Rewordable is a word game played with a custom deck of 160 cards. On each card is printed either a single letter or a common letter combination (such as sh, ist, and con). Players arrange these cards to form words of increasing length and complexity. But watch out—opposing players can steal any one of your words if they can extend it by adding one of their own cards. Hang on to that s or ing, though—you might be able to steal it back!
We're working on a Flash version for online play. Until that's done, you can print out your own deck of Rewordable cards and start playing right away. Please contact us if you have any questions!
Rewordable was made as a final project for ITP's Spring 2008 Game Design class, taught by Frank Lantz.
Rewordable is designed to be played with three to six players. The goal of the game is to have the highest number of letters as part of full words in your lexicon at the end of the game.
Shuffle the entire deck. Then, count out the number of cards you need for the number of players you have, shown in the table below. Set the other cards aside; you won't need them for this game. From the deck that you just created, deal 5 cards to each player.
Each player has two sets of cards: the five cards in their hand, and the set of cards on the table in front of them (called the lexicon). Here's what to do when it's your turn:
You can form words from unused cards in your lexicon, or from words you've already formed. For example, if you've played (or stolen) the le and nd cards, you can combine them to form the word le|nd. If you have a b card, or if you acquire one on a subsequent turn, you can add it to le|nd to form b|le|nd.
You can form new words by adding cards to beginning or the end of an existing word, or you can insert cards in the middle of a word. You cannot, however, break up cards already forming a word, or change the order of the cards in an existing word. For example, the word lin|ed could be expanded, with the addition of the se card, to lin|se|ed. If you drew a g card on the next turn, however, you could not rearrange these cards to form se|ed|lin|g.
When you steal a card or cards from rival players' lexicons, you must immediately use them to form a word with one or more cards from your own lexicon. You may steal an unused fragment from your opponent, or a full word, but you must form a full (real) words with the cards that you steal. You may not steal a portion of a word.
Play proceeds clockwise until every card has been played. At that time, discard from your lexicon any unused cards, leaving only cards that make up words (though you may keep single cards which are themselves words, such as BE). Each player counts the number of letters they have on word cards. The player with the most number of letters win.