Letterpress Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
  • Solo Setup
• Game Overview
• How to Play
  • Step 1. Deal
  • Step 2. Draft
  • Step 3. Write
  • Step 4. Score
  • Rounds Two, Three, and Four
  • Round Five
• Solo
  • Round One
  • Round Five
  • Difficulty

Contents

76 Letter cards — each shows the point value and the letter.

9 Vowel cards — each shows the point value and the letter.

19 Challenge cards — each shows the point value (if present), the letter (if present), the challenge, the clarification (if present), and the reward.

6 Reference cards — a reminder of the four steps of a round: 1. Deal, 2. Draft, 3. Write, 4. Score.

1 Solo card — the Rotary Printer, used only in the solo game.

Setup

Give each player a reference card to place in front of them.

Shuffle the letter, vowel, and challenge cards into three separate decks and place them face down.

Solo Setup

If you're playing a solo game, place the solo card in front of you. Return all the challenge cards to the box.

Game Overview

In the first four rounds of Letterpress, you choose letter cards and use them to create words. At the end of each round, you can add letters and challenges to your collection. The player with the highest-scoring word gets to pick first.

In the fifth and final round, you use the letters in your collection to compose one last word. The player with the best final word wins!

How to Play

This section explains how to play the game with two or more players. If you're playing alone, read the solo rules after you have read this section.

The game is played over five rounds. Each round follows these four steps:

Step 1. Deal → Step 2. Draft → Step 3. Write → Step 4. Score

Step 1. Deal

1. Shuffle the letter deck.
2. Create the shared letters: draw two letter cards and one vowel card from the decks and place them face up in the middle of the table. Some cards in the letter deck will also feature vowels.
3. Prepare the open challenges: take three challenge cards from the challenge deck and place them face up in the middle of the table.
4. Deal five letter cards to each player.

Step 2. Draft

From the five cards that you were dealt, choose one to keep and place it face down in front of you. This is your first drafted letter.

Once everyone has chosen a card, pass the remaining four cards to the player on your left.

From the cards that are passed to you, choose a second card to keep, also placing it face down in front of you.

Once everyone has chosen a second card, pass the remaining three cards to the player on your left.

Continue until you are passed a single card. Add that card to your pile of drafted letters.

In each round, you can look at your drafted letters whenever you like.

Step 3. Write

Secretly think of a word to write. You must be able to spell the word using your drafted letters and any shared letters. The following rules apply:

YOU CANNOT RE-USE LETTER CARDS

You cannot use the same letter card more than once in each word.

For example, you cannot write the word 'text' with only the letter cards T, E, and X. You would need to have two T cards.

DOUBLE LETTERS

You can use any card as a double letter (the same letter twice in a row). This is the only exception to the rule above.

For example, you can write the word 'letter' with the letter cards L, E, T, E, and R.

THE QU CARD

You can use the QU card as either the letter Q or the letters QU.

SHARED LETTERS

All players can use the shared letter cards, and more than one player can use the same shared letter card.

You cannot use the same shared letter card more than once in your word (except as a double letter).

ILLEGAL WORDS

Proper nouns, abbreviations, and slang words are not allowed. You must write a single word without hyphens.

For example, you cannot write 'Hannah', 'BBC', or 'chuffed'.

When every player has written down a word, you each announce your word to the group, placing the drafted letters you have used face up in front of you. If you didn't use all your drafted letters, place the unused cards at the bottom of the letter deck.

Step 4. Score

Add up the points shown on all the drafted and shared letters in your word. Count each card only once, even if you used it as a double letter. More than one player can count the same shared letter.

Use the scores to rank the players from highest to lowest. You can then claim letters and challenges in that order.

TIES

If there is a tie between two or more players, the player who used the letter with the highest value is ranked highest.

If there is still a tie, the player who wrote the longest word (total number of letters, not cards) is ranked highest.

If there is still a tie, each tied player draws the top card of the letter deck. The player whose letter is closest to the start of the alphabet is ranked highest. Place the used letter cards at the bottom of the deck.

CLAIM LETTERS

Starting with the player who has the highest score, each player may claim letters from those in play. You can choose a shared letter or a drafted letter that any player has used in their word. Place the claimed letter face down underneath your reference card. This is your collection.

The player with the highest score claims two letters instead of one.

If you are playing with three or four players, the player with the second-highest score also claims two letters.

If you are playing with five or six players, the players with the second- and third-highest score also claim two letters.

