WordCraft Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Game Overview
• I. Craft words
  • Achievement cards
  • Next Player's turn
  • Round end
• II. End of Round scoring
  • Gameplay example
  • End of Round scoring example
• III. Prepare for the next Round
• Game End
  • a. Score experience points from the Achievement cards
  • b. Sum experience points and determine the winner
• Clarification
• Gameplay time and players' turn duration
• Alternative Gameplay Rules
  • Predetermined difficulty level
  • Teams
• Explanation of Achievement cards (Requirement type)
• Wording and Words Acceptance

Components

• 26 Letter cards (in 5 different colors)
• 14 Achievement cards (in 4 different categories)
• 96 cubes (24 in each of the 4 player colors)
• 1 Rulebook

Game Setup

• Categorize the Achievement cards based on their requirement type (background color). Shuffle each deck separately and reveal 1 card from each of the 4 categories on the table where everyone can see them.
• Separate the Letter cards based on their color, shuffle each deck and reveal 2 Blue, 3 Yellow, 3 Green, 2 Red and 2 Purple ones. Form a letter grid on the table, as in the example below, easy to be seen and reached by all players.
• Give each player 18 cubes of the color of their choice.
• The player who mixed ingredients of any kind most recently is the First player.

You are now ready to craft words!

Game Overview

The game is played in 3 Rounds.

Round overview:

• I. Craft words. Players take turns, one after the other, creating words.
• II. End of Round scoring. Score experience points (EP) from Letter cards.
• III. Prepare for the next Round.

After the 3 Rounds:

• a. Score experience points from Achievement cards.
• b. Sum experience points and determine the winner.

I. Craft words

Each of the 3 rounds of the game consists of a series of turns. Starting with the First player and continuing in clockwise order, on your turn, look at the Letter cards on the table and think of a word that consists of at least 3 letters found on these cards. Not all of the available letters need to be used in the word, but any other letter that doesn't appear on the grid is not allowed. You may use any available letter multiple times.

To create a word, say it out loud and for each of the word's letters place a cube of your color on the corresponding Letter card. If a letter appears more than once in the word, place that many cubes on its Letter card. Placing cubes on every used Letter card is mandatory.

If you are unable to think of a word you may voluntarily pass. Check the 'Wording and words acceptance' section on page 7 for more information on which words are allowed.

We suggest that each player places their cubes in a different corner on top of the Letter cards as it will be easier to check how many cubes each player has there.

Achievement cards

After creating a word, check if any Achievement cards' requirements are fulfilled. You may place up to 1 cube of your color on each of the fulfilled ones. Check page 7 for more information on the different categories' requirements. Placing a cube on a fulfilled Achievement card is optional.

Next Player's turn

The player on your left plays next and shall create another word consisting of the available letters and place cubes on the word's Letter cards. If the word fulfills the requirements of any Achievement cards, the player may place cubes there too. Continue playing likewise in a clockwise order.

Round end

When a player is left with 2 or less cubes available, the end of Round is triggered. This player scores immediately 2 additional experience points and all other players play one last turn. The Round has then ended.

II. End of Round scoring

Players now score experience points depending on who has the majority of cubes on each Letter card. For each Letter card check which player has the most cubes on it. That player scores the Letter card's experience points. In case of a tie, all tied players score the Letter card's experience points. Write down on a notepad the experience points each player scored in total.

Note: Do not score experience points for the Achievement cards now, as these are only scored at the end of all 3 Rounds of the game. After scoring all Letter cards, players get their cubes back from each Letter card.

Caution: Do not remove any cubes from the Achievement cards.

Gameplay example

Orange player created the word TREE placing one cube on Letter cards T and R and two cubes on Letter card E. Then she places one cube on the Achievement card that requires words starting with a yellow letter and ending with a blue one.

Black Player created the word WAGE placing one cube on each Letter card W, A, G and E, one cube on the Achievement card that requires words with at least 2 red letters and another cube to the one that requires a red letter to be followed by a blue one.

Brown player created the word DARTS and then placed one cube on the Achievement card that requires words utilizing exactly 5 cubes.

End of Round scoring example

• For Letter card T the Brown player has the most cubes and scores 3 EP.
• For Letter card R all three players are tied for the first place, so they all score 3 EP.
• For Letter card D the Black and the Orange players score 4 EP each.
• For the Letter card L no player scores EP as no one has cubes there.

III. Prepare for the next Round

• The player who has the fewest cubes on the Achievement cards will be the First player of the next Round. In case of a tie, the new first player will be the tied player farthest from the first player of the previous Round, in a clockwise order.
• Return all used Letter cards on their corresponding decks and shuffle each deck separately. Reveal 2 Blue, 3 Yellow, 3 Green, 2 Red and 2 Purple Letter cards to form the next Round's grid.
• Finally give each player 3 more cubes of their color from the general supply.

