Blizword

Blizword - for 1-4 players
A simple card game of wordforming.
components: 52 cards + 2 cards of rules

Shuffle the cards and deal a 3x3 grid of letters face up between players. The remaining cards form the draw deck. In turn players remove letters from the grid that can form a complete word or the start of one. All letter tiles must be adjacent to one another in order: up, down, left, right or diagonally. 2, 3, 4 or more letters can be used.

To score a word, square the number of letters (for instance):
S T O R A = storage = 5 letters = 5x5 = 25 points

Players should keep their letters in word stacks in front of them in separate piles for easy scoring.

The current player then replaces the removed cards in the grid with new cards from the draw deck. Play until the 3x3 grid cannot be completely re-filled from the draw deck. Highest score wins.

Variations

Orientation Blizword: The orientation of the letters is important. You can only form a word and remove letters if the letters are in the same orientation. The letters H I N O S X and Z are the only valid in either orientation.

Solitaire Blizword: Beat your personal high score, removing sets of letters and replacing them as you go. Play until the 3x3 grid cannot be completely re-filled from the draw deck.

Advanced Blizword: You can only remove letters ONLY if they form the START of a word.