Letter Tycoon
Letter Tycoon Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
| Count | Component |
|---|---|
| 102 | Letter Factory Cards |
| 26 | Letter Patents |
| 35 | Coins |
| 18 | Stock Certificates |
| 5 | Score Cards |
| 4 | Goal Cards |
| 1 | Zeppelin - Start Player Token |
| 1 | Letter Factories Poster, 8.5 x 14 |
Set Up
A. Each player takes turns cutting the letter factory deck to expose a letter card. The player who cuts and reveals a card closest to "Z" is the starting player and keeps the zeppelin token for the game.
B. Shuffle the factory deck, dealing 7 cards to each player. Create a community pool of 3 face-up factory cards in the middle of the table. Place the remaining deck next to the community pool. Leave room for a discard pile.
C. Lay the letter patents out so all players can see them. Arrange these from A-Z or in any layout that is pleasing.
D. Place the coins and stocks within reach of the players. Players begin with no coins or stocks.
E. Give every player a score card. On the back of the score cards is a quick reference of letter frequency.
Set out a goal card (corresponding to the number of players). When any one player owns the target value in letter patents, the game ends.
Players must agree upon a dictionary (paper or digital) to resolve challenges. All words labeled as a part of speech are allowed provided they are at least three letters long and are not abbreviations, proper nouns, or words requiring an apostrophe or hyphen.
Play
On your turn, take one of these two actions:
DISCARD: Discard any number of factory cards from your hand and draw the same number from the factory deck. This completes your turn.
(or)
PLAY A WORD: Take the following steps in order...
A. Build a Word
Make a word using factory cards from your hand and from the community pool (and using any optional abilities from patents you own). At least one letter in your word must come from a card in your hand.
B. Earn Money and Stocks
Earn coins and stocks based on the length of your word:
| Letters | Money Earned | Stock Earned |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Letters | $1 | - |
| 4 Letters | $2 | - |
| 5 Letters | $3 | - |
| 6 Letters | $4 | 1 |
| 7 Letters | $6 | 1 |
Earn one additional stock for each letter over 7 in your word.
C. Bank Pays Royalties
Each opponent receives payment of $1 from the bank for each factory card played in your word matching a patent they own.
You do not earn royalties on your own patents.
If your word uses patent abilities to add to a word, those additions do not pay opponent royalties.
D. Buy a Patent
You may buy one patent (and only one) that MATCHES a factory card used (from your hand or the community pool) to form your word.
The cost to buy a letter is in the lower left of both the letter factory and patent card.
You pay the cost in coins to the bank.
E. Continue
First, any factory cards used from the community pool are discarded and replaced from the deck (bringing the pool back to 3 cards) so that the next player (clockwise from you) may begin their turn.
Second, you discard all played factory cards PLUS any others you choose from your hand, drawing from the deck to refill back to 7 cards. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discards to form a new deck.
Example of Play
James takes a turn. He spots a word in the community cards, but he needs to use at least one letter from his hand. He discovers "J-E-W-E-L-S" buried among his options!
James opts to use the community 'E's and save his own letter 'E'.
James earns $4 and 1 stock for his 6 letter word!
Stocks are rewards for longer words, but are not spendable income. James saves the stock for end game points.
Money, if unspent, is also worth points at the end of the game.
Rayne is the proud owner of an electricity patent ('E'), so she's excited to collect $1 each for the 'E's used in James's word.
Luckily for James, Rayne collects royalties from the bank and not his supply!
James has no money from a previous turn, and has $4 burning a hole in his pocket. He may buy one patent corresponding to a letter in his word. With $4, James can afford the 'J', 'W' or 'L' or he can save his money. Generally, it's best to buy something, so he grabs that 'J' for its special power!
James now discards all cards played.
The used community cards, (in this case all of them) are replaced first. Rayne ponders a new set of letters.
In hand, James is left with an 'E', 'A', 'N' and 'Z'. He can discard any or all of those before drawing back up to 7 cards.
Special Rules
Each 'Y' factory card in your word must be designated as either a consonant OR a vowel by you.
This may allow you to use a 'Y' in a grammatically incorrect but strategic way to score patent abilities. See example below.
If you play a word that uses the 'Q' factory card, double the coins and stocks gained. This is unique to this letter and is different than owning the Q patent.
Note that the double word scoring can stack with other patent abilities.
Challenges
After a player plays a word, but before the next player starts their turn, any player may challenge a word.
The agreed upon dictionary is consulted. In the case of multiple challenges, the player closest in clockwise order to the active player is the challenger.
YES — If the word is found to be acceptable the challenging player must pay $1 to the active player. If the challenging player has no money, it comes from the bank.
