Jotto Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Preparation
• The Play
• Anagrams
• Notes

Preparation

For two players; each needs a piece of paper and a pencil or pen.

1. Fold the bottom inch of the paper over towards yourself, so it stands up, hiding a bit of your paper - you'll write your secret word there. Or just write it on the back and expect to look at it frequently.
2. Write the alphabet on your piece of paper.
3. Divide the paper into two columns - one will be for your guesses, the other for your opponent's.
4. Leave the bottom quarter or so open for notes.

The Play

1. Each player chooses a secret word, and writes it on their paper so their opponent can't see it. The secret word should be five letters long. It may contain the same letter used more than once, such as SPELL or ONION. The word should be legal by Scrabble standards: no proper nouns, no hyphens, no apostrophes, no foreign words, etc.
   • Variant for easier or shorter game: use shorter words for children or short games.
   • Variant for harder game: use longer words. Agree on word length before beginning.
   • Variant for easier game: The secret word must contain five different letters.
2. The first player (flip a coin) guesses a five letter word, spelling it for his opponent. This must be a legitimate word, using the same rules as above. Note that if using the "five different letters for the secret word" variant, the guess word may have duplicate letters. Both players write it down to avoid discrepancies later.
3. The second player checks the guessed word with his secret word, and announces how many letters in the guessed word appear in the secret word. Unlike Mastermind, the "place" in the word of the guessed letters has no relevance. If a guessed word has duplicate letters of one appearing in the secret word, you only count one. Examples:

Guess	Secret Word	Correct Answer
HORSE	SILLS	1
SILLS	HORSE	1
SASSY	HORSE	1
SASSY	SILLS	2
SILLS	SASSY	2
SILLY	SASSY	2

4. Then the second player guesses a word, and the first player checks to see how many letters occur in his secret word, and he gives just the number.
5. Continue until one player is able to guess the secret word of the other. (You'll first have to get all five letters, then unscramble the word. There may be anagrams - see below.) If the first player guesses the second player's word, the second player has one last guess to tie the game.
6. Should it be discovered that someone gave the wrong answer (ONE when they should have said TWO, for example), then they forfeit the game. This is why both players write down each guess, so check carefully before answering!

Anagrams

An anagram is an alternate word using the same letters, such as OCEAN and CANOE. The author feels that excessive anagrams can ruin the game without a house rule, so has come up with the following:

If a player gets all five letters, but not the exact word, introduce modified PLACEMENT rules from the board game Mastermind. That is, tell the opponent which letters are in the correct location.

For example, if I guess PARSE and all five letters are correct, but it's not your word, you might say "All five letters are correct, but only the 'P' is in the correct location." So I can rule out REAPS, SPARE, APERS, etc., and try PEARS.

Notes

That's basically the game. To help you figure out the possibilities of your opponent's word, put a light check by letters you have used, cross out letters you can rule out, and circle letters you know are in the word. Use the workspace for notes like "IE=1", meaning you know it's one of those two letters.