Wordz
Wordz Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
110 cards, of which 37 yellow Vowel cards and 73 blue Consonant cards, as well as 21 tokens. On the front of each card there is a central letter, repeated in the four corners; on the back, a colour indicates whether the card is a vowel (yellow) or a consonant (blue), as well as an arrow that shows the writing direction.
Object of the Game
Be the player who has scored the most points, by guessing as many opponents' words as possible as early as possible.
Number of Rounds
A game of WordZ is played in 3 rounds. However, players are free to choose the number of rounds that suits them, as long as they agree among themselves at the start of the game.
Preparation Phase
Each player receives, face down, 5 Vowel cards (yellow) and 7 Consonant cards (blue), with which they must secretly compose a word that they place in front of them. Unused cards are put back in the box.
Note: the central letters on each card are repeated in the corners so that the cards can easily be held fanned out.
Each player also receives 3 Bet tokens, with which they can try to guess their opponents' words.
(Diagram 1: layout of the playing table at the end of the preparation phase.)
Which words are allowed?
A word may be made up of all or some of the player's cards.
All words of the French language are allowed, except proper nouns. It may therefore be a common noun or an adjective (masculine, feminine, singular or plural), a verb (infinitive or conjugated), a past participle (masculine, feminine, singular or plural), a present participle, an adverb, etc.
The word must be correctly spelled and grammatically correct.
To check the spelling of a word, players may freely consult a dictionary.
How to write a word
So that opponents can easily read their word, a player must write it in its reverse reading direction (from right to left). To do this, they simply place the first letter of the word with the arrows turned to the left (the WordZ logo turned toward the other players) and then follow the direction of the arrows.
Playing Phase
The first player is chosen at random.
Each time it is their turn to act, a player:
- MUST choose and turn over one of an opponent's cards (mandatory action).
- And MAY make a guess for an opponent's word (optional action).
These actions can be performed in the order of the player's choice. Each action can only be done once per turn.
Making a guess
Making a guess means proposing a solution for the word an opponent has written. To do so, the player gives the opponent a Bet token and then spells the word they have in mind. The opponent then confirms or not the guess. If the player is wrong about even a single letter, the guess is wrong. A player may make a guess on a different word from the one on which they turned over a letter.
Note: a player who has no more Bet tokens cannot make a guess until they get some back.
If the guess is correct
The player who has just guessed the word takes the cards that were still face down at the moment the guess was made. The player who laid down the word takes the letters that were face up at the moment the guess was made. The player who laid down the word therefore no longer has a word in front of them (which does not prevent them from continuing to play).
If the guess is wrong
The word stays in place as it is until one of the players discovers it or all its letters have been revealed (all the cards are then won by the player who laid down the word).
It is then the next player's turn, clockwise; and so on.
What happens if a word is misspelled or grammatically incorrect?
All the cards of the incorrect word are put back in the box. The offending player keeps the cards they have already won during this round. However, they no longer take part in it. They must then give one Bet token to each player, if possible, and put the rest back in the box. If they do not have enough Bet tokens to give one per player, then all of them are put back in the box.
They can of course take part in the next round.
Example of a Turn
Marc received the letters I, E, E, A, A, C, P, M, N, S (as shown in the illustration), with which he decides to write MACHINES. After a few turns his word has been partially revealed.
Philippe, whose turn it is, hesitates between "machinal" and "machines". So he asks Marc to turn over his last letter: an S. He then gives a Bet token to Marc and proposes M.A.C.H.I.N.E.S. Philippe wins three cards (A, H and E) while Marc wins five (M, C, I, N and S).
It is now Philippe's left-hand neighbour's turn to play.
End of a Round
When all the words have been guessed or revealed, the round ends. Each player then counts the number of cards they have won: this is their score for the round. Each card is worth one point. Players record the scores on a sheet. All the cards, including those won during this round, are gathered by colour and shuffled before starting a new round. The player with the fewest points starts the next round (the one with the fewest tokens in case of a tie).
(Diagram 2: layout of the table during play, showing Bet tokens and won cards.)
End of the Game
After the last round, add up the scores each player obtained in each round. The player with the most points is declared the winner.