New letters AND stacking? | Upwords

Leigh Caple

(Leighbob)

United Kingdom
Nottingham
Notts.

I just picked up a latest version of Upwords (with built in digital timer thingy) and we played our first game last night but a rules query came up.

The rules state that you either add tiles to form a new word (using a letter from an existing word) OR stack one or more letters on an existing word to create a new word.

My wife wanted to change the word 'Dished' on our board by adding FUR to the beginning and stacking an N on the D to make 'Furnished'. Is this allowed given the big fat OR in the above paragraph?

Posted Wed May 27, 2009 12:21 pm
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Just call me Erik

(unixrevolution)

United States
Waldorf
Maryland

Leighbob wrote:

I just picked up a latest version of Upwords (with built in digital timer thingy) and we played our first game last night but a rules query came up.

The rules state that you either add tiles to form a new word (using a letter from an existing word) OR stack one or more letters on an existing word to create a new word.

My wife wanted to change the word 'Dished' on our board by adding FUR to the beginning and stacking an N on the D to make 'Furnished'. Is this allowed given the big fat OR in the above paragraph?

I would say, given the rules quoted above, she can't do that, because the rules state OR not AND.

Posted Wed May 27, 2009 3:10 pm
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Leigh Caple

(Leighbob)

United Kingdom
Nottingham
Notts.

Yeah, that's what we went with but it seemed counter intuitive to penalise her for what would have been a cracking play. Just wondered if anyone else played it this way.

Posted Wed May 27, 2009 4:13 pm
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The root of all evil... but you can call me cookie.

(thoia)

United States
Gainesville
Florida

Yet I would say that in the spirit of what UpWords is that she should certainly be able to do that. I think a game like this is one that shouldn't be RAW. I mean the game is about coming up with combinations to form the best words possible! I think perhaps that a mass market game like this doesn't take wording semantics as close to heart as designers, publishers and gamers in the hobby gaming world we play in.

Posted Wed May 27, 2009 4:32 pm
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Frank Bee

(stenitel)

Canada

I believe the intended meaning is that those are the two strategies for forming a word (not mutually exclusive on a turn). The only requirement is to play in one line and to not completely cover a word already on the board.

We recently had a friendly argument about whether it is permitted to recreate a word previously created but buried a few layers down --for example, LEAP becomes LEAN becomes HEAR becomes HEAP and then is LEAP allowed again? (it is nowhere visible, you have to remember that it was played several turns back and is a few layers down). My argument was that this was not expressly prohibited and therefore should be permitted -and also, from a strictly practical point of view could be difficult to enforce consistently on some of the "deeper" words on the board and should therefore not be enforced at all.

Perhaps the moral of the story is that it is difficult to write game rules that are 100% clear and unambiguous. (And further, that players should get used to simply agreeing to "house rules" to fill in the gaps.)

Sten

Posted Mon Jun 1, 2009 6:56 pm
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Upwords» Forums » Rules

Subject: New letters AND stacking?