Wibble

## Overview

Players race to shout out words that use at least one letter from each central card AND one letter from each card in front of themselves. As the game goes on and you collect more cards, it will get harder and harder! Whoever collects the most cards wins the game.

## Setup

If playing with 2 players, use 23 random cards. Put 25 random cards back into the box. If playing with 3 players, remove 11 random cards. With 4 or more players, use the entire deck. Place the deck face-down between everyone. You don’t need to shuffle, but go ahead if you enjoy the ceremony.

## Start the Round

Flip 2 cards face-up. Everyone races to shout a word containing at least one letter from each card. Use any additional letters you wish. The letters on the cards are NOT a restriction on what you can use, but a requirement to be met. The first player to do so takes either card (they choose), places it face-up in front of themself, and then flips another card to start the next turn. In future turns, players need to shout out words containing at least one letter from each of the 2 central cards AND every face-up card in front of themselves.

[deck] [NZ] [IQ] [SG][SH] Example: Micol has 2 cards in front of herself. She could shout, “hints”, “mission” or “kissing”. “Sin” would be invalid. Valid Words You may not use any proper nouns. No names of places, people or companies. Also, you can’t shout words already used to take cards this game, nor derivatives of those words. E.g. If someone already used ‘explore’ to take a card, you can’t say ‘exploring’ or ‘exploratory’. If you already said a word but didn’t win a card with it, you can repeat the word.

## Ending the Round

When someone takes their 3rd card of the round, they take both cards from the centre. They choose any one of their 4 cards to keep as a permanent handicap! Then, everyone flips their other cards face-down. You no longer have to use those cards within your words. NOTE: You need to win 3 cards within a single round to end the round (and get a permanent handicap). Permanent handicaps don’t count as one of the ‘3 cards won’. If the same player wins a 2nd round, they take a 2nd permanent handicap. Someone who keeps winning rounds will get more and more permanent handicaps.

Permanent handicaps are never flipped face- down, but still count as points at the end of the

game. If you keep your facedown cards side-ways, and place your permanent handicaps on top, you can more easily distinguish between permanent handicaps and cards you won this round. See illustration above. Start a new round You then start a new round simply by flipping over 2 new cards. Play as before.

## Ending/scoring the Game

Keep playing until the deck runs out. Whomever wins the last turn of the game takes the final card. If the round is reset when only 1 card is in the deck, the round winner takes the final card. Count all your cards - whoever has the most is the

winner! Count your face down cards as well as any perma- nent handicaps. There can be multiple winners.

Congratulations are in order! Precise rules on timing and other notes can be seen overleaf.

## FAQs/CLARIFICATIONS

When multiple people shout a word: Whoever FINISHES saying the word first takes a card. If unsure who finished first, the shortest word wins. If the words are the same length, the

first - alphabetically - wins. If the words are iden- tical, put the 2 central cards underneath the deck,

shuffle the deck, and redeal. If someone shouts something wrong: If you make a mistake, you can no longer win the current turn. If only one player is competing for a card, they collect it automatically. If many cards have the same letter: If you want to use (e.g.) an ‘A’ on multiple cards, the word needs to contain an ‘A’ for each card. Can I shout something after someone else? When someone else shouts, you can still shout, or

keep thinking if you’re not 100% sure that the oth- er person’s word is ‘correct’. After you’ve shouted

your own word, you can check the earlier words. Do I take a card straight away? When you shout a word, double-check and wait for someone else to agree that it’s valid before you take your card. How do we check a word? If unsure, look it up online (perhaps you have a smartphone?) on any agreed dictionary. David Brain suggests Collin’s Dictionary if you’re speaking British English,

like wot we are. If you don’t have access to the internet, con- sult a local dictionary. If there is no dictionary in your room,

just try to come to a consensus without killing each other. OPTIONAL: PLAYER HANDICAPS If someone consistently wins, start them with one or even 2 permanent handicaps! These will NOT count as points at the end of the game. OPTIONAL: SIMPLE MODE End each round when someone wins their 4th card rather than the 3rd. Take the 5th card as a bonus but do not keep it as a permanent handicap. This will make the game generally faster as a whole. For an even simpler game, end rounds as normal (end when a 3rd card is taken, and the 4th card is taken as a bonus) but do not use permanent handicaps.

## AS A LEARNING AID

The game is very useful for helping expand the vocabulary and recall of words. If teaching English as a second language, maybe ask students to define each word after shouting it. To make it more of a shared learning activity and allow everyone more opportunities to participate, perhaps the winner of the previous turn cannot shout this turn.

## CREDITS/HISTORY

Gil Hova made Prolix. I (Bez), inspired by that game, designed this in January 2015. Originally,

getting to 5 cards won you the game. It was en- joyed but was too short and unsatisfying.

I decided to just try playing multiple rounds until the end of the deck. That worked well enough. Permanent handicaps were then added, but were originally just a variant. Many helped playtest, including Rob Harris, Fabio Lopiano, David Brain and Ben Neumann. Massive thanks to everyone who helped out. After the 1st edition deck was released, I observed hundreds more games at conventions and wanted to try ending after a 3rd card is taken, rather than after the 4th card. Winning a round is now far better, as you get a permanent handicap but have won double the points! Each round’s difficulty increases less, but the catchup element over the entire game is greater. These rules were blind-tested by Doruk, Ruth, Hywel, Michele, Phil, Ding, and various others at Waterloo. Phil made some wonderful suggestions regarding layout. These rules were proof-read by John Brieger, Ayden Lowther, Michael Belsole, Chris Zlinski and Rachael Mortimer.

## MAYBE TRY...

Wobbell. A game created by James Davies, as a ‘sequel’ to Wibbell. Wobbell is more chaotic, as you steal cards from other players, scrambling to be the first to have 3 cards. The rules for Wobbell (and many other games) are available at: stuffbybez.com/wibbell/ Here’s an idea for a tournament: Play 2 games of Wibbell, each followed by a game of Wobbell. Then serve jelly on a plate as a prize for the winner.