Letres
Letres Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
The game is played with a deck of 54 cards. Each card is printed with a letter of the alphabet.
Object
Be the first player to make a word using ALL the cards in your hand. For example, if the dealer deals 5 cards, you have to make a 5-letter word.
Setup
The dealer decides how many cards to deal, from 3 to 8 cards. The game has a draw pile and a discard pile, just like in rummy. The pages do not describe the dealing procedure in more detail (see the gaps below).
Playing the Game
Players can draw new cards from either the draw pile or the discard pile, just like in rummy. Then they discard.
Winning a Hand
The first player to make a word using all of the cards in his or her hand wins the hand. The winning player adds up the points printed under each letter in that word.
Winning the Game
In the standard game of LETRAS, the first player to make 25 points wins the game.
Solitaire LETRAS
The publisher states that there is also a solitaire version of LETRAS. Its rules are not described in the source pages and are not transcribed here.
Gaps in This Transcription
The following are not stated in the publisher's pages and have deliberately not been filled in:
- Letter point values. The pages say that points are "printed under each letter" but do not give the values. The values are not listed here.
- Solitaire rules. The solitaire version is named but not described.
- Word validity. The pages do not say what dictionary or word list is used, or which word forms are allowed.
- Turn order, dealing order and the first player. Not stated.
- Timing of the win. The pages do not say whether the all-cards word is formed before or after the draw and discard step.
- Scoring when no one reaches the target. The pages give a 25-point target for the standard game but do not say how the hand scores feed into the game total beyond the points for the winning word, or whether a hand is repeated until someone reaches 25.
- Game components beyond the cards. Not stated in the pages, apart from the 54-card deck.