WonderWord Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Game Flow
• Scoring
• Example
• End of the Game
• Variants

Goal of the Game

The goal of the game is to guess the words formed by the other players, starting with the last letter. Points are awarded to the player who guesses the word and to the player who formed it. The first player to reach 24 points wins.

Components

• 110 letter cards, consonants and vowels in different colours
• 30 matchsticks
• 1 rulebook
• Paper and pencil are also needed

Game Flow

• Write down the names of all players. Each player receives 5 matchsticks. Shuffle the cards and deal 8 cards face down to each player. Players take their cards into hand and form a word from the letters. Not all 8 cards have to be used. Then place the cards that formed the word face down in front of you, so that the word lies in the reading direction of your fellow players. That means the first letter of your word is upside down and lies to your right, as seen from you. Cards that are not used are set aside. Each player now has 5 attempts to guess all the words of a round. The game begins with the word of the youngest player. This player turns over the last letter of his word (the leftmost one, seen from him).
• If a player wants to guess, he simply says the word aloud. Each guess, however, costs 1 matchstick, which is placed in the middle of the table.
• If the word is not guessed, the next letter is turned over (the second-to-last letter of the word). Now two letters are known, and the players may guess again.
• If no player wants to make a guess, the next letter card is turned over.
• When the word of the youngest player has been guessed, the word of the next player comes up. In this way, one word after another is revealed letter by letter, until no player has any matchsticks left. Points are noted as soon as a player has guessed a word, or once all players have used up their matchsticks. At the end of the round the cards are shuffled again, all players receive 8 cards and 5 matchsticks again, and the next round can begin. The role of starting player passes clockwise.

Please note:

• All words must be found in common dictionaries, unless the players agree otherwise.
• All players may freely decide whether to keep playing or to keep their matchsticks for later.
• Umlauts (ä, ö, ü) and diphthongs (ei, au, äu, eu, ai, ui) are not included as separate letter cards. They are composed from the existing vowels as follows: ae, oe, ue, ei, au, aeu, ai and ui.
• If a player cannot form a word from his 8 cards, he may return all of them and replace them with 8 new cards from the stack.

Scoring

• Each letter counts 1 point. A word of 6 letters therefore brings in 6 points. The player who formed the word and the player who was able to guess it share the points.
• The number of points depends on the number of letters that were revealed. The player who formed the word receives 1 point for each letter that was revealed at the moment the word was guessed.
• Conversely, the player who guessed the word receives 1 point for each letter that was not yet revealed.
• When the players have no matchsticks left, the player who formed the word turns over the remaining letter cards, revealing the whole word. In this case he automatically receives 1 point for each letter of the word. Points are noted on the score sheet after each round.

Example

A player has formed a word of 7 letters, for example LEXIKON. 4 letters were revealed first (I-K-O-N), but no player has any matchsticks left to use. The player turns over the remaining 3 cards of his word (L-E-X) and receives 7 points. Please note: if a word does not exist or is misspelled, the player who formed it loses 1 point for each letter, whether or not the word was guessed.

End of the Game

The first player to reach 24 points wins.

Variants

You may also play the following variant: begin with the first letter of each word! Or, if you prefer a greater challenge, give each player 10 or 12 cards.