Word Game

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.

Cranium bills itself as the "whole-brain" game. It's a party game that borrows from a host of other popular party games of recent times. Players have to successfully complete activities in each of four sections to win: In
- Creative Cat : A player must clue a word to his or her teammates by drawing it, sculpting it in clay, or drawing it with his or her eyes closed.
- Data Head : A variety of trivia questions.
- Word Worm : Players unscramble words, spell challenging words, guess definitions, identify words with letters left out, or spell words backwords.
- Star Performer : players must whistle a song, impersonate a celebrity, or act out a clue.

Cranium has elements similar to those of Pictionary, Charades, Trivial Pursuit, Celebrities, Huggermugger, Claymania, etc.

Expanded by:

Cranium Booster Box 1
Cranium Booster Box 2
Cranium New York Booster Pack

NOTE: Unfortunately, Cranium had to be removed due to the clay being a poor fit for the library. We were having issues with people sticking the clay to tables, other games, and food. Sorry for the inconvenience.
--Spielbound Management

Description from BoardgameNews.com:

While Cyrano de Bergerac was a real person, Cyrano is based on the play Cyrano de Bergerac, written more than two hundred years after Cyrano’s death. In both the play and the game, Cyrano writes poetry to woo a woman for another man. The game Cyrano lasts a number of rounds, and each round starts with a player revealing a theme card and two rhyme cards ("-aid", "-ed" and so on with homonyms being acceptable). Each player then composes a quatrain (a poem of four lines) with two of the lines ending with one of the rhymes and the other two ending with the other rhyme. Players read their poems and score points Boggle-style, with each unique ending word being worth one point; these points are recorded by blacking out squares on a ladder, which represents the lover’s climb toward his object of affection.

Everyone then secretly votes on which poem he or she most appreciated, whether for its beauty, adherence to theme, or some other artistic qualification. Players reveal their votes simultaneously, and for each player who voted the same way you did, you receive one point, with these points being recorded by the maiden’s descent from the tower. Whichever player first brings the loves onto the same floor of the tower wins, with ties being broken by a rhyming duel.

The gravity-defying word game!
Konexi is the 3D word-building game that will have you pushing your luck and on the edge of your seat!

If Scrabble and Jenga got together and had a bit too much to drink, Konexi might be their "gift" nine months later.

Take turns adding letters to a teetering tower of words. Go for longer words — upward, downward, or sideways — to score more points. But watch out...the next letter may cause gravity to kick in and a Konexi collapse! It’s thrilling fun for the whole family!

Decode the ancient secrets of R'lyeh by forming words with the letters you find in this sanity-sapping letter game. The more angles that appear in the words, the greater their mystical value, but beware! For each word that is created, you must roll a sanity check against its value to see if the word's power drives you mad!

Cthulhu Mythos themed.

Awards:

Games Magazine's 2007 Word Game of the Year.