Re.w.or.d.a.ble

What it is: A 2-8 player competitive game. Players collect word fragments (1-3 letters long) and combine them to create complete words, adding fragments to their own or other players' words to "reword" them for extra points.

What it includes: The diminutive box holds 120 word fragment cards, 16 bonus tokens, and rules.

Gameplay: Each player holds 5 cards in their hand, and 3 extra cards are placed on the playing surface, along with 3 bonus tokens. On their turn, a player can either build a word (using at least one card in their hand, and optionally in combination with cards already in play) to add it to their lexicon or discard their hand to get new cards. Once a word is in play, any player can add to it (beginning, middle, or end - but no reordering of letters/fragments) and steal it for their lexicon. The game ends after a pre-determined amount of plays, or when cards run out.

Winning: Players count the amount of letters in each word in their lexicon (each letter is worth one point), then add 4 points for each bonus token earned. The player with the most points wins!

Recommended for: This game could be marketed towards a young crowd - it would definitely help elementary (3rd-5th grade) age kids learn different word variations, could be played cooperatively (using teams) for middle school age, and is a unique challenge for adults as well. Because of how the word fragments are split onto each card, playing this game in other languages is also a possibility. (Spanish seems to work pretty well, at least.)

Positives: Easy to set up and play starts quickly, since there aren't a lot of rules to go over. Super portable, and rules can be adapted to player skills (allowing abbreviations, proper nouns, or words in other languages). Graphics on the cards are readable - good use of size/font/color.

Drawbacks: While the ease of play and small size of the box makes this game perfect for bringing along to parties/on vacation/etc, the cards sometimes feel a bit too small - they are hard to shuffle. Not a dealbreaker, but something to consider if playing with an older crowd.

Overall: Rewordable is like Scrabble or UpWords, but with cards. Common words and word combinations are emphasized over obscure words. Wordies will enjoy its many possibilities and competitive gamers will appreciate the variety of challenges.