Word Game

Jitters

Jitters is a timed word game where players draw cards with pre-arranged crossword puzzles on them. A player starts the timer and then rolls "lettered" dice and must use the face up letters to fill in the crossword with qualifying words before time runs out. Each crossword puzzle card has a point value that increases with the card's difficulty. This game is somewhat stressful as you must think quickly, making words to fit the blanks on the card...of course when the timer runs out making a loud smacking noise as you were about to finish your last word - you jump every time...

Bananagrams

A Scrabble-like game without the board -- much like Pick Two!, but without the letter values.

Using a selection of 144 plastic letter tiles in the English edition, each player works independently to create their own 'crossword'. When a player uses up all their letters, all players take a new tile from the pool. When all the tiles are gone, the first player to use up all the tiles in their hand wins.

There are also variants included in the rules, and the game is suitable for solo play.

Taboo Junior

Taboo Junior is a simpler version of the parent game, advertised for ages 8 to 12. Players divide into two teams, racing their tokens on parallel tracks to the finish line. A card is secretly drawn and a "clue giver" tries to get his team to say the word on it...without using any of three related words that are also on the card. The team has a timer during which they score as many clues as possible. The number correct is the number of squares the token is moved.

One difference from the original game is that the "buzzer" is actually a plastic squeak toy instead of the harsh electric buzzer. The clues are also much easier, common words than in the adult game.

Re-implements:

Taboo

Guesstures

This game is like Charades on 'Speed'. The active player gets four cards. Each card has two words on it, one easy, one difficult. The harder the word, the more points it's worth. The player picks one word from each card and loads them into the timer device. S/he then has about a minute to communicate the words to teammates; when a word is guessed correctly, the card must be snatched out of the timer. The timer, meanwhile, will "eat" the cards, one at a time, if they aren't snatched. You get points for each card successfully rescued from the timer.

Reimplemented with different rules: Electronic Guesstures

Hoopla

A timed version of Cranium, designed for two or more players to play cooperatively.

Each player is dealt 4 cards depicting commonly known people, places, or objects. Another 8 cards are added to a common Play Pile. Players then take turns rolling a die to determine what type of clues can be given, starting the timer, selecting a card from their hand, and trying to get the other players to guess what is on that card as quickly as possible.

The four types of clues that can be given to describe your cards are:

Cloodle - provide clues by drawing and doodling
Tongue-Tied - use alliteration to give as many clues as possible that start with a single letter
Soundstage - act out or provide sound effects for clues (but you can't use words!)
Tweener - give hints in the form "It's bigger than blank but smaller than blank", using two objects that imply the answer

After someone guesses the card in play, stop the timer and draw a new card from the Play Pile. The next player takes the die and repeats the same process, until either no cards are left or the available 15 minutes are gone.

Players who are stuck on a particular card can choose to discard that card, but two new cards must then be added to the game instead - one card is placed directly in that player's hand, and a penalty card is added to the Play Pile.

The game is won by all players if they can work together to guess all of the cards in play before the timer runs out.