Quiddler: The Short Word Game is a great game for families. The game takes about 20 minutes to play, quick to learn, is very portable, and is challenging for most ages. The official age suggestions are 8 to adult, but I’ve used a variation of the game for younger children. I even sometimes use the cards for teaching reading.
The 118 cards are beautifully illustrated Celtic calligraphy designs inspired by books from 500 – 800 AD. The cards all have letters, or combinations of letters (CH,TH, IN, ER, QU), on them along with a number for scoring. On each round, players try to make a word by drawing and discarding until one player has combined their entire hand into words using two or more cards per word. Small words like “is” or “an” are fine. One letter words like “I” and “A” aren’t. But the rules can bent a little for very young players.
On the first round, you have to make a three letter word. Each round goes up one card, so the next round has four cards. You can make a word with four letters, or two words with two letters. When a player goes “out” meaning they have a hand full of words, the other players are allowed one more try. All the words are scored according to the points on the card. Points on unused cards are counted against the player’s total. What makes the game extra challenging is that the player with most words gets ten extra points, and the player with the longest word gets ten extra points. There’s a lot of strategy involved in deciding which cards to keep. Players also have to judge if they want to try for most words versus going out quickly versus making a large word.
Like Scrabble, words can be challenged. The official rules don’t allow proper nouns, but again, for younger players I would vary the rules.
The Quiddler game also comes with instructions for a solitaire version that is really a lot of fun.
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