New York City's annual Toy Fair at the Jacob Javits Center has always coincided with Valentine's Day, which has tended to create some issues on the home front every year, because generally, my significant other has been someplace else. This year, though, for the first time in almost seven years, we were both in New York City when the trade show began, and on its third day - Valentine's Day - we were able to enjoy a pleasant, cooked-by-her-because-she-loves-to-cook meal together, followed by a viewing of her gift, the Diamond Edition Blu-Ray release of Lady and The Tramp. We also participated in a tightly competitive and close-to-the-end game of TDC Games' Alphabet Dice Game.
The folks at TDC Games were kind enough to provide me with a review copy when I stopped by their booth late in the day, and it struck me immediately as something my significant other (normally, not much of a gamer) would enjoy. Simple word game; straight-forward objectives, limited time frame, and not really a vocabulary contest, since your turn options tend to focus on the availability of a small selection of words you can create from the available dice (letters) in your possession during any of the game's four rounds (called 'servings' to maintain its Campbell Soup thematic premise).
This is a terrific little game, and I'm here to tell you that you can safely ignore the single curmudgeon, who, on BoardGameGeek, rated it at "1" and commented that you should "Just play Scrabble." Well, no, you shouldn't, because while it shares a certain crossword framework with that game, it's much easier to play, and has a way of leveling the vocabulary playing field between opponents. There are, to begin with, no points associated with the letters, so there's no need to spend a lot of time looking to maximize your point total in a given round, and since there are no double letter, double word, triple letter, triple word scores to deal with, you don't spend a lot of time trying to get at those kinds of bonuses.
There are 36 dice in the game, each with 6 letters on them, and while I was tempted as I sat down to write, to calculate the letter distribution, I decided against it. One assumes that a sharp mind was at work with this distribution issue, and I wasn't in the mood to determine the six letters on each of the 36 dice and work out how many of each were available. Truth is, it doesn't matter. Each of the 36 dice has one red letter on it, and I did ascertain the distribution of those, because they figure into the scoring. The letter "Q" is not represented in red, and neither are "X" or "Z." There are three "T"s, three "S"s, and two each of "A," "D," "G," "K," "M," "N," "O," and "P" and one each of all the other letters. More on why this is important in a minute.
Based on the number of players (2-6), you divide the dice evenly (presumably, in a game with five players, one die would be left out). Everybody rolls the dice in their possession, and beginning with a chosen start player (determined in the rules to be the person who bought the game), each tries to create a word, using only the letter on top of the rolled dice. I suspect there's an interesting variant to be found in using letters other than those on the top of the dice; perhaps a player would have to add a point to their end-round total for every letter used, not on the top of the die rolled. Next player has to connect to the beginning player's first word in crossword fashion. This continues until one person has eliminated all of their dice, at which point, all other players get a last chance to use whatever dice they have left to form words connecting to the developed crossword pattern. Each player now totals the number of dice they have remaining, which becomes the player's score for that round. . . I mean, serving. Any red dice in your possession when a round is completed count as two points each. At the end of four rounds, the player with the lowest score wins.
There are two rather interesting rules, related to what you can do on your turn. Obviously, you can 'build' - add to the developing crossword pattern - but you can also do something known as 'slurping,' which entails replacing a letter already placed in the crossword with a letter in your possession. The resultant word has to make sense (you can't replace the "a" in "cat" with an "i," for example), but you can also build off your newly added letter. The letter removed can be given to any player of your choice, which would normally be the person ahead in the scoring when you make the move. You can only 'slurp' once per round of play, and a 'slurped' letter (the one removed) can not be used in a subsequent turn in the new word that was created. There are some intriguing strategic subtleties to this rule, especially as the number of dice in each player's possession starts to decrease.
You are also capable of passing; choosing not to play dice (letters) to the crossword formation. This can happen a lot near the end of a given round. If everyone playing passes at any point, all players are allowed to pick up the dice that remain in their possession and re-roll them. This 'pass' function can take on particular significance in a two-player game. As the dice in your possession dwindle, you can find yourself sincerely hoping that your single opponent will join you in passing, and hopefully, allow you to roll a letter or two that you can use. In multi-player games, it would seem that a situation in which all players chose to 'pass' would occur with less frequency.
At the end of three of the game's four rounds, in the Valentine's evening game played by me and my beloved, the score was tied at 2. I had been left with two dice in the opening round, and she had been left with one die each in the next two rounds. The final round of this game, known as the "Souper2 round," each die left over counts double. She finished first and I was left with three die, adding six points to my score. Significantly, I had added "en" to an "m" in the crossword (to create "men"), and her last letter was a "u." She dropped it down next to the "n" in "men" to create "menu" and the game was over.
If you've ever played Scrabble (and it's hard to imagine that anyone who's reading this, hasn't), you'll find yourself looking to create larger words in this game, which will have a tendency to slow it down, at first. Since there are no 'rewards' associated with longer words or the use of difficult letters like X, Q, J, or Z, for example, there is virtually no reason to struggle with arcane vocabulary. Just get the letters out there, as quickly as you can. This will have a way of forcing your opponents to respond quickly, not because there's a time limit, but because he/she looks over and sees that your pile of dice is diminishing rapidly, with the placement of letters forming simple three-letter words. Sure, it's fun and dice-consuming to get "stethoscope" out there (assuming you can do so), but it's more important to assess the relative strength of your dice (the balance between consonants and vowels) and get to work eliminating them from your 'hand' as quickly as possible.
The Alphabet Dice Game is not Scrabble. Vive la difference, as far as I'm concerned.
P.S. More on Toy Fair to come, including some fun new offerings from Gamewright, a game that allows you to encounter aspects of your 'karma' and a rapid-fire football game from R & R games, called 1st & Goal.
The Alphabet Dice Game, with unattributed design and artwork, is published by TDC Games (2011). It can be played by two to six players, and is recommended for ages 8 to adult. If played through its rule-stated four rounds, it'll generally last under an hour, presupposing the absence of any 'analysis paralysis.' Rules state that by mutual consent, players can force someone to pass if they are taking too long to complete their turn. It's available on the company Web site - http://www.tdcgames.com- for $13.95, but as always, can be found for less with some diligent shopping.
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