I play this game as I drive down the road and with my grandkids (they are pretty good at it). We don’t even keep track of our score, but it is still fun and educational. The best part is the kids don’t care that it is educational.
I created this game as a mind exercise to grow vocabulary, improve spelling, and generally exercise the brain. Players will learn from each other while competing with each other, but it is a friendly competition.
To play this game, you need a plate with at least 3 letters in the plate number, like this Texas plate which we will use as an example for this post. It is nice when the letters are sequential but that is not a requirement as long as there are at least 3. If there are more than 3 letters, such as with custom plates, you can set a rule to handle that situation, such as “always use the first 3 letters” or “may use either the first or last 3 letters”.
Every license plate game I know of allows only one player to claim a plate and the plate is done with immediately upon selecting the plate. The “State Plate” game where you call out-of-state license plates is like that, as is the “Plate Number” game where players start at 1 and try to count as high as they can sequentially. Not so with this one, all players can “play” a plate at the same time so everyone stays engaged. Here are the rules:
- Players make words using the 3 letters from a plate. It must be a single word and all 3 letters must appear in the word in the order they appear on the plate.
- With our example plate, you have probably already thought of the word “CHILD”, so we will use that. A round begins when a player selects a plate and calls out a qualifying word by stating the 3 letters in order and the word they are claiming… “C H L… CHILD”. The player initiating the round must point out the plate to other players before claiming any other words and a majority of players must visually sight the plate. Words from unverified plates are not allowed. Players who do not sight the plate may still play it.
- All players can then “claim” new words, but only the player who claimed a word may claim different forms of the word such as “CHILDREN”. Note that it is possible that the first word called was CHILDREN. In that case, CHILDREN is awarded 2 points and CHILD would receive only 1 point as a related word.
- If a player moves on to a new word without claiming all forms of their original word, another player may steal the remaining points by then calling out the unclaimed related words. If the stealer moves on to another word without claiming all of the remaining related words, yet another player may continue the steal.
- 2 points are awarded for each new qualifying word (“CHILD” or “CHILL“). This is the “normal” point value awarded.
- 1 point is awarded for each additional variation of a qualifying word (“CHILDREN” or “CHILLED”).
- 3 points are awarded for a new qualifying word that contains all 3 letters in the right sequence that does NOT start with the 1st of the 3 letters (“ACHIEVEABLE”). These types of words are given more points because the mind naturally thinks of words that DO start with the first letter (“C”) and we want to reward thinking outside of the box.
- 3 points may also be awarded for words containing all 3 letters sequentially in the right order (“CHLORINE”).
- Optionally, where a word qualifies for both 3 point scores (“MATCHLESS”), it is awarded 4 points.
- More than one round (plate) may be in play at the same time if a player calls out another plate while a plate is still in play, however a player may only participate in one round (plate) at a time. Once they claim a word from a new plate, they may not claim additional words from an earlier plate, but other players may continue to claim words from the earlier plate if they choose to.
- A round ends when all players have exhausted their vocabulary for the plate or all have claimed words from a new plate.
- A round may be scored by totaling the word score for each player. To be honest, this game is typically too fast-paced to keep an accurate count of the word scores, but you can reach a consensus of who did best for a round or game. The same applies for scoring a game. The real reward is not the highest overall score or highest score for a round, but for achieving the higher word scores of 3 or 4.
You may need to make allowances for younger players with special rules for them. You know your players best, so you choose the qualifying age or grade level under which a player may use the special rules (such as “children under 9” or “2nd grade and below”):
- May use a phrase to qualify, but the phrase must make sense, so “CHOOSE WISELY” would qualify but “CAN HILL” would not.
- +1 points for all qualifying words that meet the standard, or “adult”, criteria above. So, a 1st-grader would receive 3 points for claiming the word “CHILD”, while a 5th-grader would only receive 2 points.
- Whatever other compensation you feel is appropriate to encoursge participation by younger players.
The idea of the game is to make learning fun and to dust away the cobwebs in your brain. Keep it friendly. Adults can help kids by giving them a chance to claim a 3-point word. “I just thought of another 3-point word…”. Let me know in the comments if you have any home grown rules that make the game more fun for you and your family.