyphens/apostrophes.
- Words must be found in a dictionary to be considered legal.
- All words in play must use the same language.
Consulting the Dictionary
During each mission, you may consult a dictionary just ONCE to check if a word is legal. However, at the end of the game, if any word in play cannot be found in a dictionary, the mission results in failure.
Whenever you are consulting or checking words at the end of the game you can use any dictionary you like (Oxford Dictionary or even Urban Dictionary are both valid choices).
Communication Allowed
Any comments about components that are already in play and visible to all players (ex: "We could play the word GENERATE, but we are missing the G and R" or "We need a long word to go north!")
Communication Disallowed
Any comments about the letters on your tile rack, what you intend to play, or what is not visible to all players (ex: "I cannot help with the word GENERATE." or "Sorry, I only have consonants.")
Components
- 1 Vocabulary Points Tracker
- Scoring Board
- Commons Board
- 1 HQ City Map
- 4 Villain City Maps
- 17 Mission Cards
- 20 Rule Cards
- 6 Point of Interest Tiles
- 4 Letter Tile Racks and 4 Player Bags (32 tiles per Player Bag); 128 Player Letter Tiles in total
- 26 Villain Letter Tiles and 1 Villain Bag
- 6 Buzzruption Obstacles
- 6 Urban Distress Obstacles
- 6 Tollbooth Obstacles
- 9 Hiding Spot Obstacles
- 1 Tax Tracker
- 4 Dingbats
Mission Play Overview
Defenders of the Dictionary Mission Play consists of 17 or more missions to be played in numerical order. Each mission has a unique setup, required objectives, and optional achievements. The objective of the game is to pursue the villains by completing missions and logging your progress in the mission record on the back of the rulebook. To complete a mission, you must achieve all Success Criteria (green background) before triggering any of the Failure Criteria (red background).
Wordopolis
Missions will lead you across the entire city of Wordopolis causing you to build words in the navigational direction required. Make sure to set up the table to accommodate the maps for each mission (ex: Mission 01 will take you East).
Each City Map has a Day side and Night side, identified by the sun and moon icons.
Mission Setup (Training Mission 00)
- Give each player a bag full of letters of a chosen color and a Letter Tile Rack. Each player draws 5 letters from the bag and places them onto the Letter Tile Rack, keeping the Letter Tiles hidden from teammates.
- Place the Commons Board, Scoring Board, and Vocabulary Tracker on the table where all players can easily reach them.
- Take the Mission Card for the current mission and set up the components according to the Setup side of the card.
- a) Place any Maps shown on the card in the center of the table (always orient them as the card shows).
- b) Take the Villain Bag and remove letters facedown as shown on the card (Ex: remove 5 letters for Mission 00).
- c) Retrieve any Rule Cards referenced on the Mission Card and set them on the table next to the Mission Card. Read the Rule Cards you retrieved and execute any additional setup tasks if needed.
- d) Set up any other components as seen on the Mission Card (i.e. Point of Interest Tiles, Obstacles, etc).
- e) Flip the Mission Card to the Objective side and read the story aloud to the table.
Now, you are ready to save Wordopolis!
The first time playing Defenders of the Dictionary, we recommend playing Mission 00 - Training, as pictured in the rulebook's setup diagram.
Points of Interest (POI)
Points of Interest (POI) are icons on the map that denote where POI tiles will be placed. You need to play a letter onto a space containing a POI tile to collect the POI tile. The Setup side of the Mission Card will always tell you how to set up POI tiles.
- Set Up the POI tile with the "?" side showing.
- Set Up the POI tile with the specific number showing.
- Shuffle the remaining POI tiles setting them randomly, number side showing.
Obstacles
Obstacle Icons appear on the map and help identify exactly where an Obstacle should be set on the map. Set Obstacles matching the Setup side of the Mission Card if they are shown.
Always set Obstacles so that the icon on the obstacle sits atop the obstacle icon on the map, using the white square to align orientation. The number on the Obstacle Icon matches the number of squares that the obstacle occupies, which may help to identify the correct obstacle.
Round Overview
Phase 1 - Contribute a Letter. Draw a new villain letter and each player contributes a letter to the Commons Board.
Phase 2 - Form a Word. Choose letters from the Commons Board and add them to the City Map to form a word.
Phase 3 - Prepare for the Next Round. Cleanup the Commons Board. Store up to six Letter Tiles, discard any Villain Letter, and check for the Endgame.
