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AGES:
8 to adult
PLAYERS:
1 to 8
The Decorated Letters: The letters shown in the center of the
cards were inspired by Celtic manuscripts from 500 - 800 AD such as the
Book of Kells, the Book of Durrow, and others. We hope you
will enjoy the great calligraphy.
Qbject:
To obtain the highest number of points by
combining the
cards in your hand into words. The words must use two or more cards.
THE DECK: The game consists of a 118 card deck. It contains
cards from A to Z with special double-letter cards -- QU, IN, ER, TH and
CL. Each card has a point value.
The Deal:
Before each hand is dealt, the cards are shuffled.
In the first hand of the game, 3 cards are dealt one at a time in
clockwise
rotation to the players. In each following hand, one additional card is
dealt
to each player; thus, the second hand has four cards; the third hand,
five
cards, etc. In the last hand of the game, each player is dealt ten
cards.
The complete game has eight hands. After each deal, the remaining cards
are placed in the center as a stockpile, and the top card is turned over
to
start the discard pile.
The Play: The player to the
dealer's left goes first. Play continues
clockwise. Each turn starts with either drawing a card from the
stockpile
or picking up the top discard. The turn is completed by discarding one
card. A player can only lay cards on the table when going out or, in
turn,
after another player has gone out.
When a player is able to go out (see below), the remaining players each
have one last turn. Each remaining player, in turn, will either draw
from
the deck or pick up the top discard. The player will then lay down
his/her
words, and discard one card. He/she will count the points on the cards
used to build words. Points on the unused cards as points against the
player's total. A player cannot play on another player's words.
The scorekeeper records the points and keeps a running tally.
The deal passes to the player on the dealer's left and the next hand
is dealt, continuing until the eighth hand when there are ten cards in
the hand. High score wins.
Going Out:
A player can only go out during his/her
turn. To go out,
a player must be able to arrange all the cards in his/her hand
into words
of two or more cards with one card remaining. He/she lays the cards
down and discards one card to go out.
Challenges:
If any player does not believe that a word played is a
bonafide word, then he/she may challenge the word. If the word is in
the agreed upon dictionary and is an allowable word (see below), then
the challenger must subtract the number of points in the word
from
his/her score. If the word is not in the dictionary, then the player
must
subtract the number of points in the word against his/her score.
He/she
does not get to rearrange the cards into other words.
Allowable Words:
A dictionary should be chosen before the
game starts. No proper nouns, prefixes, suffixes, abbreviated, or
hyphenated words can be used. All words must use at least two cards.
Scoring: Each card is worth the
value shown. In each hand, cards
that are combined into allowable words count for the player; unused
cards count against the player. In addition, there are two bonuses.
The player with the most words in each round receives 10 additional
points, and the player with the longest word receives 10 additional
points.
Both bonuses can go to the same player. When two or more players tie
for a bonus, no bonus is given. Note: The bonus for the goes to the word
that uses the most letters - not the most cards.
Solitaire: Deal eight stacks of
five cards face down. Then deal one
card face up on each stack. Make a word from the eight cards showing.
Remove the word. Then turn over the card on top of the stacks which
have had cards removed. When all of the cards in a stack have been
used, move a card from the top of any remaining stack to bring the
number of stacks back to eight. The player wins if all 48 of the cards
dealt are used in words. Allowable words are as stated above.
Letter Frequency: The number of
times each letter is repeated in the
deck is.:A - 10, B - 2, C - 2, D - 4, E - 12, F - 2, G - 4, H - 2, I -
8,
J - 2, K - 2, L - 4, M - 2, N - 6, O - 8, P - 2, Q - 2, R - 6, S - 4, T
- 6,
U - 6, V - 2, W - 2, X - 2, Y - 4, Z - 2, QU - 2, IN - 2, ER - 2, CL -
2,
TH - 2.
Copyright © 1998 M.J. Falco & R.E. Falco. All rights
reserved.
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