Designed by:
Letter Tycoon is a word-making game with a bit of corporate ownership thrown in. If that sounds a bit flat, don’t click away just yet…
The game is made up of letter cards, patent cards, money and stock. Each player is dealt seven letter cards and three are dealt face-up on the table as ‘common’ cards. When it’s your turn, you want to make the longest word you can from the ten letters available to you – your own hand and those on the table. Having done so you gain money for your word, and any cards you used go into the discard pile and are replenished.
But your turn’s not over just yet, because – if you have enough cash – you can now buy any available patent. There’s one for each letter of the alphabet, and they have a twin purpose – representing points come the end of the game, but also gathering you a royalty payment when any of your opponents use the letter in their word!
Additionally, some letter patents – of the less common letters – grant you special abilities, such as the power to play two words instead of one, or scoring double if you only use a single vowel. As soon as a certain amount of patent points are hit, the game will end on that round (-all players having had an equal amount of turns) and players count up their points: patents, cash, and stock, which is rewarded for longer words.
None.
It depends on the players to a great degree; ages, vocabulary, and sometimes the luck of the draw.
The rules are light - the brain-burning here is all about the anagramming of potential words.
Light rules, quick play-time, beautiful components. For word-game enthusiasts this is eminently replayable.
2-5
Players
8+
Years
30
Mins
Sam says
I really enjoy word games and unlike Scrabble (which I also enjoy) Letter Tycoon crosses boundaries of age and low gaming-threshold: it's been a hit with gaming buddies and different generations of family. I like the fact it's easy to teach and learn, and you can play it reasonably quickly: although you have 10 letters to work with you're not negotiating with a board, just the letters themselves. And the goal almost always being long words makes it more universal than Scrabble, which can often be a tactical battle. I like the fact it's rather beautiful to look at, and the tactical depth supplied by the patents give it some depth too.