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Letter Tycoon

2 - 5

35 mn

Complexity: 2 / 5

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Build words! Buy letters! Score points! Build your alphabet empire!

Form the longest word you can each turn to earn money and stocks.

Buy patents for the letters you use! Collect royalties from anyone else who plays those letters.

Some patents grant unique privileges!

2015 Mensa Select Winner

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Designer

Brad Brooks

Artist

Mackenzie Schubert, Peter Vaughan

Editor

Breaking Games and Squirmy Beast

Year

2015

Developed by

jephly

Number of games played

26 604

Number of players

2 - 5

Game duration

35 mn

Complexity

Strategy

Luck

Interaction

Available since

Jan 13th 2021

Release

201206-0548

Board Game Arena would like to thank Breaking Games and Squirmy Beast for making it possible to have this game here.

Tutorials

Game rules

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Rules

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【介紹+規則】Letter Tycoon 字母大亨

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Videos

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1 Minute Overview

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How to Play

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The Dice Tower review

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Letter Tycoon on the web

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Letter Tycoon on Board Game Geek

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Rules summary

This page comes from BGA wiki, and has been written by BGA players community. Feel free to edit it!

Gameplay

Build words using letter cards to earn money and stock.

Use money to buy letter patents. Patents earn royalties when their letter is used. Some patents grant additional abilities.

The final round is triggered when one player's patents sum to a given value. (See Goals.) At the end of that round, the player with the highest combined value of patents, money, and stock wins!

Components

Letter "Factory" Cards

One of 102 cards each with a letter. Some letters are more common than others (see Letter Frequency game card).

Player Hand

Each player has a hand of 7 letter cards. Players always draw back to 7 at the end of their turn to replace any cards they have played or discarded.

Community Pool

A shared, face-up set of 3 letter cards available for use by any player. These are also replaced at the end of each turn.

Money (or Coins)

Earned by playing words, or through patent royalties. Used to buy patents. Winning or losing challenges can also earn or cost money.

Stock

Earned by playing longer words. Grants points at the end of the game, but cannot be spent.

Letter Patents

Each letter has one patent. Patents may be purchased with money; costs range from $2 to $10.

Royalties

The owner of a letter patent earns $1 for each matching letter played by another player. Players don't earn royalties on their own words, or for special letters generated by patent abilities.

Player Turn

On your turn, you may build a word using letter cards from your hand or from the community pool. Each word must contain at least one card from your hand and be at least 3 letters long.

If your word is not challenged successfully (see Challenges), you earn money and stock depending on its length. (See Word Scoring.) Some patent or letter abilities may increase earnings; see Special Abilities.

Other players earn royalties for the patents they own (see Royalties).

Then, you may buy a patent. You many only buy a patent matching a letter in the word(s) you played this turn. You must also have enough money to purchase the patent. Each patent can only be owned by one player; once a patent has been purchased, it cannot be purchased by another player.

The community pool is refilled, and then you may choose to discard any number of the cards in your hand. Finally, your hand is refilled to 7 cards.

Special Abilities

Some patents grant special abilities:

B Patent Ability

Earn double if your word begins and ends in vowels. Both money and stock is doubled.

J Patent Ability

Earn double if vowels are at least half of your word. Both money and stock is doubled.

K Patent Ability

Earn double if your word has only one vowel. Both money and stock is doubled.

Q Patent Ability

You may replace a card to start your turn. You may discard and draw before playing words.

V Patent Ability

You may build two words. Each word earns money and stock individually. Other patent abilities may be applied to one word or the other, not both. Each word must contain at least one card from your hand and be at least 3 letters long.

X Patent Ability

You may use one letter card twice. (That is, you may duplicate a letter.) You must use at least 3 real (not duplicated or generated) letter cards total. If playing two words with the ‘V’ patent ability, a letter from the first word may be duplicated in the second. Other players do not earn additional royalties on the second copy of this duplicated letter.

Z Patent Ability

You may add an ‘S’ to the end of your word. This must form an acceptable word. You may not purchase the ‘S’ patent without using a real ‘S’ letter card. Other players do not earn royalties on this generated ‘S’.

Patent abilities may be used at most once per turn.

Some letters also have special abilities:

Q Letter Ability

Words with ‘Q’ earn double (both money and stock). This ability is independent of the ‘Q’ patent ability.

Y Letter Ability

Player decides whether each ‘Y’ is treated as a consonant or a vowel for patent abilities.

Challenges

Player Challenges

In the default rules, players may challenge other player's words. If the challenged word(s) are not in the dictionary, the challenge succeeds and the active player takes back their cards, loses the rest of their turn, and must discard a card as a penalty. If the word(s) are in the dictionary, the challenge fails and the challenger must pay the active player $1. (If the challenger has no money, the active player takes $1 from the bank.)

Automatic Challenges

This version implements a challenge variant to smooth online play. In the automatic challenge variant, players may not challenge. Instead, every play is automatically challenged by the system. If the word(s) are in dictionary, play proceeds. If not, the player may be allowed to retry (depending on the variant configuration; default is 3). If they run out of retries, they take back their cards, lose the rest of their turn, and must discard a card as penalty.

Word Scoring

Word Length	Money	Stock
3 letters	$1	0
4 letters	$2	0
5 letters	$3	0
6 letters	$4	1
7 letters	$6	1
8 letters	$6	2
9 letters	$6	3
10 letters	$6	4
11 letters	$6	5
12 letters	$6	6

Goals

Players	Patents Value	Minimum Number of Patents
2	$45	6
3	$34	5
4	$26	3
5	$21	3

Dictionaries

Two dictionaries may be used:

NWL 2018

NASPA (North American Scrabble Players Association) Word List 2018

See https://scrabbleplayers.org/w/NWL2018

(This is the default.)

CWL 2019

Collins Scrabble Words 2019 (formerly SOWPODS)

See https://scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS

(This contains more obscure words than the NWL.)

Note that this game is designed to be played with English (American or British) words. Playing words in other languages isn't supported by the game design.

Friends

Letter Tycoon

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