In this article we want to present you a selection of four famous word games that can be played at home with your family or when you are on holiday without mobile devices or wifi connection. This time you have to be fast in making words from letters because three of these games require a timer. To be the fastest player get some practice and use our Scrabble helper, Words With Friends cheat or the Word-Grabber according to your needs.
Boggle
age: 12 and up
players: 2 to 10
time: 20 min
Based on the Hasbro-Classic Scrabble but slightly different is Boggle. To generate words from letters you have to shake a 4×4 tray of 16 cubes with different letters printed on each side. With the exception of one cube side where QU has been printed as the chances of a Q and U falling the same time is very rare. To make the word search more exciting you are under time pressure finding correct words.
You can make words from letters horizontally, vertically or diagonally to the left, right or up and downs. Everything is possible upon condition that one letter touches the following letter. After shaking the tray and starting the hourglass all players have to write down as many words as they can create with the letters following these simple rules. The words have to consist of at least three letters. Words that are allowed are nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, i.e. words that can be found in English dictionaries. Not allowed are proper nouns for example.
Ready to boggle? You can purchase this game on Amazon
Buyword
age: 8 and up
players: 1 to 4
time: 45 min
The idea of Buyword sounds simple. Buy letters, build words, sell words. In the end it is not that simple because you have to keep an eye on your money, you have to calculate and you have to make words from letters.
Players begin with a stash of $200 and a few wild tiles. The start player rolls the dice and off you go. The number that is shown determines the number of letter tiles the player has to draw from a bag. Tiles have different spots that indicate the value. The cost for the drawn tiles is the total number of spots on all the tiles drawn, squared! So, for example, if you draw 5 tiles and the combined total of spots on those four tiles is 9, you must pay $81 (9 squared) to buy those tiles. Once you can create a word you can sell it. Selling follows the same rules as buying. The game continues until all tiles have been drawn and all created words sold. The player with the most money wins.
Start your word sale and buy this game
Pass The Bomb
age: 8 and up
players: 1 to 8
time: 10 min
Pass the Bomb has it’s name from the timer shaped in form of a black grenade and you can be sure: Nomen est omen. The name says it all, by pressing a button a loud ticking starts. After a random time interval you hear the sound of an explosion. During that time players must pass the bomb from hand to hand to avoid being blown up but, in order to do this, they must say a new word. This word must contain letters from a card which is turned to start the round. For example, if the letters are BE then the word might be beginning or maybe. Usually thirteen rounds are played and the player who has lost the least lives is the winner.
Buy it now from Amazon
Bananagrams
age: 7 and up
players: 1 to 8
time: 15 min
Beginning as a family invention, Bananagrams was published in January 2006. This word game consists of 144 letter tiles packed in a banana shaped bag. Thus it is great to take it with you when you travel.
Similar to Scrabble you have to make words from letters but this time without a grid. Playing the game correctly you have to remember four words that needs to be shouted out during the game: Split, Peel, Dump and Bananas. To start the same number of tiles are drawn by each player, and when any player says Split!, all have to turn over their tiles to reveal the lettered sides. Each player begins making words from letters until all are used up and Peel! was shouted out. Then you can take one new letter and so on. Shout Dump! to exchange any letter and Bananas! when you placed all the tiles and no letters are left in the banana bag.
Take Bananagrams with you on your next holiday and click to order it from Amazon
Recommend other word board games
Your favorite board game with words is not mentioned? Write a comment and tell us and the users of word-grabber.com which one you play and what it makes so special to you.