Spell (2026)
Spell (2026) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 30 word cards
- 5 clue boards
- 1 score board
- 1 pen
Setup
Agree on which side of the word cards you want to play with. Then shuffle the word cards and place them in a stack on the table with the chosen side face down. Each side of a card shows 5 terms.
Keep the 5 clue boards (no matter how many players you are), the score board and the pen ready.
The youngest person at the table guesses first. She is the "question mark". Are you the question mark? Then draw the top card and show the chosen side with the terms to the group so that everyone else can read the words on the card. You must on no account look at the terms yourself. Now name a number between 1 and 5. The word with the corresponding number on the side that everyone else can see is the "secret term". Place the card face down in the middle of the table.
Gameplay
The person to your left takes a clue board, thinks of a clue word for the secret term and writes the first letter of that clue word into the first field of the clue board.
If the secret term is, for example, SHARK (HAI), she could write an F, because she considers the word FISH (FISCH) a good clue.
Since you are the question mark, you may now try to guess the clue word. This is practically impossible, though, as only one letter has been noted so far. After all, an F can point to anything at all.
Whether the clue word you name is right or wrong is solely up to the person who wrote the last letter. She alone gives you feedback on whether your attempt at the clue word was right or wrong.
If you did not guess the clue word correctly, the clue board is passed clockwise to the person on the left. She now writes the next letter.
To stay with our example: she writes an L next, so that FL is now on the clue board. As her clue word she was not thinking of FISH but of FIN (FLOSSE).
Once again you have exactly one guess. It is perfectly normal that with only 2 clue letters (FL) you are still pretty much in the dark.
If you again could not name the right clue word, the clue board is passed on to the next person on the left. She had also initially thought of FISH at the F, but must now adapt to the current letter combination FL. As she is not thinking of FIN but of FLUKE, she writes a U. The clue board now reads FLU.
And once again you have exactly one guess at the emerging clue word.
If you ever manage to name the right clue word, you have already come a considerable step further.
As a reminder: whether your guess at the clue word was right or wrong is always decided by the person who has entered the current last letter. Even though she – to stay with our example – wrote the U and means FLUKE, if you then say FLUSS (RIVER), she could rule your guess as correct.
A correct guess means that the clue board is pushed into the middle of the table. Whenever this happens, you have earned yourself a guess at the secret term (in our example SHARK, which is what it is actually all about).
If your guess at the secret term is wrong, the next clue-giving person grabs a new clue board, thinks of another clue word and writes down its first letter. From here on you proceed as described above.
If the 7th letter of a clue word has been added to a clue board and the clue word has still not been guessed, then the person who wrote the last letter may reveal the clue word! Afterwards she pushes the clue board into the middle of the table as usual and you even get a guess at the secret term.
If you ever manage to name the secret term, you can cheer. Together you have made it and may now work out your points.
If, however, you have not managed it after the 5th clue word, the round ends for you without points.
In any case, the next person clockwise is now the new question mark.
You play 5 rounds in this way, until all fields on the score board are filled in.
Further rules for writing the letters
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Once all clue-giving persons have each written one letter, you simply continue clockwise. So it is not unusual for some of you to write 2 or even more letters. This depends mainly on the number of players.
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If a clue-giving person has no idea which clue word is currently emerging, and therefore cannot enter a meaningful letter, she must cross out the free field furthest to the right on the clue board. As a result, fewer letters in total are available for this clue word. You (as the question mark) may nevertheless, as usual, make exactly one further guess at the current clue word after the field has been crossed out. Then the game continues as usual.
Example: Person 1 cannot do anything with the given letters and crosses out the last clue field (board shows F L).
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Although each clue board has 7 letter fields, the clue words arising on the clue boards do not have to have exactly 7 letters. You may also use clue words that have fewer or more than 7 letters. However, more than 7 letters can never be written on a clue board. Through the crossing out of fields, it can sometimes even be fewer fields.
Example: For the secret term "Shark" the second clue is to be "Raubtier" (PREDATOR). Although it has 8 letters, the clue givers hope that "Raubtie" will be sufficient (board shows R A _ B T _ E R).
Scoring
When a round is over, you add up your points and enter them on the score board.
- For the clue boards used, you receive 1 point per free field that has neither been crossed out nor contains a letter.
- You receive 10 points for every clue board you did not use because the secret word had already been guessed beforehand.
In round 1 of the illustration, there are 9 points for unused fields and 20 points for 2 unused clue boards (total 29).
End of the Game
After 5 rounds the game is over and you calculate your total score. Did you achieve a new record? If not, why not play again right away and try to do even better.
Example
The secret term is TURTLE (SCHILDKRÖTE). On the first clue board the question mark recognised the clue word REPTILE (REPTIL). Then on the second the clue word SHELL (PANZER). Subsequently, already after two of five possible clues, the question mark named the secret term TURTLE.
For this, 10 points each are now noted for the 3 free clue boards, and in addition 5 points for the 5 fields still free on the two labelled clue boards. Total: 35 points.
A Final Note
SPELL is a fun word-guessing game. Please do not take it too seriously. Of course you should play by the rules and try to score as many points as possible. But fun is definitely the priority. If there are ever uncertainties or borderline cases, decide in whatever way suits you best.