…and there are probably a few of you on the Straightdope boards, right?
Anyway, a few months ago (at least six, no more than twelve) Games published an issue featuring a word game, played by two people using pen and paper.
The game starts with a four letter word written down in the center of the page, each letter being circled and connected with a stright line. The first player writes down one new letter and connects it to one of the existing letters. Any new words that can now be spelled through linear connections of the current letters are scored to the first player. And so on and so forth…
I had a great time playing this game once on a long trip abroad, but now i forget some of the rules/finer points of it, so…
Questions:
1 Do you remember the NAME of this game.
2 Do you know of any internet resources for this game that might have a clear set of rules, or if not…
2.5 Do YOU have a better understanding of the rules than what i described above, or any variations on the origional rules that you find interesting.
Thanks!
I can tell you confidently that I’ve asked for help on GAMES™ games and gotten absolutely zero responses to either thread.
As for your questions: I haven’t picked up an issue in months, so I can’t say. They seem to be pretty good about archiving their past issues, and their editors are surprisingly accessible, so give them a call. They’ll be glad to sell you a past issue, or mail you a photocopy of the game in question.
Yeah, it’s starting to seem like contacting the editors is gonna be my last resort. I’ve searched all over my house for the issue, ask around on a couple message boards and googled 'till my fingers are sore.
But, alas…
Oh well, if they’re nice people like you say maybe they’ll be able to help me out.
On the other hand, i could just drop it. So stubborn! :smack:
Having subscribed to GAMES since 1982 (and having them go out of business, then start publishing again) at which point I resubscribed, I thought I might be able to help you out here.
The game is in the May, 2005 issue and it is called Networds. Rules are on p. 67.
A couple of rules you didn’t mention -
A letter of the alphabet can’t be used more than once
Lines can’t cross
Same letters can’t be connected twice
Letter can’t be connected to itself
Point value is length minus 3 (3 is minimum word length, but scores 0)
Awsome! Thanks.
Yeah, truly a wonderful little game. It made for an excellent diversion on that trip i mentioned. Hopefully i’ll find someone to play with sometime soon.
I’ll tell you what would be really great is if someone made a simple Flash game out of it. I always thought it would be well suited for electronic adaptation.
Anyway, thanks for your help!