NO — If the word is not acceptable, the active player takes back the factory cards played (and returns any coins and stocks earned with that word) and must discard one factory card from their hand and draw one from the deck. Their turn is now over.
Game End
When any player controls an amount of patents equal to or greater in value than the goal card in play, the last round is triggered.
Look to the zeppelin! Each player clockwise from the starting player who has not yet acted is able to make one final play.
The winner is the player with the highest combined value of patents PLUS coins and stocks! If there is a tie, the player with the highest value in patents is the winner. Congrats on becoming the Letter Tycoon!
| 2 Players | 3 Players | 4 Players | 5 Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| $45 | $34 | $26 | $21 |
Letter Patents
Letter patents pay you $1 in royalties from the bank for each matching factory card played in an opponent's word. You do not earn royalties on your own patents.
Additionally, some patents have special abilities that you may use no more than once per turn. A reference of these 7 abilities is on the back cover.
Example of Play
Tristan owns $25 in patents in a 4 player game with his family. (The game goal is $26).
He knows that if he can buy ANY patent on his turn, he'll trigger the end game. Since his Dad and Mom have played this round (Dad has the zeppelin), only his brother Aidan will be able to take a final turn.
Tristan finds a "Y-A-C-H-T" among his letters! That 'Y' can be used as either a vowel or a consonant for scoring. Using his 'K' patent special ability, he keeps it a consonant and scores $6 - a DOUBLE score on his 5 letter word with only one vowel.
He uses his earnings to take control of the construction industry ('C') to end the game.
Aidan takes the final turn. He owns a zeppelin docking station ('Z') so he's counting on boosting his word with an 'S' if possible. And then he sees it:
'S-K-Y-S-C-R-A-P-E-R-S!' (adding his own S for an 11 letter word worth $6 and 5 stock!). Everyone else gets paid for their patents.
Is it enough to win the game? Everyone counts their patents, money and stock to find out who has become the LETTER TYCOON!
Patent Special Abilities Reference
B — Earn double if your word begins and ends in vowels. Both coins and stocks are doubled.
Example: E-S-T-A-T-E earns $8 and 2 stock.
J — Earn double if vowels are at least half of your word. Both coins and stocks are doubled.
Example: L-U-X-U-R-Y (Y as vowel) earns $8 and 2 stock.
K — Earn double if your word has only one vowel. Both coins and stocks are doubled.
Example: G-O-L-D earns $4.
Q — You may replace a card to start your turn. You may discard and draw before deciding whether to use your turn to build a word or discard factories.
V — You may build two words. Receive coins and stocks for each word individually. Other patent abilities can be applied to one word or the other, not both.
Example: O-I-L and S-T-E-E-L earn $1 and earn $3.
X — You may use one letter card twice. You must use at least three factory cards.
Example: C-A-V-I-A-R (using A twice) earns $4 + 1 stock.
Z — You may add an 'S' to the end of your word. This must form an acceptable word. You may not purchase the 'S' patent without using an 'S' factory. Also, other players do not earn royalties on this extended 'S'.
Example: B-O-N-D-S earns $3.
Credits
DESIGN: Brad Brooks
DEVELOPMENT: Peter Vaughan, Squirmy Beast, Inc.
ILLUSTRATION, GRAPHIC DESIGN: Mackenzie Schubert
PRODUCTION: Shari Spiro, Ad Magic/Breaking Games
PLAY TESTING: Trey Alsup, Matthew Austin, Adam Bain, Elizabeth Barlow, Steven Bellin, Matthew Bivens, Eric Burgess, Aidan Brooks, Norv Brooks, Tina Brooks, Tristan Brooks, Aaron Cappocchi, Jeanne DeMark, Dino Di Blasio, Kelsey Domeny, Michael Domeny, Diane Dossa, Daniel Dranove, Yvonne Duran, Douglas Eboch, Stephen Ess, Andrew Federspiel, Taralyn R. Frasqueri-Molina, Jon Geibel, Aldo Ghiozzi, Marianne Gorczyca, Eliot Hochberg, J.R. Honeycutt, Seth Jaffee, Tom Jolly, Sarah Larsen, Luke Laurie, Maximus Laurie, Odessa Laurie, Christina Major, Mark Major, Judy Neff, Ryan Neff, Steve Nix, Dianne Pedigo, Mike Rizzo, James "Letter Typhoon" Rizzo, Andrew Schub, Mark Scrudder, Jason Serrato, Jeff Siadek, SoCalPlaytesting Group, Shari Spiro, James Vaughan, Janelle Vaughan, Joey Vigour, Ta-Te Wu
3D ZEPPELIN MODEL: Christian Strain, Kraken Games
No letters were harmed in the wording of these rules.