Jam on It

"Word Game" is probably too broad a genre to declare a thing, but if it is one, it's a genre I've always been fond of. I've liked them since Scrabble and Taboo were among the only dozen-or-so games I really knew. From Codenames to Decrypto to Just One... I'm a fan. Most of these games tend to have fairly simple rules and strategies, though. And while simplicity can be great (and very hard to achieve in game design), I sometimes find myself wishing for something a little more sophisticated.

Taking aim at that target is Letter Jam, a new game from designer Ondra Skoupý. It's a cooperative game, in which every player is trying to figure out a five-letter word that's been prepared for them by another player. Each player's word is made up of five scrambled up, face-down cards with one letter each. Each round, players take one letter from their word and places it in a stand facing out so that everyone else can see the letter. Looking around the table, players suggest clue wordss that they could give using the letters visible at that particular moment -- including one wild card in the center of the table, if necessary.

"I can make a five letter word that uses three players' letters." "Well, I can make a six letter word that uses four players' letters and the wild." You can repeat a player's letter as often as needed. You can repeat the wild too, though you must use it for the same letter every time it appears in your word. Once players agree as a group on whose clue sounds best, that player gives it... but not by actually saying their word. They use a series of poker chips to mark letters and spell out their word.

For example, the word "settled." The player giving the clue grabs seven chips and puts the 1 in front of the first player's "S," the 2 in front of the second player's "E," the 3 and the 4 in front of the third player's "T," the 5 in front of the wild card he's secretly using as an "L," the 6 in front of the second player's "E" again (next to the 2), and finally a 7 in front of a fourth player's "D."

Each player then takes notes based on the information they've received. To player 2, based on the card she sees, that clue looks like "S-?-T-T-*-?-D." Hmm.... looks like I have a vowel. It's gotta be an "E," right? To player 4, the clue looks like "S-E-T-T-*-E-?" Hmm... do I have a D? An R? An S? I'm not sure yet. I'll need another clue.

Once a player thinks they have one letter, they move on to the next. Always forward, never back. You have only a little more than 10 rounds to clue everyone in. A mechanic encourages players to diversify their clues and give everyone a chance to give a clue at least once. At the end of the game, players must try to rearrange their five face down cards in a way that will spell out a five letter word when revealed. If everyone pulls that off, the group wins!

I love the idea of this game. I love playing it too. But I have to admit, there is an element of "be careful what you wish for" to this game. It is more sophisticated than most games, with a lot of strategy in how word clues can be given -- and that makes it a lot harder to explain and much more difficult to play than, say, Just One. To a casual observer, a game of Letter Jam can, at times, look like a bunch of people sitting in silence for a minute or more (as they stare around the circle trying to figure out how to give the best clue based on what they see).

Also, for being a more "gamer's game" kind of thing, its scoring system is pretty squishy. You can play it "pass/fail," with everyone either correctly guessing their word or not... or you can try to use this elaborate scoring mechanism the game suggests as an alternative: this many points for each correct letter, this many bonus points for each letter added on to a word (using another rules mechanism), this many points for shaving rounds off the game, etc. It certainly looks like a method to quantify your group's performance, but in practice it feels like more trouble than it's worth.

Among my group, after just a couple of plays, it's looking as though these shortcomings (particularly the "clue difficulty" issue) are turning most of the players off. I like the game a lot, but I'm already doubtful I'll get to play many (any?) more times. It's definitely for specific tastes. I would give Letter Jam a B+ (which is maybe an A- personally, demoted for its accessibility).