Player Count Changes
Two Players. During Phase 1 - Contribute a Letter, players each choose two letters from their Letter Tile Rack to add to the Commons Board instead of one. When you redraw letters, redraw filling your tile rack to 5 letters.
One Player (Solo). During Phase 1 - Contribute a Letter, choose two letters from the Letter Tile Rack to add to the Commons Board instead of one. Additionally, use a letter bag not in play and draw two random letters to add to the Commons Board.
Running Out of Tiles with One or Two Players. Choose an unused bag of player letters, take it, and continue playing.
City Map Awareness: Out of Bounds
Letter Tiles may be placed only on legal grid spaces within the City Map. Buildings are not part of the grid and may not be covered by Letter Tiles. Letter Tiles may never extend beyond the edge of the grid.
Some missions include Obstacles, which are treated like buildings unless a Rule Card states otherwise.
How to Play the Game
A game of Defenders of the Dictionary is played over a series of rounds, with each round consisting of three phases. Continue playing rounds until you complete all Success Criteria on the Mission Card, trigger any Failure Criteria, or your team chooses to admit defeat.
Phase 1 - Contribute a Letter
Follow these steps in order:
- First, draw a random letter from the Villain Bag and place it faceup onto the Villain Letter space of the Commons Board.
- Then, each player simultaneously chooses one letter from their Letter Tile Rack and places it facedown on a Contribution Space.
- After all players have contributed a letter, reveal all contributed facedown letters flipping them faceup.
Proceed to Phase 2: Form A Word.
Example: Phase 1. 1. A random letter A was drawn from the Villain's Bag. 2. Knowing the Villain's Letter already, each player chooses one letter from their tile rack and places it facedown on a Contribution Space. 3. All facedown letters on the Commons Board are revealed.
Phase 2 - Form a Word
Together, cooperate with your team to form a word to add to the City Map. You may include any of the faceup letters on the Commons Board, and all players should agree on what letters will be played.
Your First Word
The first letters played must form a word with two or more letters, must be placed on the Starting Map as identified by the Mission Card, and must cover the Starting Map symbol.
Subsequent Words
- After the first word is played, each play must add one or more letters to letters already on the City Map.
- All letters added during the round must be placed in a single row or column and must form one complete word.
- If the newly placed letters also connect with letters in adjacent rows or columns, every resulting word must also be a legal word.
New words may be formed by:
- (B) Adding one or more letters to a word already on the map;
- (C) Placing a word perpendicular to an existing word, using or adding to at least one existing letter; or
- (D) Placing a word parallel to an existing word so that the adjacent letters form additional complete words.
Gain Vocabulary Points
After placing a word, gain Vocabulary Points equal to the printed value of every letter in each word formed or extended this round. Move the Vocabulary Points Tracker accordingly (the tracker counts 1-50 and has a +100 marker), then proceed to Phase 3 - Prepare for the Next Round.
Example: Phase 2. The first letters played formed the word CAD, which is a dishonorable man, or a bus conductor, for 6 Vocabulary Points. [ C (3) + A (1) + D (2) = 6VP ]
Important: Forming a word is optional. You are not required to form a word every round. In this situation, do not place any letters on the City Map. Proceed to Phase 3 - Prepare for the Next Round.
Phase 3 - Prepare for Next Round
Follow these steps in order:
-
Discard the Villain Letter. If a Villain Letter remains on the Commons Board, discard it and lose Vocabulary Points equal to its printed value.
-
Store Letter Tiles. Move any Letter Tiles still on Contribution Spaces onto one of the six Letter Storage spaces on the Commons Board.
The Letter Storage Spaces allow the team to build up a larger common letter pool for future rounds. Each Letter Storage Space may hold one Letter Tile.
If more than six Letter Tiles remain, discard the highest-value until only six remain. Lose Vocabulary Points equal to the value of each discarded letter. If multiple letters are tied for the highest-value, the team chooses which to discard.
(All discarded Letter Tiles are placed facedown on the Scoring Board onto the corresponding colored file folder space).
-
Check for the Endgame. If the game has not ended, each player draws back up to 5 Letter Tiles. Start a new round beginning with Phase 1.
Example: Phase 3. 1. There is no villain letter on the Commons Board to discard, so we won't lose any VP. 2. There are two Letter Tiles still on Contribution Spaces of the Commons Board. Slide them upward to occupy two Letter Storage Spaces. 3. The mission Success Criteria is not yet complete and no Failure Criteria has been triggered, so we continue playing. Each player draws back up to 5 Letter Tiles.
