Dicewords
Dicewords Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Scoring
Look at the word RULES. All the five letters have a 1 point letter value so the word value is 5, but then we MULTIPLY THE WORD VALUE BY THE NUMBER OF LETTERS IN THE WORD (also 5). So the total score for RULES is 5x5 = 25.
Let's try another word. How about COMPUTER? All the letters are worth 1 each, except C, M and P which are all worth 3 (on the reverse of the tube insert card is a letter distribution table with letter values). So that's a word value of 14 multiplied by 8 letters = 112.
The multiplying function can make for high scores with longer words, especially using the rare letters (SQUEEZING would net you 225!). The set includes score reckoner sheets to help with the maths.
The Dice Table
The DICEWORDS set has been designed to reflect typical English language letter usage, and to give the best possibility of useful letter combinations.
An important aspect of the game is to know what letters can be achieved by rerolling certain dice. The Dice Table lists all the dice and their faces. A good DICEWORDS player will soon learn the Dice Table!
Very importantly, each die is printed in its own unique identifying colour. Each die face has a main character, a number (the 'letter value') and a small identifying character (?, Y, J, K, Q, V, W, X, Z - an aid for anybody who can't distinguish the colours).
The dice, by colour (the colour name is printed vertically beside each row of the table):
| Die colour | Faces |
|---|---|
| Gold | ? A E I O U |
| Indigo | Y A E I O U |
| Orange | J A H M N R |
| Red | K E D F H L |
| Purple | Q O L R S T |
| Blue | V U C F G S |
| Brown | W Y B N P S |
| Black | X I B C D T |
| Green | Z E G M P T |
The ? face is the wild-card. It can count as any letter, but it is worth -2 (see Scoring and Extra Rules below).
Note on this transcription: the printed Dice Table shows the faces as letters only. The rules text says each face also carries a letter value and a small identifying character, and that the letter distribution table with letter values is on the reverse of the tube insert card. Neither is printed on the rules sheet, so no per-face values are given here.
Worked Examples
Suppose your first roll gives you these dice:
E L E P H N T E V
Clearly, you're very close to spelling ELEPHANT, just needing an A. A quick glance at the Dice Table tells you that the gold die contains all the vowels and so a reroll could give the missing A (scoring 11x8 = 88). But it's also worth noting that rolling the blue die could produce an S with which you could spell ELEPHANTS and use all nine dice (for a score of 12x9 = 108). In fact, the selection above is already only one letter away from another nine letter word; an O would make TELEPHONE.
But a closer look at the Dice Table reveals that no letter in TELEPHONE appears on the blue die, so it is not a spellable word in DICEWORDS. This is a good example of using the Dice Table to avoid pointless rerolls for impossible letters.
So let's say you reroll the gold and blue dice:
E L E P H N T S I
You got the S but the gold die has come up with I. Do you roll it again? The gold die also includes the 'wild-card' face ('?') which can count as any letter, so that could be your A. Incidentally, the wild-card is worth -2 which means it subtracts 2 from the word value. Therefore this would give a score of 9x9 = 81 (NB. It is seldom worth using the wild-card just to extend an existing word; it often reduces the score).
You have one roll left, but can you spell anything else now? PLINTHS is available for 10x7 = 70. Perhaps it would be safer to keep PLINTHS and reroll the two Es, hoping to improve on 70...
A Few Extra Rules
The minimum allowable word length is 3 letters.
Only one word can be declared per turn. A word cannot be declared after it has been destroyed by rerolling.
Any words found in a standard English dictionary are permitted except those containing apostrophes, hyphens or capitals (accents can be ignored). Abbreviations and slang are also invalid.
A dictionary may only be used to check a declared word; a successfully refuted word scores nothing.
You may agree on a 3 minute turn limit if desired.