Boggle is a fun and fast-paced word game that consists of 16 letters arranged in a 4x4 grid, with players competing to find the most unique words. For a three minute period, players hunt for as many words they can find by starting with one letter and forming a word with adjacent letters. At the end of the three minute period, players read off their solutions and cross off any solutions found by others. After this, players are awarded different points per remaining solution based on how many letters it contains, with the winner being the player with the highest total.
Boggle’s default rules encourage players to speedily write down as many words as they can find, which forces everyone to focus on short and easy three and four letter solutions rather than more interesting, longer solutions. Over Christmas this year, my family invented a Boggle variation that is quite interesting, a variation we call three word Boggle.
The game play is the same as regular Boggle, with the following changes to the rules:
- Each player may write down at most three solutions,
- Once a player starts writing a solution they cannot cross out the solution or change any part of what they have written down, and
- The player that completes his three solutions first is awarded an additional point, so long as all of the solutions she’s written down are valid solutions (this presumes you have a dictionary or Boggle solving program to dictate what solutions are valid at game’s end).
- Play continues until one player’s cumulative score crosses a certain agreed upon threshold, like 50 points.
That’s it!
This variation is interesting for a couple of reasons.
- For starters, it encourages the players to take their time and examine the lay of the board and focus on long and unique words that are unlikely to be found by others. Since you only get three solutions, if another player has the same solution it can be quite damaging. (My family plays with a house rule that prohibits three-letter solutions – this greatly reduces the pool of available solutions and increases the likelihood that there will be shared solutions among the players.)
- Another fun aspect is the bonus point for whomever finishes first. It makes players balance going with a number of quick, short solutions versus spending time studying the board.
- Not allowing cross offs or alterations to a solution that has been written forces players to examine the board and think carefully before writing anything down. It also leads to scenarios where a player accidentally writes down a word that is not there (maybe they thought two letters were connected but they weren’t) – even if they catch the error after writing the solution, but with time remaining, they are out of luck!
- Because there are a maximum of three solutions per player per round, every point counts. Having a word that is shared by others can be disastrous because it reduces your score for that round by 1/3, on average. So if there’s, say, a single six letter word on the board and you think it’s quite easy to find, you are wracked with the decision whether to write it down or to go with a more obscure four- or five-letter word, in the hopes that two or more players will write it down.
This variation works best with more players. We played with four players each time, but I think five or six would have been even better.