Quiddler

Monopoly is fun, but it takes FOREVER to play, those trivia games are too hard for the kids, Dad can't even draw a stick figure, let alone play Pictionary, and you don't want to spend an hour just setting up an elaborate game and reading the instructions.

So what's the solution? Play QUIDDLER!! Our family loves this game - you can complete a whole game in an hour or less (or you could stop half-way through and finish the game the next evening). In Quiddler, you create words, but unlike Scrabble, it's not always the one with the best vocabulary who gets the most points. You try to make words out of all your letters - there might be a long word which gets lots of points, but it might be little brother over there who is able to make several short words who gets the "most words" bonus and jumps ahead of everyone else!

We played this game last night and were surprised how fast things change - someone who is way ahead after the 3rd round can be behind after the 4th. Just... Read more

this game is very easy to pick up and play right out of the box. A total of eight hands are dealt which makes the game short and sweet. We play without a dictionary which is more fun. The players vote on whether we think a word is valid and majority rules. The game really bogs down with players constantly looking up words. The first person to be able to play their whole hand, with one card as a discard, goes out and the rest of the players have one turn to put down as many words as possible. Points are scored based on letter value and some cards have more than one letter such as "qu" or "cl". You lose points for letters that can't be played. You cant play your cards on another players word. Highest score after 8 hands is the winner. Spelling and game usually don't go well together but this is a fun game for any age. I personally like Five crowns better.