We're a family with both a well-thumbed dictionary and a thesaurus on the shelf. Naturally, we play a lot of word games. It's a great way to build vocabulary and decisive thinking. Moving beyond those games where players just align tiles, Paperback designed by Tim Fowers, is a game for advanced players and gifted kids. It has multiple levels and expansions included in the box. The first round I played with my husband to get the hang of it (and skunked him, 43 to 17!). After that, the whole family played several different games.
The standard set-up pictured above is the best way to start. The rulebook from Fowers Games is very comprehensive and walks you through game play from end to end. From our learning experiences, there are three key things for the beginner to keep in mind: word length serves as a game counter (using the Common Cards); buying cards is a balance between good letters and those with point values; and the super cool novel covers (Fame Cards) are Wild. We read all of those rules but they didn't sink in until we played.
Once your'e ready for more advanced options, the Power, Award, and Theme cards come into play. Powers (Typo, Plagiarism, Writer's Block, Stuck Key, and Ghost Writer) can be dealt to players randomly for unique use during a game. For instance, Writer's Block allows the player who draws a hand without any Wilds to draw an additional card.
The four Awards (Muse, Editor, Proofreader, and Thesaurus) can be assigned to those players who best met the conditions at the end of the game for additional points. The player with the most cards in their discard deck, or the most two-letter cards, etc.
Theme Cards are voted on by the group. Before the game begins a random Theme is drawn and during play if a player forms a word fitting that theme they win the card. However, they don't necessarily keep it. Whenever a word fitting the theme is used and the group agrees, the Theme Card (and it's points!) moves to the new player.
What's in the Box?
- 66 letter cards
- 8 two cent vowel cards
- 20 two-letter cards
- 11 Attack Cards
- 50 starting cards
- 28 Fame Cards
- 6 Common Cards
- 5 Power Cards
- 6 Theme Cards
- 4 Award Cards
- 17 wooden cubes
- Length track card
- 10 card dividers
Where to Purchase?
Paperback is available directly from Fowers Games as well multiple online and brick-and-mortar stores.
Connect with Fowers Games
Disclosure: The products in this post were provided by Fowers Games. As always, our posts are our own, honest opinions.