GB2185414A - Word game - Google Patents

Abstract

A word game includes a board marked out in squares on which "topic" words can be spelled out, using separate letters, on alternate lines of the board so that as the game progresses other letters can be added in those squares lying between the spaced chosen words to produce additional pronouncable words extending up or down the board. Other topic words may be staggered with respect to the words started on said alternate lines. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Word game The invention relates to a word game.

Varius word games are known in which two or more players seek to form words from a number of available letters and thereby score points. Most of these known games incorporate at least some element of chance, for example in the provision of the number of separate letters available to the individual players for the purpose of forming words.

The object of the invention is to increase the element of skill and knowledge required in the playing of a word game and preferably to make it almost wholly dependent on skill and knowledge, whilst at the same time the element of skill and knowledge can be varied to suit the general ability of the players.

According to the invention, there is provided a word game including a board marked out in squares on which words can be spelled out using separate letters, the rules of the game stipulating that the players of the game start spelling out their chosen word or words on alternate lines of the board, or staggered with respect to the words started on said alternate lines, so that, as the game progresses and the initially chosen words begin to take shape across the board other letters can be added in those squares lying between the spaced chosen words to produce additional pronouncable words extending up or down the board. The rules of the game may stipulate a scoring system based on the number of opponents "topic" words correctly solved and on the number of other words which a player can form on the board.

The game may in addition include a plurality of "topic" cards each of which sets out a topic to which the initially chosen words must bear some relation. In this way the topics chosen by the players, or the "topic" cards available in the particular game, can be selected according to the general ability of the players. For example, topics which might be chosen by children playing the game, or "topic" cards provided in a game primarily for childrens use, could include food and drink, animals, sport, films, wildlife, zoology, botany, transport, birds, books. Topics which might be chosen by adults, or provided in a game primarily for adults could include travel, English literature, history, art, gardening, medicine, chemistry, physics, religion, politics. Selected topics could be provided in a game primarily to be played by particular groups, for example medical students.The squared board may have lines of squares in two colours, the number of squares constituting the first half of a line being of one colour and the remaining squares constituting the second half of the line being of another colour, the two colour combination of the lines alternating from one line to the next. The scoring system may be such as to award points for the selection of "topic" words having more than a certain number of letters.

In order that the invention may be fully understood and readily carried into effect, a particular embodiment will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: Figure 1 is a view of a board on which the inventive game may be played, Figure 2 is a view illustrating the commencement of a typical game, and Figure 3 is a view illustrating the state of the board when the game has progressed so far as it has been possible to progress it.

Referring now to the drawings, the word game concerned is played on the board shown in Fig. 1 and generally indicated 10, the board including a "squared" playing area and an adjoining area for the stacking of socalled TOPIC cards 12. The board illustrated has sixteen lines, each line having sixteen squares. However, each line of squares is in two colours, the first eight squares of each line being of one colour and the last eight squares being of another colour. The colour combination preferred is red/white. In the drawings, the red squares are represented by the areas of cross hatching. As shown, the lines of squares are alternately red/white and white/red.

The game is a game of skill which can be played by two, three or four players. Each game is based on a topic chosen by a player, or alternatively a topic can be suggested by revealing the next TOPIC card on the shuffled stack of TOPIC cards. Each player chooses a number of words relating to the topic chosen and jots them down, keeping them secret from the other players. If four persons are to play the game each player chooses four words because these will then just fit the squared playing area of the board illustrated in the drawings. That is to say, the board illustrated will accommodate up to sixteen chosen words.

At the commencement of a game, using letters which are freely available to each player from the large 'pool' of separate letters shown in Fig. 1, each player in turn plays the first letter of his first chosen word and places a marker (each player having his own markers of a particular colour) where the last letter of his word will fall so that all the players can see how many letters each of the chosen words has. On the board illustrated, the TOPIC words are intended to be set out either wholly or mainly on the red areas (although in Fig. 2 it will be seen that several of the TOPIC words in the illustrated example either start or finish beyond the red area concerned).

In the game illustrated the letters have for convenience been made double sided and have been cut out from magazines and period icals for example. However, in a game produced commercially the letters could be of printed paper or plastics or could even be of moulded plastics form. The markers which show where the last letters of the "topic" words will fali are represented by large dots in Fig. 2, but it will be understood that in a commercially produced game such markers could be represented by blank elements of paper or of plastics. As shown in Fig. 2, the chosen "topic" words are started on alternate lines from the left hand edge of the squared playing area. Other chosen "topic" words are started on the intermediate lines on squares chosen so that the completed words will just extend to the right hand edge of the squared playing area.As will be seen in Fig. 2, depending on the lengths of the chosen "topic" words, some of the words on the alternate lines may overlap the first letter or first few letters of some of the words on the intermediate lines, but over the greater part of the playing area alternately spaced chosen "topic" words will be separated by blank squares not reserved by any of the players for their chosen "topic" words.

The object of the invention is to score the highest number of points by: 1) Correctly solving opponents topic words, 2) Spelling words up and down the playing area of the board using opponents letters already in position and ones own topic word letters (but in this case each letter being placed to spell a word up or down the board must link two "topic" word letters already placed).

3) One's own chosen topic words count as double points if opponents cannot correctly solve them.

Point are counted to the full number of letters in any "topic" word correctly solved, plus the number of letters in any word spelled upwards and downwards, and it will be understood that any proper word can be spelled out up or down the board; such a word need not bear any relevance to the topic chosen for the playing of that particular game.

As the game progresses each player in his turn places a second letter and subsequently a third letter and so on in each of his chosen topic words, in any order he desires, until his opponents are finally able to solve his words.