You are now ready to start the next Round.

Game End

After the 3rd Round's scoring phase, the game ends. It is now time to score experience points for the Achievement cards and determine the winner.

a. Score experience points from the Achievement cards

There are 3 different scoring categories of Achievement cards, based on their difficulty. The green color corresponds to the Easy Achievements, the yellow to the Medium and the purple to the Hard Achievements. Depending on the quantity of the cubes each player has on each Achievement card, they score the corresponding experience points that are shown on the card. If a player has more than 5 cubes on a single Achievement card, start over another scoring set (i.e. if a player has 7 cubes on an Easy Achievement, she scores 14 EP for her first scoring set of 5 cubes, plus 4 EP for the second scoring set of 2 cubes). Write down the Achievement cards' experience points earned by each player on the notepad.

b. Sum experience points and determine the winner

For each player, add the experience points they earned during the 3 rounds and the ones from the Achievement cards. The player with the most experience points is the winner! In case of a tie, the winner is the one, among the tied players, who had the most cubes on Achievement cards in total. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Clarification

• The Letter card 'Qu' can be used either as Q or as QU. I.e. in a game that the Achievement card requiring words utilizing 4 cubes and the Letter cards Qu, U, T, I and E are available, a player may create the word QUIET either by placing one cube on each of the Qu, U, I, E and T Letter cards or by placing one cube on each of the Qu, I, E and T Letter cards and, optionally, one on the Achievement card mentioned above.

Gameplay time and players' turn duration

We suggest playing your first games without any time restrictions. However, in order to avoid too long sessions, you may try one of the following options:

• Optional rule #1: Use a timer and give each player a pre-agreed time limit. E.g. "Each player must create a word within 3 minutes time or pass".
• Optional rule #2: If after some time a player has not created a word, other players may agree to provide a 1-minute deadline to create one or pass.
• In any case, try not to be very strict on young and/or new players.
• Additionally, it is also suggested, in the beginning of each Round, to provide a 1-minute time window to all players before the First player's turn starts, so that all players can familiarize themselves with the available letters of the current Round.

Alternative Gameplay Rules

Predetermined difficulty level

During Setup, categorize the Achievement cards based on their difficulty level (experience points color), shuffle each deck and reveal 1 Easy, 1 Medium and 2 Hard Achievement cards, or any other combination of 4 cards in total, as you see fit.

Teams

To play the game in teams, at least four players are required. Players are split into up to 4 teams. Each team gets 18 cubes of their preferred color. Use a timer and give 3-minutes time span to each team for their turn. On the team's turn, players consult each other and they create one single word. Then it is the turn of the other team in clockwise order. Play the rest of the game as normal.

Explanation of Achievement cards (Requirement type)

• Purple Achievement cards are fulfilled by creating words with at least 2 letters of the same color, even if a single Letter card is used twice.
• Blue Achievement cards are fulfilled by creating words starting with a specified color Letter card and ending with another specified color Letter card.
• Orange Achievement cards are fulfilled by creating words utilizing a specified exact amount of cubes, even if multiple cubes are placed on the same Letter card.
• Green Achievement cards are fulfilled by creating words using at least one pair of a specified color Letter card followed by another specified color Letter card.

*Note: All Achievement cards can be fulfilled once per turn.

Wording and Words Acceptance

• Before starting the game we suggest that players agree on which dictionary will be used when the existence and wording of a word needs to be checked. (i.e. a Standard English dictionary, a web dictionary etc.) However, players are not allowed to use a dictionary or other external sources to help them come up with a word.
• Words that have less than 3 letters are not allowed (i.e. IN or NO).
• You may not use words that have already been used throughout the game, nor derivatives that stem from those words. Therefore, use a notepad to write down each word after every player's turn (i.e you may not create BIKE or BICYCLES if the word BICYCLE has already been created in this game).
• All words of the language you are playing the game with and all foreign words that have become part of the spoken language, appearing in the dictionary, are allowed.
• Suffixes, prefixes and abbreviations are not allowed.
• Words that require the use of a hyphen or apostrophe cannot be played in the game (i.e. DOESN'T or T-SHIRT).
• Any word that requires the use of a capital letter is not allowed either. (i.e. names, cities, days, etc.).
• If players have doubts about the accuracy of a created word, they may pause the game (and any timer used) to consult the dictionary. If the majority of the players agree that the chosen word is unacceptable, the player must create another word. Remember that if a player is unable to think of a word they may choose to voluntarily pass.