Better Letters (2025)

Overview

Come up with words that meet the criteria set forth by the Word Rule cards. Score points for difficulty and meeting personal objectives.

Better Letters starts with a 3 x 3 grid of Word Rule cards, and gets larger in later rounds (up to a 5 x 5 grid). Set up the game by shuffling and dealing out nine Word rule cards into a 3 x 3 grid into the middle of the play area. Shuffle the personal objective cards and deal out three to each player. Each player will select two to keep and discard the other. These are kept secret from other players. Give all players six tokens in their player color.

Better Letters is played in 60 second rounds with all players acting at the same time. Each player’s goal is to form a word(s) by following the restrictions listed on one or multiple cards. You may begin with any card and continue utilizing cards connected orthogonally. Write down your word(s) on your score sheet in the corresponding boxes. All players must finish discovering up to three words before the timer runs out. When the timer expires, everyone makes sure they have one word checked from their list and will be the word they submit for the round.

Custom scoring commences and the game is played over five or six rounds, depending upon player count.

—description from the designer