Värsta språket
Värsta språket Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game length
Decide before the game starts how many letters are required for the final game. 15 letters is a good number. Fewer or more letters shorten or lengthen the playing time.
Team play
Are there more than 4 players? Compete in teams!
It works perfectly well to play Värsta Språket in teams. The rules for team players are the same as for single players. Agree among yourselves who in the team reads the cards and moves the player piece. Which team member is best suited to compete in each of the different game activities is decided by the team during play. Put your clever heads together! But remember that team members may not answer questions asked by their own team, nor may they score points on tasks that the opposing players are to solve.
Setup
- Put all the letters into the cloth bag. (The sheet of letter tiles is carefully punched out before the first game.)
- Värsta Examen has its own card deck, which is laid out on the board. Sort the other card deck by category (Guess the Dialect, Guess the Occupation and Word Creator) and lay out the three card piles on the board.
- Insert 8 Duel cards into each card holder. Place both card holders on the marked spot on the board. The remaining Duel cards are set aside.
- Appoint one of the players as the Language Police. The Language Police settles fair disputes, hands out letters and keeps order among the players. Give the Language Police's special player piece and privacy screen to the player best suited to the role.
- The other players each take a privacy screen and a player piece in the same colour. Place your player piece on any starting square (one of the four corner squares of the board).
- The die and the hourglass (30 seconds) are set out beside the board. Paper and pencils are also needed during play.
- The oldest player begins by rolling the die and moves forward as many steps as the die shows. More than one player piece may stand on the same square.
Who wins
The game is stopped as soon as one of the players has won the agreed number of letters. To become the overall winner of Värsta Språket, you must win the final decisive game between all the players. See The final game below (p. 5).
Explanation of the board's squares
Corner squares
Corner squares serve only as starting squares. Nothing happens if you land on one during play. The turn passes to the next player.
Guess the Dialect
The player on the square does the following:
- First say a number from 1 to 5. Then take the top card from the pile. The number indicates which sentence on the card you should read aloud.
- Read the sentence aloud. Try to imitate the dialect stated under the sentence. NOTE! After certain sentences the word optional appears. Here you may choose one of the game's eight dialects yourself, but not the dialect you speak yourself. Read the sentence several times if needed. If you give up immediately or refuse to try, you must pay 1 of your letter tiles to the cloth bag.
- The opposing players take out paper and pencils. The game's eight dialects are printed on the privacy screen. Write down the dialect you believe the player is trying to imitate.
- Every opposing player who guesses the right dialect receives 1 letter as a reward. The "dialect imitator" wins 1 letter if 1 opponent has the right answer, plus another 1 letter if 2 to 3 opponents have the right answer. Then the turn passes to the next player.
Correct answer gives 1 letter. Maximum 2 letters to the imitator!
Värsta språkets dialect cheat sheet
- Skånska (Scanian): Roll the r-sounds, as Sven Melander does.
- Stockholmska (Stockholm): Sila snacket ("strain the talk", i.e. speak through a sieve), as Peter Settman does.
- Göteborgska (Gothenburg): Roll the words around in your mouth, as Ingvar Oldsberg does.
- Småländska (Småland): Sound like Lena Philipsson or Emil i Lönneberga.
- Norrländska (Norrland): "De´ e´ bare å prat´ som Stenmark" (roughly: "it's just talking like Stenmark"). And sorry to all of you who live in northern Sweden, because in this game we have lumped you together as "norrlänningar". We know you have a lovely mix of different dialects.
- Östgötska (Östergötland): Say rouäv (räv, "fox"), sni-ö-us (snus, "snuff"), nöj (ny, "new") and don't forget the half-rolling, retroflex r!
- Värmländska (Värmland): Sound like Sven-Ingvars or Bengt Alsterlind, the presenter of Hajk.
- Gotländska (Gotland): Say Keno and imitate Babben Larson!
Guess the Occupation
The player on the square does the following:
- First say a number from 1 to 5. Then take the top card from the pile. The number indicates which text you should read aloud from the card.
- Read the text aloud. Try to imitate the tone of voice or speaking style that characterises the particular occupation stated after the text. Read the text several times if needed.