Endgame Check
- Success Criteria Complete? If all Success Criteria on the Mission Card have been completed, the mission ends. Confirm that all words on the City Map are legal. If all words are legal, the mission ends in Success. If any word is illegal, the mission ends in Failure.
- Failure Criteria Triggered? If any Failure Criteria on the Mission Card have been triggered, the mission immediately ends in Failure.
- Otherwise, Continue Playing. If none of the above apply, each player draws back up to 5 Letter Tiles. Start a new round beginning with Phase 1.
Example: Endgame Check. Ex: Failure Criteria: The Villain Bag is empty. Ex: Success Criteria: 1a - The Commons Board has at least two POI collected, in this case, collected in any order. 1b - The Scoring Board has at least twenty Vocabulary Points scored by the players.
Important: Admitting defeat is an option. If the team agrees that previous decisions have made mission failure unavoidable, the team may choose to end the mission and record a mission failure.
After the mission ends (Success or Failure), proceed to the Mission Record on pg. 8 to record your results. Information about how to record your results is found in the Mission Roundup on pg. 6.
Additional Rules
Rule Cards
Rule Cards take priority over written rules in this rulebook if there is conflicting information.
Rule Cards may introduce new Success Criteria or Failure Criteria not mentioned in this rulebook.
POI Tile Collection
All collected POI tiles should be placed on the leftmost available POI Indicator of the Commons Board displaying tile as it was collected (? or #).
POI tiles with a "?" side showing can be collected in any order.
Example: Unnumbered POI Tile Collection.
POI tiles with a number side showing must be collected in ascending order, but the numbers do not need to be consecutive.
Example: Numerical POI Tile Collection. Two POI tiles have been collected in ascending order (2, then 5). Because you skipped from (2) to (5), your team is in a tight spot. You may only collect the value 6 POI tile next. However, if you need more than 3 POI tiles collected as Success Criteria this mission, you would automatically fail as a result of your POI collection decisions.
FAQ
- Do I have to contribute a letter every round? Yes.
- Do we need to use all letters on the Commons Board in the word we create? No.
- Do we have to form a word every round? No.
- Can Vocabulary Points drop below zero? No.
- Can a word extend across two City Maps? Yes.
- Can letters be placed on non-grid spaces like buildings or corners? No.
- Can we look up a word in the Dictionary? As a team, you are allowed to do this once per mission.
- What happens if we discover we played an illegal word while we're playing? The intent of the game is that you're always playing a legal word that can be found in a dictionary. If you discover that you played an illegal word, the mission will result in a failure per the endgame checks. If you are unsure whether a word is legal, continue playing and verify the word at the end of the mission.
- What happens if I run out of letters in a game? With 3-4 players, continue playing even if you cannot draw new letters from your bag. If you're playing with 1-2 players, choose an unused bag of player letters, take it, and continue playing.
- Can I collect a numbered POI if it does not follow numerical ascending order? No, this grid space becomes illegal.
- Is letter Q actually valued at 11pts? Yes.
Mission Roundup
No matter how the mission turned out, you've earned a good old-fashioned rest. After the mission ends, complete the steps below based on whether your team achieved a Success or Failure.
If the Mission Ended in Success
Congratulations! Your team is one step closer!
- Fill in the Success Record.
- Fill in the optional Achievement Record (if completed).
- Record your total Vocabulary Points from the mission.
- Proceed onto the next mission in numerical order, or pause your adventure here.
If the Mission Ended in Failure
Don't fret! You get two chances at each mission. Don't record any Vocabulary Points or achievement from this mission.
- Put an X in the Failure Record.
- If this is the first failure, you must replay the same mission the next time you play. If this is the second failure, move onto the next mission in numerical order, but do not mark that the mission was a success.
Example: Mission Record for Mission 02 - Words in Distress. After one failure, the team completed Mission 02 successfully with 62 Vocabulary Points, but the optional achievement was not recorded. (Each row has a Success Record, Achievement Record, Vocabulary Points Record and Failure Record.)
Achievements
Each mission includes a unique Achievement, which is an optional challenge that goes beyond the mission Success Criteria. Some Achievements may reference Rule Cards or other concepts introduced earlier in the campaign.
Achievements may be recorded only when the mission ends in success. If you complete an Achievement during a failed mission, you must complete it again on a future successful mission to record it.
Once you have successfully completed a mission, you may not replay that mission solely to complete its Achievement. In other words, your mission success is your final chance to complete the mission Achievement.
