Word forming game for large words

Abstract

This invention is a novel word forming board game that uses a unique combination of features that enables and rewards large word formation. In addition, chance is used to make the outcome less predictable and more fun for players of all skill levels. The game apparatus includes a larger number of board spaces, a large number of letter tiles, and chance components (multiplier, bonus word, swap card and swap tiles chance types). The method of play uses a large number of letter tiles per player hand, and the ability to exchange letter tiles at the end of each turn. The basis of the word points is the word length which rewards large word formation. The multiplier chance types amplify the impact of forming large words on the player score, with multiplier values as high as 10 and as low as 10, distributed so lesser skilled players can win more often.

Claims

1. A method of playing a word forming game among a group of participants, said method comprising the steps of: providing a pool of 150 to 300 letter tiles including a combination of alphabetical letters and blank tiles; providing a game board having between 650 and 841 board spaces for placement of said letter tiles to form words of one or more said letter tiles; providing a deck of between 50 to 54 cards that contain chance types selected from the group consisting of bonus word, bankrupt cards, swap cards, swap tiles, multiplier cards, and any combination thereof; including positive, zero and negative value cards having values from 10 to 10; each participant selecting from 12 to 16 letter tiles from said pool of letter tiles for forming words; each participant taking a turn, wherein a turn includes the steps of: a) placing one or more of said selected letter tiles on said game board in available board spaces to create a word on said board b) selecting a chance card and following instructions on said selected chance card; and c) calculating a score for said participant's turn; allowing each participant to take said turns until said game is over; adding each participant's cumulative scores from each of that participant's turns; and comparing scores of each participant to determine a winner of said game.

2. The method of playing a word forming game set forth in claim 1, wherein said multiplier cards include numerical values selected from the group consisting of 10, 5, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

3. The method of playing a word forming game set forth in claim 1, wherein following said chance card instructions for bonus word includes playing an additional word from remaining letter tiles or saving said bonus word chance card for use in another turn.

4. The method of playing a word forming game set forth in claim 1, wherein following said chance card instructions for swap card includes swapping said swap card chance card with a chance card held by another participant or saving said swap card chance card for use in another turn.

5. The method of playing a word forming game set forth in claim 1, wherein following said chance card instructions for multiplier card includes calculating and recording points for said participants turn as a product of the number of letters in a word played and a number value of said multiplier chance card.

6. The method of playing a word forming game set forth in claim 1, wherein following said chance card instructions for bankrupt card includes recording a zero score for that participant's turn, and recording that participant's total cumulative score to zero.

7. The method of playing a word forming game set forth in claim 1, further including the step of: distributing five chance cards to each participant before any participant has taken a first turn.

8. The method of playing a word forming game set forth in claim 1, further including the step of: allowing each participant to discard one of its cards prior to placing said letter tiles on said board for forming a word.

9. The method of playing a word forming game set forth in claim 1, further including the step of allowing participants to exchange any remaining letter tiles for new letter tiles after said participant has placed letter tiles on said board forming a word.

10. The method of playing a word forming game set forth in claim 1, further including the step of: allowing each participant to replenish a number of letter tiles that said participant used in forming said word on said board by selecting new letter tiles from said pool of letter tiles.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(1) The Game Apparatus and Embodiments

(2) The game apparatus common to the three embodiments of this invention comprises:

(3) a. a pool of 150 to 300 letter tiles including the alphabet of the English or other language and one or more blank tiles, and preferably 216 letter tiles,

(4) b. a game board containing 650 to 841 board spaces which allow the placement of letter tiles to form words of one or more letter tiles and preferably 676 tiles.

(5) Two of the three embodiments also comprise:

(6) c. a deck of cards of 50-54 cards that contains chance types,

(7) d. chance types which include one or more of bonus word, swap tiles, swap cards, and multiplier cards,

(8) e. multiplier cards which include positive, zero, and negative value cards with values of 10 to 10.

(9) The apparatus can be either a physical based or virtual game. The game may be played on various media, including but not limited to, physical media, electronic game consoles, computers, and interactive and social media networks accessed using computers, cellular devices, tablets, etc.

(10) In each of the three embodiments of this invention a method of play uses the apparatus above to:

(11) a. have players selecting 12 to 16 letter tiles in their hand in each turn from which they form a word.

(12) b. players placing one or more of the letter tiles on the game board in the available board spaces to create a word on the board (once one word is on the board, new words must be build off of an existing word on the board),

(13) c. The player exchanges less desirable letter tiles and replenishes letter tiles that were used to make word(s) at the end of the turn.

