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Introduction:
Boggle has been around since 1972. It is a short, quick and simple word search game.
I have fond memories of this game. There is (was?) a commercial on TV for MLB (Major League Baseball) showing a father and his teenage son watching a baseball game and laughing and cheering together. The scene was narrated by the son recounting that when he a was a teenager that even when he and his dad could find nothing else in common to talk about they always had baseball. That same commercial could apply to my mom and me when I was a teenager if the baseball game was replaced with a mother and son playing boggle. I could have narrated that commercial with the same sentiment.
When I was in seventh and eighth grade mom and I would often play a few games of Boggle after I got back from school. It gave us a way to break the ice and a chance for her to find out how my day went and me to see how she was feeling between rounds. After the game we might not have talked much about anything but we were "good" with each other for the rest of the day.
Boggle is a game for from 2-6 players (an unlimited number could play but there is a practical limit as to how many people could see the cubes) and takes about 5 to 10 minutes to play a round with a game consisting of as many rounds as agreed to by the players involved (2 1/2 minutes to setup and find the words and 2 1/2 to 7 1/2 minutes to cross each other's words off to determine final scores.)
Components:
Shaker - A heavy plastic two piece cube. The top piece of the cube serves only as a cover. The bottom piece has a grid of plastic separtors to hold the dice cubes in place and serves as the game board.
Dice - Twenty five six sided dice. Each die has a different English letter on each of its six sides.
Timer - A simple two minute sand timer.
Shaker Cube, Dice and Sand Timer
Paper & Pencil - One blank piece of paper and pen or pencil (or crayon or anyother writing utensil) is needed per player.
Game Setup:
Each player needs one blank piece of paper and a writing utensil. To set-up the game simply make sure the timer is set for two minutes then put all the dice in the shaker and shake and rattle the cubes until they are thoroughly mixed (or your opponent tells you to stop shaking because you are giving them a headache.)
Game Play Summary:
After the cubes are shaken and each die is set flush with one of the individual square holes in the cube's bottom then take off the cover, start the timer and say go.
Each player then finds and writes down as many words as they can find. Rules for finding words are that found words must be at least three letters long, and use letter dice that are horizontally, vertically or diagonally adjacent. A die may not be re-used.
Players continue writing down words until one of the players notice that the two minutes is up and says stop.
players in turn read off the list of words they made. If one or more other players have that word then all players with the word on their list cross it off. Players can challenge another player's word that is read on the basis that it couldn't be made with the available cubes, or that it is not a valid English word (no proper nounds allowed) or that it is a duplicate. Successfully challenged words must be crossed off.
Once all players have read their words then players total their scores. Each three or four letter word scores one point, Five letter words score two points, six letter words score three points and so on.
The winner of the round is the player who has the highest point total.
My Rating:
I would rate Boggle at
. Boggle is a nice social word game. It is short and sweet and accomodates a range of players both traditional game players and hobbyists. It is not for those who don't know the English language well, or don't like word games or are annoyed by the loud rattling of cubes.
What's good about this game's design?:
A round of Boggle takes less than ten minutes. This makes it a good filler game.
The game is simple enough to handicap players so that older and younger players can play together (e.g. give the younger player a set number of points that they are allowed to add to their score each round or make the rule that the younger player does not have to cross of words that match with other players but the older player does or only allow the younger player to make three letter words)
The timer mechanic can give the game a serious sense of tension like when the sand is running out and the player finds a combination of dice letters that they hadn't noticed before that will lead them to being able to write down a whole new set of words if they can write them down before time expires.
Boggle can improve players ability to spell without seeming like work.
What's wrong with this game's design?:
When shaking the dice they don't always end up flat and can require someone taking the time of pushing them down to a specific side.
The game is essentially a word find game. Other than the innovative (for its time) manner of determining the letter grid Boggle offers little to differentiate it from other word find games.
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- Last edited Fri Dec 7, 2007 5:17 pm (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 3:01 pm
