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2 to 6 Players Ages 8 to Adult
EQUIPMENT: Sixteen letter cubes, a cube tray with dome, and a
3-minute timer. Not included, but needed by each player, are a
pencil and a piece of paper.
OBJECT: To list, within 3 minutes, as many words of the highest point value as you can find among the random assortment of letters in the cube tray.
PREPARATION: Drop the letter cubes into the dome and place the yellow cube tray, grid side down, over the dome. Turn the domed tray right-side up, shake the cubes around, and move the tray until each cube falls into place in the grid. As one player removes the dome, another player starts the timer.
PLAYING: When the timer starts, each player searches the assortment
of letters for words of three letters or more. When you find a
word, write it down.
Words are formed from adjoining letters. Letters must join in
the proper sequence to spell a word. They may join horizontally,
vertically, or diagonally, to the left, right, or up-and-down.
No letter cube, however, may be used more than once within a single
word.

SILO
Figures 1 through 3 show how words can be formed using the adjoining
letters S, 0, L, I.

Figures 4 and 5 show two incorrect spelling techniques: 1) In "SOILS" (Fig. 4) the one adjoining "s" is used twice; 2) to form "SOAR" (Fig. 5) requires skipping over the letter "r." No skipping is allowed; letters must adjoin in sequence.
Try your skill at finding the hidden words in the letter arrangement above. There are more than 70 words, including "molar," "prose," and "turmoil." Can you find more?
TYPES OF WORDS ALLOWED: Any word (noun, adjective, adverb, etc.) is acceptable as long as it can be found in a standard English dictionary. Plural nouns are allowed, as are all verb tenses. Words within words are also permissible; e.g.,spare: spa, par, are, spar, pare.
SCORING AND WINNING: When the timer runs out, everyone must stop writing. Each player in turn then reads aloud his or her list of words. Any word that appears on more than one player's list must be crossed off all lists, including that of the reader.
After all players have read their lists, each player scores his or her remaining words:
SCORING
NO. OF LETTERS: 3 4 5 6 7 8or more
POINTS: 1 1 2 3 5 11
The winner is: 1) the player whose words have earned the most
points; or 2) the first to reach 50 points, 100 points, or whatever
score is considered by all to be a reasonable target.
THINGS TO REMEMBER:
_ Neither the cubes nor the tray may be touched while the timer
is on.
_ Not acceptable are: proper names, abbreviations, contractions, hyphenated words and foreign words that are not in an English dictionary.
_ Multiple meanings of the same word do not earn multiple credit. The word "tear," for example, can mean both "rip" and "cry"; yet it may count as only one word.
_ The same word found by a player in different areas of the grid may not be counted for multiple credit.
_ The "Qu" cube counts as two letters.
_ The letter "M" has straight sides; the letter "W" has slanted sides.
_ The letter "Z" has a line under it and should not be seen as the word "IN."
_ Full credit is awarded for both the singular and plural forms of a noun - provided that the player has listed them as separate words.
_ Common words tend to be found by more than one player. Therefore, if your words are unique and unusual, they are more likely to earn you points.
We will be happy to answer questions about this game.
Thanks to many people for sending me these rules via email
and the postal mail (Nancy Secchia of Maineville OH). These
rules are for those of you who pulled this game out of the cabinet
and found that the rules have disappeared.
Here's
an 'online' version of the game as of October 2004.
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