Lock Letters

A game by Richard Gibbs

1-8 players


1. Place the box containing the 200 tiles in the center of the table where everyone can reach 

If you have 2-4 players, each player takes 20 tiles from the box if you have 5-6 players, take 14 tile and if you have 7-8 players take 10 tiles. Players should not be feeling or looking at their tiles before the game begins, only counting them. 

2. GAMEPLAY.

Players decide on a duration of gameplay. Usually 5 to 10 minutes is a good length of time but your group can handle that decision. One of the players should use a smart device to serve as the game timer and call out BEGIN when they start it.

All players begin looking through their tiles to create a grid using interlocked tiles. Tiles in the grid should spell out words both vertically and horizontally. Words should be read top to bottom or left to right. Many of the tiles contain contractions that represent multiple letters in Braille. These tiles are considered to have all of those letters in order.

Rules to UEB Braille dictate that only certain contractions may be used for certain words and some take priority over others. Throw that out the window. 

For example the word then could be spelled T-H-E-N using four tiles, or it could be spelled TH-EN using 2 tiles, or THE-N using two different tiles, or T-H-EN using 3 tiles or TH-E-N using 3 tiles. Although it may give any Teacher of Visual Impairments an aneurism all forms of the word are considered correct for the sake of this game. 

The game is not turn based meaning everyone is doing this at the same time. Players may choose to shift or change their layout at anytime. 

3. If a player has no tiles remaining that are not part of their structure then that player calls out LOCKED and takes a tile from the box. At this point, everyone who is playing must also take a tile from the box and add it to their batch of tiles.

4. Whenever a player chooses they may decide to return a tile they are having problems using back to the box and take 3 additional tiles into their collection. Other players should be made aware that a player is doing this by having the player say TRASH out loud.

5. Play continues until the timer goes off. Players may have a second to remove the last few tiles if they were in the middle of placing a word during scoring.

After players have had a chance to remove one half built word they count how many letters are used in their correctly spelled words. Each letter in a word is worth 1 point. If a tile is in two words the tile and all letters on the tile count twice.

Proper words should be English and not include proper names. A dictionary can be used to settle any disputes.

Any letters that are a part of the structure that are NOT part of a proper correctly spelled word is worth minus 1 point. Again, it does not need to be proper braille, the letters just need to be in the correct order.

The player with the most points wins the game