Ruminations

Yesterday while standing in a long line with Maggie, I came up with a word game to pass the time. It turned out to be pretty fun, and I played a few rounds with Kathy later on as well. Here’s how it works:

• Player one selects a starting word.
• Play then alternates between player two and player one, each trying to create a new word by adding, subtracting, or changing a single letter.
• Once a word has been used once, it’s off-limits — you can’t use it again in that session.
• The player who is unable to come up with a valid move loses the round.
• Valid moves are limited to words in the dictionary. No proper nouns may be used.
• Special starting rule: if player two can’t think of a valid move from the starting word, then player one must be able to make a valid move from that word, or she loses the round. (This prevents player one from starting with “antidisestablishmentarianism”, for example.)

Example play session:

1. P1: CAT
2. P2: COAT
3. P1: COATS
4. P2: COTS
5. P1: CODS
6. P2: CODA
7. P1: CODE
8. P2: CODED
9. P1: CODES
10. P2: MODES
11. P1: MODEL
12. P2: MODELS
13. P1: YODELS
14. P2: YODEL
15. P1: can’t think of anything, so P2 wins the round

Try it out, and let me know what you think!