Last Word Standing: How to Play

- In Last Word Standing, the objective of the game

is to use letters to spell increasingly high scoring words.

The action cards the players play will give their words

advantages in an effort to ensure that they have

the last word standing.

The first player to score 75 points will win the game.

To set up the game, shuffle the letter and action decks

separately and then place each of them face down,

leaving room for a discard pile for each deck.

Each player picks a scoring marker and places it

on the start box of the score tracker and then takes

the information information card that matches.

Give the first player card to the player

who last looked up a word in the dictionary.

They deal two letter cards and one action card

to each player who may look at their hand of cards

but should keep them a secret from all other players.

Draw the top two cards from the letter deck

and place them face up in the center of the table.

Before starting the game, agree on an official dictionary,

either online or offline.

It's up to you if you wanna allow the use of proper nouns.

Each round consists of four total phases.

The Card Claim phase, the Word Play phase,

the Score phase, and the Exchange phase.

Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise,

start the Card Claim phase.

The first player draws a number of cards

from the letter deck equal to the number of players plus one

and then they add them to the community cards on the table.

Each player, in turn order, chooses a letter card

from the community card and adds it to their hand.

Should a player wish to claim a card preemptively,

they may discard and action card to take a card out of turn.

But be careful, other players can stop you with other

action cards so make sure you have a backup action card.

That way, you can immediately try again,

if you really need a specific letter to spell the word

you're trying to spell.

If the player claims a card with a draw action card on it,

then they may also draw the top card from the action deck.

Keep in mind that each player is limited to

a total of 12 letter cards in their hand.

After this, players move on to the Word Play phase.

Starting with the first player and moving clockwise,

players may choose to play a word or pass.

Playable words must be at least three letter long

and must be spelled using at least one letter card

from their hand.

They may also use any number of community cards

and up to two letter cards copied from other player's words

using action cards.

The first word played in the Word Play phase

is laid down to spell the word and then indicate

if any community cards are needed to complete it.

Action cards may be used to modify the word's value.

The value of the word is determined

and then it becomes the standing word.

Play then continues in turn order and players can play words

to challenge the current standing word

even if they've passed in previous rounds.

The only rule is that the new word played

must have a higher value than the standing word.

Any words that have been successfully challenged

can then be upgraded when that player's turn comes around.

If no words are played during the Word Play phase,

then the players skip immediately to the Exchange phase,

but if there was at least one word played,

then play proceeds to the Score phase.

During the Score phase, each player moves their

scoring marker along the score tracker

based on how many points that they earned.

The player of the standing word scores full point value

for their word, all other players score

half of the point value of the last word

that they played, rounded down.

Then discard all letter cards played

during the Word Play phase.

This includes any community cards used to spell a word.

Then each player with fewer than two remaining letter cards

in their hand will draw until they have two.

If there are fewer than two community cards on the table,

draw until there are two, ready for the next round.

And so long as no player has reached 75 points,

we'll move on to the Exchange phase.

If they have reached 75 points, then the game would end.

During the Exchange phase, any player, in turn order,

may either discard one letter card from their hand

and draw the top card of the letter deck or they may discard

two letter cards and draw the top card of the action deck.

Then the first player card passes to the left

and a new round begins.

If any one player has reached 75 points,

then the game is over.

And if more than one player has reached 75 points,

then the highest score wins.

And if there's a tie, then you both win.

And that's how you play Last Word Standing.

Let us know in the comments below,

the first word game that you ever played.

Be bold, play games, be you.

Happy gaming.