STACK & STEAL GAME

"STACK & STEAL" is essentially the chess of SAYWORD! After having honed your wordsmith skills with KNOCKOUT and BOX, STACK & STEAL challenges you to outsmart others to break and build complex words, take words from others, defend your own, and outplay your opponents. This game is  for SAYWORD!®️ experts only! 

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Expert

OBJECT: Score the most points by constructing all or part of a word using the cards in your hand.  (2 to 5 players)

SETUP & GAME PLAY:

1. Deal each player 7 cards. 
2. Place the rest of the deck facing down and turn one card facing up to start a pile of drawn cards.
3. The first player draws the top card from the deck or from the pile of drawn cards. 
4. The player then discards one of their cards and places it facing up on top of the pile of drawn cards. 
5. The player can then attempt to score by placing down 2 or more of their cards facing up in front of them that form all or part of a word, (”WORD!”).
6. The player also has the choice to add cards to one of their existing groups instead, (“WORD!”).
7. Any opposing player may challenge the word by asking the player to say the word out loud, (”SAYWORD!“). 
8. Any player at any time may steal an opponent’s word by adding cards to an opponent’s group, (”THAT’S MY WORD!”). 

USE THE FOLLOWING PHRASES AND ACTIONS TO PLAY THE GAME:

SAY: "WORD!" if you think that two or more of your cards form all or part of a word.

DO: Place the cards face up in front you and turned towards the other players. Note: You must draw a card and discard a card before making this play.

SAY: "WORD!" if you have a card to expand, complete, or recreate one of your existing words. 

DO: Add the card to a group that you have already begun building. Note: You must draw a card and discard a card before making this play.

SAY: "SAYWORD!" when you want to verify an opponent's initial play, stack, or steal.

DO: The opponent then says the intended word out loud.

SAY: "WORD." to accept an opponent's word you have chosen to verify.

DO: Go on to the next player.

SAY: "THAT'S NOT A WORD!" to reject verification and challenge a word an opponent has said out loud.

DO: Confirm the word and origin using one of our approved dictionaries listed below. The loser of the challenge loses their next turn and collects two penalty cards.

SAY: "THAT'S MY WORD!" if you have a card to expand, complete or recreate an opponent's word. 

DO: Add the card to the opponent's group of cards. Take all the cards and place them in front of you. This can be done at any time in the game.

SAY: "THAT'S THE LAST WORD!" if you think that your remaining cards form all or part of a word.

DO: Place the cards face up in front of you and turned towards the other players. When forming their last word, a player does not need to discard any cards from their hand.

SCORING & WINNING THE GAME: 

To make a group of cards, a player must first pluck a card from the pile, place a card on the stack of discarded cards, and place the group of cards facing up and turned towards the other players. The point value is determined by the point value indicated on the bottom left of each card. Wild cards are multipliers but do not have their own point value. 

At the end of each hand, players count the point values of all the groups they were able to form. The last word played receives an additional 10 point bonus. Hands are played until one player reaches 100 points (novice), 250 points (standard), or 500 points (master). Proper nouns and phrases are not allowed.

STACKING: If a player has a card that can be added to a set of roots they have already placed in front of them, they can add the card to those cards to expand or create a new word during their turn. For example, if a player has already combined "AUTO" and "GRAPH" and then draws "BIO", they can add it to their word to recreate a new word, "AUTOBIOGRAPHY". The player announces the stack by saying, "WORD."

STEALING: Players are also able to add a card to an opponent's word to steal their word at any time. It does not have to be their turn. After adding the card, the word becomes theirs and the player announces the steal by saying, "THAT'S MY WORD!!" Stealing plays are also subject to verification and challenges. When a player's last word is stolen, they must draw two penalty cards and continue playing. Players may only steal whole groups. 

BLUFFING: A player does not need to know the definition of the word. When challenged to "SAYWORD!", the player only needs to say it. If a player can create realistic card combinations or play (and say) a word with confidence, they may be able to bluff their opponents into believing they have created a valid word. Opponents can only ask for verification ("sayword!") or challenge ("That's not a word!") when they are first played, stacked, or stolen.

ADDITONAL RULES:

• When starting a word group or adding to one, you do not have to say what word you intend to make unless you are asked to "sayword!"
• A player can only make one scoring attempt per turn. They can either play a new word or add on to their own word, or steal from another opponent.
• A word can only be challenged when it is first played, when someone stacks onto a word, or when a word is stolen.

SCORING STRATEGY: Below is a group of cards that all share a common word. The word is “UNNATURALLY”. If you look at the letters on the cards THEY DO NOT EXACTLY MATCH THE SPELLING of “UNNATURALLY”, but they absolutely match in terms of meaning and origin. In this game you are looking to make meaning out of language. If a player were to play or build all of these cards, this would be a valid and powerful play. Any combination of these cards can be used to score but the STRONGEST play is the 5-card play. The 5-card play completely builds out a specific meaning and leaves no room for anyone to steal. It is also worth more points! The 2-card play shown below using only “UN” and “AL” can be stolen with a number of different root cards. So it is easy to play, but also easily stolen. Each time a new card is added to a group, a new meaning can be created by the owner of that group who is stacking or by an opponent who is making a steal.

MAXING OUT: It is always a good idea to think of ways to expand a word as much as you can. For example, if a player plays “BIO” and “GRAPH”, any other player can expand it by adding the roots “AUTO” or “Y”, creating a higher scoring word. This group of cards can be expanded on even further by adding “IC” and/or “AL”. The Biggest play possible would be “AUTOBIOGRAPHICALLY”. Again, a player only needs 2 cards to be able to form this word, but using only 2 cards out of a possible 6-card play leaves 4 opportunities for the word to be stolen.