Components
- 110 Letter Cards
- 1 "Tick Tock Boom" Die
- 1 Bomb Timer
- Instructions
Object of the Game
To call out words that include the letters printed on the card before the bomb timer goes off!
Setup
Place the bomb timer in the middle of the playing area.
Shuffle the cards together. Deal 13 cards into one pile, and put the rest of the cards in a separate pile.
Game Play
The youngest player goes first by taking the bomb timer and the die. S/he rolls the die to determine where in the word the letters may be used:
Tick
The letters must be used at the beginning of the word. For example, if the letters on the card are "BO" you could say "BOSS".
Tock
The letters must be used at the end of the word. For example, if the letters on the card are "BO" you could say "MAMBO".
Boom
The letters may be used anywhere in the word. For example, if the letters on the card are "BO" you could say "KABOOM".
The player starts the timer by pressing the red button on the bottom. S/he quickly turns over the top card from the pile of 13.
The letters that appear on the card are the letters that must be used in words until the bomb timer explodes. Once the player has correctly used the letters in a word, s/he passes the bomb timer to the player to his/her left.
Play continues until the bomb timer "explodes". The bomb timer will explode randomly between 20 and 90 seconds.
The player holding the bomb timer when it explodes keeps the letter card as a penalty.
That player begins the next round by rolling the die, starting the bomb timer, and turning over the next card.
Permitted Words
Any word in common use is allowed, including proper names, brand names, colloquial words, and also foreign words in general use; For example, "BLITZKRIEG".
A word may not be used twice in a round, but may be used in a subsequent round. For a more challenging game, do not allow simple derivatives to be used. For example, if "PLAY" has been used, do not use "PLAYS", "PLAYED", "PLAYING", etc.
The letters printed on the cards must be used in that exact sequence as part of a larger word. For example, "ANT" can be used in "PANT" and "ANTELOPE". It cannot be used in "AUNT" or "ADVENTURE".
Finally..
A player's turn is finished as soon as s/he has said an acceptable word and passed the bomb timer on, even if the next player has not yet taken hold of the bomb timer.
Any player may challenge a word that has just been said as not being acceptable. The player holding the bomb timer can then pass it back to the previous player to try again.
If there is any argument about whether it is a valid word, all players vote.
If the bomb timer explodes before the decision is made, and the word is accepted, the player who initially challenged the word loses the round.
If the word is not accepted, the player who said the word loses the round.
When a challenge is made, the player who has been passed the bomb timer may prefer to say a different word and pass the bomb timer on, rather than run the risk of a challenge being overruled and the bomb timer exploding.
End of the Game
The game continues until all 13 cards have been used. The winner is the player holding the least number of cards.
In the case of a tie, the players who have tied continue to play using the unused pile of cards on a "Sudden Death" basis until one player is the winner.
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