(14) In two of the three embodiments of this invention, the method of play also uses chance types including number multiplier cards, and one or more of bonus word, swap cards, and bankrupt chance types. When a player chooses to play a bonus word card, then can form and additional word on the board using the remaining letters in their hand. A swap cards allows the player to exchange one or more of the cards in their hand for the same number of cards from the card deck. This card can only be played at the beginning or end of the hand, before forming a word or after all word forming is done for the players turn.

(15) The method of game ending is chosen from standard methods known to those skilled in the art, such as, completing a number of turns for each player, achieving total score, playing for a set amount of time, playing until the letter tile pool is empty or until the first player had played all of the letters in their hand and no letters are left in the letter tile pool.

(16) The apparatus of this invention, can use chance types in the form of playing cards, spinners, dice, of other game components known to those skilled in the art.

(17) The words are formed according to customs of the language of the game, which for the English language is horizontally (left to right) and vertically (top to bottom). Further details of the three embodiments are given in the examples below.

Example 1. Apparatus

(18) The following items are an example of an apparatus as a working example of this invention:

(19) 1. A square game board comprised of 676 spaces, 26 spaces wide by 26 spaces high.

(20) 2. Two hundred sixteen letter tiles comprised of the following distribution of letter tiles: A-17, B-4, C-5, D-9, E-24, F-4, G-6, H-5, I-18, J-2, K-2, L-8, M-5, N-13, O-17, P-4, Q-2, R-14, S-11, T-14, U-8, V-4, W-5, X-2, Y-5, Z-2, blank-6.

(21) 3. Fifty chance type cards comprised of the following distribution of card types (chance type, number of that type):

(22) Bonus word, 6 each; Swap cards, 4 each, Multiplier cards (value and number of cards): 0 multiplier, 3 each; 1 multiplier, 5 each; 2 multiplier, 5 each; 3 multiplier, 5 each; 4 multiplier, 4 each; 5 multiplier, 4 each; 6 multiplier, 4 each; 7 multiplier, 4 each; 8 multiplier, 1 each; 9 multiplier, 1 each; 10 multiplier, 1 each; 5 multiplier, 2 each; 10 multiplier, 1 each.
4. In one embodiment (e.g. example 2 below), 2 additional Swap tiles cards are used.

Example 2. Method of Play in the First EmbodimentOriginal Game Version

(23) The following steps are an example of the method of play as taught in this invention. The Apparatus in Example 1 was used for this example. There are four players in this example game. The method of play in this example consists of the following steps: 1. The players decide that they will play the game until the letter tile pool is empty and one player has played all of their tiles. 2. Each player selects one tile from the letter tile pool. The person with the highest letter of the alphabet earned to right to play first. 3. Each player selects 16 letter tiles from the letter tile pool starting with the first player and then the next player to the left of the first player. 4. The card deck is shuffled to randomize the cards in the deck. 5. The first player places 8 letter tiles on the board to form a word. 6. The first player then draws a chance type card from the card deck, it is a multiplier card with value of 3. 7. The first player records a score of 24 for their turn based on a product of the number of letter tiles in the word (8) and the number of the multiplier card (3). 8. The first player exchanges 2 of the 8 letter tiles that they did not play in the hand to improve the ability to play a word in their next turn. 9. The first player then also replenishes the 8 letter tiles from the letter tile pool for their next play. 10. The second player plays a word using one of the letters from the word on the board and an additional 6 new letters from the 16 letter tiles in their hand. 11. The second player draws a bonus word card. They decide to play the card in this turn and form a second word of length 5 letters. This brings the total number of letter tiles they played during this turn to 12. 12. The second player then draws a multiplier card with a value of 7. 13. The second player records a score of 84 based on a product of the number of letter tiles in the words formed during their hand (5+7=12) and the value of the multiplier card (7). 14. The second player decides to exchange three of the remaining tiles in their hand and replenishes the 10 letter tiles from the letter tile pool for their next turn. 15. The third player plays a word of length 7 letter tiles. They draw a swap cards card. They place this card face up on the game surface for use later. They then draw a number card of 10. They decide to use the swap cards card in this turn, and discard the 10 card and select another card. The card is a number 7 card. The players score is 49 for the turn (77). The player has avoided a score of 70 for the turn by playing the swap cards card. 16. The third player decides to exchange none of the remaining tiles in their hand and replenishes the 6 letter tiles that were used to form the word played from the letter tile pool for their next turn. 17. The fourth player plays a 9 letter word on the board and then draws a bankrupt card. The players score for the turn, and their total score are adjusted to zero. 18. Player 4 exchanges 3 letter tiles to improve their hand for the next turn and replenishes the 8 letters that were used to form the word played. 19. Player 1 plays a 6 letter word on the board and then draws a swap tiles card. Each player now exchanges tiles with the player to their left. The player to the left of player 1 replenishes the 5 tiles used by player 1 to form the word before their next turn. Player 1 then draws another card, it is a multiplier card with value 3. The score for Player 1 for the turn is 18 (63=18). 20. The players continue taking turns until the tile pool was empty and the third player has no tiles left. 21. The third players total score is the sum of the scores for each turn played. 22. Player 1 has 8 tiles remaining in their hand, they draw a number card of value 3. They calculate the product of the 8 tiles and the number card 3, which is 24 and subtract 24 points from the total score they accumulated during their turns. 23. Player 2 has 5 tiles left. They draw a 5 number card. They calculate the product of the 5 tiles and 5 number card, which is 25. They subtract 25 from their score, which adds 25 points to their total score. 24. Player 4 had 11 tiles left. They drew a number 0 card, so the product they calculate was 0 and no points were subtracted from their total score. 25. Player 3 had the highest number total score and won the game.