If a persons attempt to solve an opponent's chosen word is correct he can attempt to guess another chosen word. If he is incorrect he cannot make another attempt but he can still score by spelling out either upwards or downwards any proper word using letters already in position on the board. If a player cannot score at all when his turn comes around he must place a letter in one of his chosen "topic" words. Consequently, a very bright and wide awake player can obtain an ever increasing advantage by scoring at every "turn" and thus delaying the completion of his own "topic" words whilst forcing other players to reveal more and more of their own chosen "topic" words. The player can give himself a further advantage, or minimise the help he is giving to an opponent, if he carefully selects the placing of each letter which he is forced to make.Each letter is placed with the object of ensuring that opponents are unlikely to solve the complete "topic" word and so that other words cannot be spelled upwards or downwards until the "topic" word concerned is complete. Any player whose TOPIC words have all been completed or solved is out of the game, but this does not necessarily mean that he has lost the game because the points which he has scored during play count at the final total.

It is of course very important for each player to try to give himself an initial advantage by selecting words which are not only fairly long but which will be unlikely to be solved by his opponents until he has been forced to play most of the letters. He should therefore select, if possible, words which are fairly obscure in the context of the chosen topic. (At the same time it is of course possible for, say, an adult playing small children to, in effect, handicap himself by the choice of words with which he may expect the children to be familiar. The game can therefore be highly educational for young children).

In Fig. 3 which illustrates the state of the board when the game shown started in Fig. 2 had progressed to a finish, the chosen "topic" words are shown in full lines and other words which it has been found possible to form upwards or downwards using the letters of the chosen "topic" words, are shown in chain-dotted lines.

It will be understood that the element of skill and knowledge required in the playing of the game is very high indeed and that the element of chance is very small. The topics chosen by the players, or the "topic" cards available in the particular game provided can of course be selected according to the general ability of the players. Topics which might be chosen by children playing the game, or the "topic" cards provided in a game primarily for children's use could include food and drink, animals, sports and the like. Topics more suitable for adults could include travel, English literature, religion, politics and the like.

The game may be made instructive for certain groups or categories of players. For example, when played by medical students the topics could be bones in the human body or the wider field of medicine generally.

Various modifications may be made. For example, it would be possible to play the game using purely abstract chosen words instead of so-called "topic" words. Played in this fashion the game would of course take longer to develop because the players would have no clue as to what the words might be, but it could still develop into an engrossing game. Alternatively, it could be agreed that all chosen words should be, for example, verbs or adjectives.

It will be understood that it is not strictly necessary for the game to be provided with so-called "Topic" cards. Topic subjects could be chosen without the need for "topic" cards.

On the other hand, the provision of "topic" cards may introduce a sufficient element of chance in the selection of a topic to appeal to some players, and indeed to prevent any dispute as to which topic should be adopted.

When the game has been played in the manner described, that is to say starting with socalled Topic words, it has been found advantageous to use letters of one colour for the Topic words and letters of another colour for ordinary words spelled upwards or downwards. (However, it will be understood that if preferred each player could have his own coloured letters with which to spell out his own "topic" words and other words up or down the board, and with which to complete those of his opponents "topic" words which he is able to solve).

The playing area of the board could of course have a greater number, or indeed a lesser number of squares than the board in the illustrated example, but it has been found that the board in the illustrated example has been ideal for a game with four players. The board itself need not necessarily be multi-coloured and may incorporate other variations on the basic game described above. However, where the board is multi-coloured as in the illustrated example it may be a rule of the game that the "Topic" words should both start and finish on the coloured area designated for the spelling out of the "Topic" words. The rules of the game could stipulate a scoring system such as to award points for the selection of "topic" words having more than a certain number of letters, and in this case the board could be marked with "score" numbers.

Claims (1)

1. A word game including a board marked out in squares on which words can be spelled out using separate letters, the rules of the game stipulating that the players of the game start spelling out their chosen word or words on alternate lines of the board, or staggered with respect to the words started on said alternate lines, so that, as the game progresses and the initially chosen words being to take shape across the board other letters can be added in those squares lying between the spaced chosen words to produce additional pronouncable words extending up or down the board.

2. A word game according to claim 1, in which the rules of the game stipulate a scoring system based on the number of opponents "topic" words correctly solved and on the number of other words which a player can form on the board.

3. A word game according to either one of the preceding claims, the game including a plurality of "topic" cards each of which sets out a topic to which the initially chosen words must bear some relation.

4. A word game according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the squared board has lines of squares in two colours, the number of squares constituting the first half of a line being of one colour and the remaining squares constituting the second half of the line being of another colour, the two colour combination of the lines alternating from one line to the next.

5. A word game according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the rules of the game stipulate a scoring system such as to award points for the selection of "topic" words having more than a certain number of letters.

6. A word game substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

CLAIMS Amendments to the claims have been filed, and have the following effect: Claims 1 and 4 above have been deleted or textually amended.

New or textually amended claims have been filed as follows.

Claims 5 and 6 above have been re-numbered as 4 and 5 and their appendancies corrected.

1. A word game including a board marked out in squares on which words can be spelled out using separate letters, the squared board having lines of squares in two colours, the number of squares constituting the first half of a line being of one colour and the remaining squares constituting the second half of the line being of another colour, the two colour combination of the lines alternating from one line to the next, the rules of the game stipulating that the players of the game start spelling out their chosen word or words on alternate lines of the board, or staggered with respect to the words started on said alternate lines, on the squares of the one colour, so that, as the game progresses and the initially chosen words begin to take shape across the board and on the squares of the one colour other letters can be added in those squares lying between the spaced chosen words and on the squares of the other colour, to produce additional pronouncable words extending up or down the board.