The Final Stand
Your journey through Wordopolis is leading somewhere. After completing all 17 missions, enter your campaign results into the webform below to uncover a unique final mission shaped by your team's progress (successes, achievements, Vocabulary Points, and failures).
You will also discover the Master Villain behind the happenings in Wordopolis and have one final chance to apprehend them. To access the webform, visit: https://adamsapplegames.com/defenders-of-the-dictionary/end
Quick Play
Quick Play Overview
Choose Quick Play when you want a shorter standalone game, want to introduce Defenders of the Dictionary to new players, or simply want to play without the campaign story, progression, and unlocks. Quick Play uses the same core rules as Mission Play, except that Mission Cards are not used.
Quick Play Setup
Follow the same setup steps as Mission Play, except replace Step 3 of Mission Setup with the steps below.
3a. Choose the Maps. Place the HQ City Map in the center of the table. Then choose one additional Map and place it along any edge of the HQ City Map (N, E, S or W). Either Map may be flipped to its Night Side. Different Maps and sides create different navigational word-building challenges.
3b. Choose the Difficulty. In Quick Play, your goal is to have at least the required number of Vocabulary Points (VP) and collect the required number of Point of Interest (POI) tiles. Choose a Difficulty and Level to determine your goals for the game. For your first game, we recommend Normal Difficulty, Level 1. Experienced word-builders may wish to begin at a higher Normal Level.
Beginner Difficulty: Collect the required number of "?" POI tiles and have at least the required number of Vocabulary Points.
| Level | POI tiles | Vocabulary Points |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 4 | 60 |
| Level 2 | 5 | 70 |
| Level 3 | 6 | 80 |
Intermediate Difficulty: Collect the required number of POI tiles in ascending numerical order (Example on Pg. 5) and have at least the required number of Vocabulary Points.
| Level | POI tiles | Vocabulary Points |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 4 | 70 |
| Level 2 | 5 | 80 |
| Level 3 | 6 | 90 |
3c. Place Rule Card A. Place Rule Card A beside the play area. Its rules remain active throughout Quick Play.
3d. Set Up POI Tiles and Villain Bag. Place a POI tile on each POI icon on the maps. For Beginner Difficulty, place tiles with the ? side up. For Intermediate Difficulty, place tiles randomly with the numbered side face-up.
Load the Villain Bag with white Villain Letter Tiles. No Villain Letter Tiles need to be removed from the Villain Bag for Quick Play.
Endgame Check (Quick Play)
The Quick Play game ends in success once you have both collected the required number of POI tiles and have the required number of Vocabulary Points. The game ends in a failure if you cannot draw a Villain Letter from the Villain Bag when required to do so.
Bag Compositions
Player Bags (32 tiles)
A, A, A, B, C, D, E, E, E, E, F, G, H, I, I, L, M, N, N, O, O, P, R, R, S, T, T, U, V, W, Y, and one Wildcard (*).
Letter values: A 1, B 3, C 3, D 2, E 1, F 4, G 2, H 4, I 1, L 1, M 3, N 1, O 1, P 3, R 1, S 1, T 1, U 1, V 4, W 4, Y 4, Wildcard 0.
Villain Bag (26 tiles, one of each letter)
A 1, B 3, C 3, D 2, E 1, F 4, G 2, H 4, I 1, J 8, K 5, L 1, M 3, N 1, O 1, P 3, Q 11, R 1, S 1, T 1, U 1, V 4, W 4, X 8, Y 4, Z 10.
Special Tiles
Wildcard Tiles
Each player has one Wildcard Tile, worth zero VP. When played, a Wildcard Tile represents any letter needed to complete a legal word.
You may change the letter represented by a Wildcard later in the game, as long as all words remain legal.
Mission Record
Track your progress. Save Wordopolis. The record lists missions 00 - Training; 01 - A Tick Too Late; 02 - Words in Distress; 03 - House of Ill Repute; 04 - The Invitation; 05 - Lexicontraption; 06 - Wing Ding-a-Lings; 07 - No Free Words; 08 - Words Unspoken; 09 - Virus of Elonguise; 10 - Caging the Chaos; 11 - Oinkin' & Exportin'; 12 - Where Meaning Endures; 13 - Extendipitious Pandemonium; 14 - Mob Madness; 15 - Breaking the Bank; 16 - History Rewritten; each with Success, Achievement, Vocabulary Points and Failure records, plus The Final Stand (complete all missions before attempting the final stand; https://adamsapplegames.com/defenders-of-the-dictionary/end).