Letter GO! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Contents
• Setup
• Gameplay
• Reckoning
• Round End
• Game End and Scoring
• Example Round
• Alternate Gameplay Modes

Objective

Each round, players write words on their whiteboards using the available letter cards, but they only score points for the cards they are able to claim before their opponents. Words only score if the player follows the ever-changing and zany Letter GO! rules. The player who scores the most points at the end of five rounds wins.

Contents

• 60 consonant letter cards
• 36 vowel letter cards
• 26 double-sided rule cards
• 6 whiteboards
• 6 dry erase markers
• 6 scoring tokens (numbered 1-6)
• 1 60-second sand timer

Setup

1. Give each player a whiteboard and dry erase marker.
2. Separate the consonant deck from the vowel deck.
3. Shuffle the vowels and place the deck in the center of the table face down. Reveal vowel cards equal to the number of players.
4. Shuffle the consonant letter cards and deal 2 cards to each player face down. (For a 3 player game, deal 3 consonant letter cards to each player.) Place the deck in the center of the table face down.
5. Select the numbered scoring tokens corresponding to the number of players and place them in the center of the table, an equal distance from all players. Place the sand timer in the middle of the table.
6. Reveal any two Letter GO! rule cards and place them in the center of the table, visible to all players. These rules apply to the first round.

Gameplay

1. Each player arranges their consonants underneath their whiteboard, hidden from the other players. Cards must be face up, side-by-side, and oriented towards the center of the table (upside-down for the player).
2. When all players are ready, one player flips the sand timer, and everyone simultaneously lifts their whiteboards to reveal the consonants.
3. Each player writes a word on their whiteboard.*

The player must:

• Follow the Letter GO! rule cards.
• Write a word that is 4 or more letters long.**
• Write a real English word that is not a proper noun.
• Spell their word correctly.
• Use the consonants in front of other players and the vowels in the center. They CANNOT use the letters that were under their own whiteboard or letters not available in this round.
• Use each available card only once maximum.

4. Once a player finishes writing their word, they immediately grab a scoring token from the center. Lower numbered tokens are better, but they may take any token they wish.

* Letter GO! rule cards that refer to "your board" specifically refer to the one in front of you at the round's start. Rules may direct players to write on more than one board (meaning their opponents'), and all players should accommodate that.

** The "Qu" consonant card is two letters. For instance "quip" needs just 3 cards, but is 4 letters long, so it is still a legal word. The "u" is optional (as in "faqir").

If a player has claimed a token and discovers that their word is invalid for any reason, they must return the token, erase their board completely, and correct the mistake. Another finished player may swap out their token for the returned token without erasing their board, if the returned token is better.

When the sand timer runs out, the round immediately ends, and reckoning begins.

Reckoning

1. All players reveal their words.
2. Each player who claimed a token has their word verified by the opponent to their left. That player should verify the word's adherence to the gameplay rules.
   • If there is a dispute on the validity of a word, players should consult a mutually agreed upon dictionary. No benefit is given to a successful challenger, but an invalid word will not score.
   • Evidence of a player's honest effort to follow the rule cards should be permitted to score. If this is in dispute, lean on the spirit—not the exact depiction—of the rules, and have the other players vote (ties go in favor of scoring). e.g. for ZEPPELIN—The player should draw a zeppelin on their whiteboard, but it need not be 100% accurate (it's fine if it looks like a crumpled cigar). If the zeppelin is missing entirely, the word should be declared invalid and no points awarded.
3. Each player who wrote a valid word must claim the cards corresponding to the letters they used, starting with the player with the lowest number score token. Players may not necessarily receive cards for all the letters that were in their word because another player might claim those cards first.*** Players accumulate their claimed cards in their own scoring piles over the course of the game.

*** If the "Qu" card a player used has been claimed, but a "U" card remains, the player must claim the U card.

Round End

After the last scoring player claims their letter cards, discard the unclaimed cards and previous Letter GO! rules to the box.

Players erase their whiteboards and take two new cards (or three, for three player games) from the consonant deck to prepare for the next round.

The player with the worst ranked token (or who didn't claim one at all) should take the top two Letter GO! rule cards and decide which side of each to put in play for the next round. The timer should be given to the player with the #1 token and the player with the #2 token should reveal the vowels for the next round. All tokens are returned to the center of the table.

When everyone is ready, present the new Letter GO! rules, and the player with the timer should flip it to start the new round.

This round sequence repeats until 5 rounds have been played. At this point, the game ends and scoring occurs.

Game End and Scoring

Each player adds up the points from their scored cards and writes their final score on their board. Each consonant scores the number of stars at the top of the card. Vowels are worth nothing. When all players are ready, reveal and compare scores. The player with the highest total score wins the game.

In case of a tie, the player with the MOST claimed vowel cards wins. If still tied, the player with the LEAST claimed consonant cards wins. If the tie persists, tied players must swap shoelaces and then tie each other's shoes in a bizarre—yet jubilant—celebration of shared victory.

Example Round

Joan, Jarrod, Garfield, and Emily receive two consonant cards each and place them under their whiteboards, face up and oriented towards the center of the table. They randomly choose two rule cards: Notary, where each player must write their signature on the player to their right's answer board, and Speak, where players must say the letters of their word out loud as they are writing. They draw the first 4 vowel cards and set them in the center of the table: A, I, U, and E. Joan volunteers to flip the sand timer for the first round, and then everyone lifts their whiteboards, looks around at the available letters, and scrambles to write a four or more letter word. As they finish, they immediately grab a scoring token.

(Illustration: seating order Jarrod, Joan, Emily, Garfield; tokens taken: Jarrod 1, Joan 3, Emily 2, Garfield 4.)

The players verify with the person to their left that they spelled a word and followed the rules. Emily, who is sitting to the left of Garfield, is not convinced that ZIKA is valid. "Zika?" she says incredulously. "You know, like Zika virus!" Garfield argues. Despite Garfield's protests, the other players decide that ZIKA is not a word, and Garfield is disqualified from scoring this round.

After confirming that the other players followed the rules, they claim cards in the order indicated by their tokens. Jarrod, who spelled CAKES, takes the C, A, K, E, and S cards. Emily spelled BATH and takes the B, Joan's T, and the H. She cannot take the A card because Jarrod already claimed it. Next, Joan spelled BASTE, but the only unclaimed letter left in her word is Garfield's T, so that is all she takes.

The players wipe their boards, take two new consonant cards each, discard the unclaimed cards and old rules, and place their tokens back in the center. Jarrod takes the timer. Emily reveals 4 more vowels. Garfield takes the top two Letter GO! rule cards and decides which sides of the cards to use. When everyone is ready, Jarrod flips the sand timer, and they begin again.

Alternate Gameplay Modes

Vowels Are Bad for You: Gameplay is exactly the same except each vowel is worth -1 point during scoring.

Sticky Rule Handicap: When choosing new Letter GO! rules for the next round, this rule requires the choosing player to additionally assign one new rule DIRECTLY to another player who is the only person that must adhere to it. That sticky rule persists and must be followed by that player until one of the following occurs:

• They score a round using the worst token available
• They don't claim a scoring token in a round
• The game ends

Growing Madness: The first round is played with two Letter GO! rules as normal, but instead of discarding them at the end of each round, all rules persist and one rule card is added. Round 5 will (usually) have 6 rules in effect.