Description

In Le Mot le plus Court ("The Shortest Word"), you don't actually want to find the shortest word – but given the interference of opponents, that's what you might have to settle for.

Each round, one player rolls the three consonant dice included in the game, then everyone tries to think of a word that includes all three consonants (in any order, with repeats allowed). As soon as a player thinks of a word, she announces the number of letters in it, then starts counting down from that number, e.g., "Eight letters! 8, 7, 6..." If someone else thinks of a shorter word that includes all three consonants, he interrupts the countdown to announce his letter count and start a new countdown. If no one interrupts a countdown, the counter announces the word and scores as many points as the number of letters in the word; if she goofed, giving a non-word or a word that doesn't contain the consonants, everyone else scores that many points.

If a player thinks that no word can be created with the letters rolled, she announces, "Impossible!", then counts down from ten, scoring three points if no one interrupts with a shorter word count.

The first player to score 36 points wins.

A six-sided vowel die is included that allows younger players to compete with older ones. The young players use any two consonants and the vowel, while older players use the original game rules.