Example 3. Method of Play in the Second EmbodimentGamer Game Version

(24) The following steps are an example of the method of play as taught in this invention. The Apparatus in Example 1 was used for this example. There are four players in this example game. The method of play in this example consists of the following steps:

(25) 1. The players decide to choose a game ending of 500 total points.

(26) 2. Steps 2-4 of Example 3 are repeated here.

(27) 3. Each player selects 5 chance cards from the card deck.

(28) 4. The first player places 8 letter tiles on the board to form a word.

(29) 5. The first player then plays a multiplier card from their hand with number value 3.

(30) 6. The first player records a score of 24 based on a product of the number of letter tiles in the word (8) and the number of the multiplier card (3).

(31) 7. The first player exchanges 2 of the 8 letter tiles that they did not play in the hand to improve the ability to play a word in their next turn.

(32) 8. The first player replenishes the 8 letter tiles from the letter tile pool and chance cards from the card deck for their next play.

(33) 9. The second player plays a word using one of the letters from the word on the board and an additional 6 new letters from the 16 letter tiles in their hand.

(34) 10. The second player then decides to play a bonus word card from their hand and form a second word of length 5 letters.

(35) 11. The second player then plays a multiplier card from their hand with a value of 7.

(36) 12. The second player records a score of 84 based on a product of the number of letter tiles in the words formed (5+7=12) and the number of the multiplier card (7).

(37) 13. The second player decides to exchange three of the remaining tiles in their hand and replenishes the 6 letter tiles from the letter tile pool and also replenishes the chance cards used during this hand from the card deck for their next play.

(38) 14. It is the third players turn and they note that the highest number value multiplier card in their hand is 2 and there are other low number cards in their hand (5 and 0). The player uses their swap cards card to discard the low number cards and replace them with new cards from the card deck.
15. The third player plays a word of length 7 letter tiles.
16. The third player now plays a number 6 multiplier card.
17. The third players score is 42 for the turn (76).
18. The third player decides to exchange none of the remaining tiles in their hand and replenishes the 6 letter tiles played to form the word played from the letter tile pool and also replenishes the chance cards from the card deck for their next turn.
19. The four players continue taking turns until player 2 reached a score of 500 points.
20. Player 3 and 4 each play one more turn to match the number of turns played by player 2.
21. Player 2 had the highest total score and won the game.

Example 4. Method of Play in the Third Embodiment-Wordy Game Version

(39) The following steps are an example of the method of play as taught in this invention. The Apparatus in Example 1 was used for this example. There are two players in this example game. The method of play in this example consists of the following steps:

(40) 1. The players choose a method of game ending of playing to 100 points.

(41) 2. Steps 2-3 of Example 3 are repeated here.

(42) 3. The first player plays a word with 8 letters, and records a score of 8, the sum of the letters in the word. In this embodiment, chance cards are not used.

(43) 4. The first player exchanges 2 of the 8 letter tiles that they did not play in the hand to improve the ability to play a word in their next turn.

(44) 5. The first player then also replenishes the 8 letter tiles from the letter tile pool for their next play.

(45) 6. The second player plays a word using one of the letters from the word on the board and an additional 6 new letters from the 16 letter tiles in their hand.

(46) 8. The players score is 7, the sum of the letters played in the word formed.

(47) 9. Player 1 and 2 take turns as above until player 2 reached 100 points. Since player one already had their turn for that round of play, the game is over.

(48) 10. Player 2 won the game as they had the most points.