Description

A crossword card game of the late 1930s, that also includes rules for several other games, a few of which were not seen in its competitors. The deck has 54 cards: 2 "Sub" cards which act as wild cards, and 52 cards with a letter and its value on each. Rules for 8 games are included:

1. Crossword Game: Deal 10 each to 2-4, 7 each to 5-7 players. In each turn, a player lays a word from his hand to the table in a crossword fashion, the first word alone, other words intersecting the growing array. If unable to play, a player discards 1 and draws 1 from the draw or discard pile. A hand ends when a player goes out; players add their hands' value to their scores; when a player reaches 100 the low total wins.

2. Word Solitaire: Lay all the cards face up in 3s, fanned so as to see all the letters. Make and discard words from the topmost cards, though if a card is used in a word the letter just underneath it can also be used. You win if you use all the cards.

3. Letter Patience: Like Klondike, deal 7 piles of heights 1-7, and turn up the top card of each. Make and discard cards, exposing the new tops of each pile; empty spaces may be filled in with vowels. Turn up the remainder of the deck one by one, and use the top letter of this pile with the others to make words. You win if you use all the cards.

4. Crossword Solitaire A: Deal out 6 cards face up. Use these cards to build a crossword array, one word at a time, filling empty spaces in the 6 from the remaining deck. Then turn up that deck one at a time and continue -- you can only use the top of the turn-up pile.

5. Crossword Solitaire B: Similar to A, but start with a hand of 12 cards, which is not replenished; the deck is still gone through once, one card at a time.

6. Anagrams: For 1-6 players. Everyone is dealt one card. In a turn, a player either: places his card in the center of the table; makes a word with that card and other cards in the center, placing the word in front of him; or adds the letter to an existing word, rearranging letters to make a new word, and taking the word if it belonged to someone else. After the deck has been gone through, the player with the most points in front of him wins.

7. The O-U-T Game: For 4-8 players. All the cards are dealt face up. In a turn a player places one card in the middle of the table, while thinking of a word of at least 9 letters that starts with all the letters placed so far. Once such a word is finished, the player who does it gets a letter (O, U or T), the word is discarded and the process starts again. On getting all of OUT, a player is out of the game. A player may pass if they think they don't have a letter to add to the growing word; if someone else points out a letter and word he could do, he earns an E for excellence, which can cancel out one other letter. Players may challenge a play that doesn't seem to lead to any word; whoever is wrong earns a penalty letter.

8. Guess-O-Gram: A type of hangman for any number of players. One becomes the Thinker, thinks of a word, and lays it face down in order. Other take turns guessing letters; if a letter is in the word it is revealed and the guesser earns 2 points per letter. A player who guess the whole word or the last letter gets 2 points times the length of the word. Play to an agreed number of rounds.