- The opposing players take out paper and pencils. All occupations are printed on the privacy screen. Write down the occupation you believe the player is trying to portray.
- Every opposing player who guesses the right occupational group receives 1 letter as a reward. The "occupation imitator" wins 1 letter if 1 opponent has the right answer, plus another 1 letter if 2 to 3 opponents have the right answer. Then the turn passes to the next player.
Correct answer gives 1 letter. Maximum 2 letters to the imitator!
The Duel
The player on the square does the following:
- Choose one opponent to duel. The subject is word knowledge.
- Each of you takes a filled card holder. Pull the front card upward in the holder until the top word becomes legible.
- The player on the square reads their word first. The opponent must quickly explain the meaning of the word in order to advance in the duel.
- Take turns reading out words and explaining what they mean. The further down the card you get, the trickier the words become.
- The one who first answers wrongly loses the duel. The loser must give 1 of their letters to the winner. If the loser has no letter tiles, the winner takes 1 letter from the cloth bag instead.
The loser gives the winner 1 letter!
The Language Police is watching you! The Language Police is the judge of the duel and decides whether a word explanation is incorrect or not.
Tactical tip! Listen carefully to the word explanations. A card may come up several times during the game!
Värsta Examen
The player on the square does the following:
- The participant to your left acts as card reader and takes the top question card.
- Choose a number from 1 to 3 (or 4 or 5), depending on the number of questions on the card. The card reader reads out the question with the same number. The heading of the question should also be read out.
- If you answer the question correctly, you win 1 letter.
Correct answer gives 1 letter!
Word Stress
The player on the square does the following:
- Set out pencils and paper for all opposing players.
- Draw 16 randomly chosen letter tiles from the bag.
- Quickly lay out the letters, one after another, in the grid system in the middle of the board.
- Turn the hourglass! All players now pick up a pencil and try to write down as many words as possible in 30 seconds. Look vertically, horizontally and diagonally in the grid (see the illustration below). The joker tile replaces any letter you choose.
- The player with the most words wins 1 letter. In a tie, each of the winners receives 1 letter.
Most words wins 1 letter!
The Language Police is watching you! Words are accepted in their inflected forms. The letters must lie next to each other and "hang together", either vertically or horizontally. Words lying diagonally in the grid system are also accepted. And don't forget to put the letter tiles back into the bag!
Illustration (page 4): an example 4×4 grid. The illustration shows a grid of letter tiles with words traced through it. The words printed on it are: KAM, KAMEL; PEKA; PI, PIK; PRYL; RIK, RIKA; KÖ, KÖL, KÖLD; and LÅTA (the last one along a diagonal). The letter positions appear only in the picture and are not reproduced in this text.
Word Creator (Ordskaparen)
The player on the square does the following:
- Say a number from 1 to 6. Then take the top card from the pile.
- Note which word on the card has the same number. Do not read the word aloud!
- Turn the hourglass. You now have 30 seconds to explain the word using a completely different, equivalent word. The substitute words should be descriptive. You may invent your own words if you like. "Toothbrush" could for example be called "mouth-scrubber" or "mouth-cleaner".
- The opposing players may guess freely during this time. The player who first says the correct word within 30 seconds wins 1 letter. The word creator also wins 1 letter for a correct answer.
Correct answer gives 1 letter! +1 letter to the word creator!
The Language Police is watching you! The word being sought may not be described with a whole sentence. The substitute word, however, may be a compound of several words. The word "smink" (make-up), for example, can be replaced with "face-beautifying products". You may not use any part of the word in your substitute words. If you accidentally say part of the word aloud, you are disqualified and must pay 1 letter tile.
The final game
In the final game, the player tries to form as many understandable words as possible from the letters they have won during the game. The player scores 1 point for each letter tile they have already won, and 1 point for each approved word they manage to form in the final game.
- Fetch paper and pencils. The hourglass is turned and all players turn their letter tiles face up.
- Now the players have 30 seconds to form as many words as possible from the letters they have won. The Language Police keeps track of the time!
- The Language Police notes each player's score. Number of letter tiles won + number of approved words = the player's total score!
- The player with the highest total score is named the overall winner of Värsta Språket.