CLAIM CHALLENGES

When you claim letters, you may also claim one challenge from the open challenges. To claim a challenge, you must have met the challenge shown on the challenge card. You can claim only one challenge in each round, even if your word has met the challenges of multiple cards.

When you claim a challenge, you gain the reward listed on the card. If the card tells you to add it to your collection, place it face down underneath your reference card. Otherwise, return it to the bottom of the challenge deck.

After every player has claimed letters, place any unclaimed cards (including challenges) at the bottom of their decks. Start the next round.

CHALLENGE CARDS Some challenge cards in your collection may list two or more letters. If you use a challenge card in your word, you must use all the letters that are listed on the card, in the order shown.

COLLECTION You can look at the cards in your collection whenever you like, but you can never look at another player's collection.

Rounds Two, Three, and Four

The second, third, and fourth rounds work in the same way as the first, with the following exception:

STEP 3. WRITE

Place the cards you have used, including any shared letters, in a line below the word from the previous round. The cards should line up so that at least one card in the new word is directly below a card from the previous word. No card should have two letters directly above or below it. Place any unused drafted or shared letters in the library (next to the solo card) as before.

Then, look at each letter in the previous word. If the letter is worth the same number of points or fewer as the letter immediately below it, place it in your collection, face down underneath your reference card. Return all the other letters from the previous word to the bottom of their matching deck.

Example: I've written the word 'press' and placed it underneath my previous word (using S as a double letter). The letters L and E are worth fewer points than the letters below, so I add those to my collection, as well as the second T, as it's worth the same number of points as the letter beneath it. As the first T is worth more points than the E below it, it gets returned to the bottom of its deck, as well as the second E and the R card which have no cards underneath. Finally, I'm left with just the four cards on the table that I placed this turn, and I'm ready to start the next round.

Round Five

The fifth round is slightly different from the previous rounds:

STEP 1. DEAL

Create the shared letters as before, but don't deal any cards from the letter deck to the players. Don't prepare any open challenges.

STEP 2. DRAFT

Instead of drafting letters, take all the cards in your collection into your hand. You will use these to write your word.

STEP 3. WRITE

Write a word as before, using cards from the shared letters and your collection. Place any unused cards from your collection underneath your reference card.

STEP 4. SCORE

The player with the highest scoring word wins the game!

If there's a tie, the tied player with the most points in their collection wins.

If there's still a tie, all tied players win.

Solo

In the solo mode, you are playing to beat the Rotary Printer.

Set up and play the game as normal, with the following changes to the rounds. Remember: do not use the challenge cards in the solo game.

Round One

STEP 1. DEAL

Create the shared letters by placing one letter card and one vowel card face up.

STEP 2. DRAFT

Draw five cards from the letter deck and choose one to keep. Return the rest to the bottom of the deck.

Then draw four cards and choose one, returning the rest to the bottom of the deck. Then draw three cards and choose one. Then draw two cards and choose one. Finally, draw one more card as your final drafted letter.

STEP 3. WRITE

Choose a word to write, following the normal rules. Place the cards used, including any shared letters, in a line. Order them as they appear in the word.

If there are any drafted or shared letters that you haven't used, place them face up in a pile next to the solo card. This is the library. You can look at the cards in the library whenever you like.

STEP 4. SCORE

Calculate your score as normal.

If your score is 13 or higher, choose a card in the library and add it to your collection.

If your score is 12 or lower, choose a card in the library and place it at the bottom of the matching deck.

Leave your word on the table for the next round.

Round Five

The fifth round is slightly different from the previous rounds:

STEP 1. DEAL

Don't deal any cards in the fifth round. Instead, return all letters from the previous round's word to the bottom of their matching deck.

STEP 2. DRAFT

Instead of drawing cards from the deck, take all the cards in your collection into your hand. You will use these to write your word.

STEP 3. WRITE

Write your word as normal. You don't need to place the cards in a line as you did in the previous rounds. Return any unused cards to your collection.

STEP 4. SCORE

Calculate your score as normal. Then add up the points on all the letters underneath the solo card. If your word score is highest, you win!

Otherwise, the Rotary Printer has bested you – try again!

Difficulty

If you are finding the solo game too easy or too difficult, you can change the level of difficulty.

Easy mode: In the fifth round, you may write any number of words and add up the total score.

Hard mode: In the fifth round, place any unused drafted or shared letters underneath the solo card.