Everyone knows Boggle, one of my all time favorite games. Also, a game at which I have barely ever lost.
For those of you who don’t know, Boggle is when you have a 4×4 grid of letters, and you have to make a list of words with letters that are adjacent or diagonally adjacent. In regular Boggle, the minimum number of letters is three, so HE would not count but THE would. In Big Boggle, the grid is 5×5 and the letter minimum is four, so HE and THE would not count, but THEN or THEY would. It’s a combination of quick eyes, quick hands to beat the timer, and a good vocabulary. When I am at home with my family, we usually play at least once or twice a week. Lately, I’ve been eschewing 4-letter words and just doing 5-letter words, because I see so many 4-letter words and those only score you one point, as opposed to 5-letter words, which, if only you have them on your list, give you 2 points, 6-letter words for 3 points, and so on.
So tonight, my dad and I played up to a preset 500 points, using only 5-letter words or more.
It was insane.
After about 10 rounds, I beat my dad 510-250 (or something like that) but the ante was upped with the five-letter limit. It was also much easier to navigate each board, without worrying about writing down ARTS, RATS, STAR, etc., when A-R-T-S appear in the grid.
It also made for some longer and more exciting words.
Over the course of the game, I got two eight-letter words, rare in the ordinary game of Boggle, seasoner and reasoner, and a record nine-letter word, reasoners. I also got some fun seven-letter words I would not have ordinarily picked up on, like treason, artiste, contain, nunnery, quality, peerage, deifies, and deified, as well as some uncommon shorter words, like arcane, ardent, incest, swain, tattoo, sarin (a type of poison) and raglan (a style of sleeve).
So there’s one way to kill an evening.
Also, I still have about 8-9 spots open for my That’s So Jacob 16 snail mails in 2016, so comment below with your email address, let’s connect, and I will send you something fun in the mail for the new year!
That’s So Jacob 