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Fill A Grid

No. of Players: 2+
Type of Game: written
What you need: pen and paper

Goal

To fill a grid with words connected to a theme.

How to play

Each player draws a grid of, say, ten by ten squares. They agree on a theme, like animals, countries, girl names, or movie titles. The players then try to fill their grids with words connected to the chosen theme in crossword-like fashion: words are to interlock and any unused squares are to be blackened out. When a player has filled at least fifty percent of the squares with letters, he is allowed to tell everyone to stop writing. Players then pass their grids to the player on their right for checking and scoring. One point is scored for every letter of an acceptable word. The player with the most points is the winner. The size of the grid can be increased or decreased as desired. A time limit can also be set in conjunction with the fifty percent rule.

This game is similar to Poker Crosswords.

Example

The players decide on a 10 by 10 grid and agree on the theme 'Fruits or Vegetables.' Antonio is the first to reach the 50% threshold. He stops the game so that the grids can be checked and scored. Here is what his grid looks like:

10 by 10 grid partially filled with words

There was some dispute over Antonio's use of TATER (slang for 'potato'), but in the end it was accepted. For his efforts, he scores a total of 70 points (37 for the letters in his Across words and 33 for his Down words).

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