Boggle
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Wikipedia-Article "Boggle"
Boggle is a word game designed by Allan Turoff and trademarked by Parker Brothers / Hasbro, Inc.
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Rules
Play begins by randomizing a tray of 16 dice-like "letter cubes", normally by shaking. Each of the cubes has a different letter printed on each of its sides. The cubes settle into a 4×4 tray such that only the top letter of each cube is visible. After the cubes have settled into the grid, a 3-minute timer is started and all players simultaneously begin the main phase of play.
Each player searches for words that can be constructed from the letters of sequentially adjacent cubes. Adjacent includes the horizontally, vertically, and diagonally neighboring cubes. Words must be at least 3 letters long, may include singular and plural separately, but may not utilize the same letter cube more than once per word. The players record all words found by writing on their private sheet of paper. After 3 minutes have elapsed, all players must stop writing and the game enters the scoring phase.
Each player reads off his or her list of discovered words. If two or more players wrote the same word, it is discarded from all players' lists. Any player may challenge the validity of a word, in which case a previously nominated dictionary is used to verify or refute the word. For all words remaining after duplicates have been eliminated, points are awarded based on the length of the word. The winner is the player whose point total is highest. Any ties are typically broken by count of long words.
| Word Length | Points |
|---|---|
| 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 1 |
| 5 | 2 |
| 6 | 3 |
| 7 | 5 |
| 8+ | 11 |
Strategy
- Given the limited time, it is useful, particularly in the 4×4 game, to memorize common sets of anagrams. For example, when one spots the word tea, one instantly checks for the presence of eat, ate, and eta, rather than waiting to stumble across them later.
- Before writing any words, one should scan the tray for the letter s and the combinations ed, er, and ing. Being aware of the possibilities often allows one to find words in groups. For example, the word head can lead to heads, headed, header, headers, heading, and headings.
- Other useful combos include ier, est, iest, able, ible, less, ness, ight, tion, and many others.
- In a game of many players, it is relatively less beneficial to hunt for common words, because only unique words count. At times two players with long lists of common words will wipe each other out, handing the victory to a third player with a short list of unusual words.
- In the 5×5 game, it is relatively less beneficial to hunt for small words, because large words score so heavily. In contrast to the smaller tray, in which there often isn't any word longer than 6 letters, the larger game often has a handful of words of 8 letters or longer.
Trivia
For what can only be assumed to be reasons of political correctness, the set of available letters in Boggle includes only one instance of the letter F and one letter K, and they both occur on the same cube.
Boggle Game Variants
The game was taken to a new level with the introduction of "Big Boggle," later marketed as "Boggle Master" and "Boggle Deluxe," which features a 5×5 tray, and disallows 3-letter words. Some editions of the Boggle Master set have included an adapter that can convert the larger grid into a regular 4×4 Boggle grid. "Super Boggle" is a 5×5 and 4×4 edition that features an electronic timer that flashes to indicate the start and finish [1].
"Boggle Junior" is a much simplified version, intended for young children.
"Travel Boggle" (also marketed as "Boggle Folio"), is a car-friendly version of the standard 4×4 set. The compact, zippered case includes pencils and small pads of paper, as well as an electronic timer, and notably, a cover made from a soft plastic that produces much less noise when the board is shaken.
Parker Brothers has made several other peculiar and unsuccessful Boggle variants including:
- A version of the standard 4×4 set that included a special red "Boggle challenge cube", featuring six relatively uncommon letters. Bonus points are awarded for all words making use of the red cube.
- "Body Boggle", which is more akin to Twister than it is to standard Boggle. Two players work together as a team, using their hands and feet to spell words on a large floor mat containing pre-printed Boggle letters.
- "Boggle Bowl", somewhat similar to Scrabble in that players must form words by placing letter tiles onto a (bowl-shaped) playing area.
- "Math Boggle"