The (almost really) Complete Works of Lewis Carroll

A Word-Game for Two Players, or Two Sets of Players

The essence of this game consists in one player proposing a ‘nucleus’ (i. e. a set of 2 or more letters, such as ‘gp,’ ‘emo,’ ‘imse’), and in the other trying to find a ‘lawful word’ (i. e. a word known in ordinary society, and not a proper name) containing it. Thus, ‘magpie,’ ‘lemon,’ ‘himself,’ are lawful words containing the nuclei ‘gp,’ ‘emo,’ ‘imse.’ A nucleus may not contain a hypen: e. g. ‘apple-tree’ is no a lawful word for the nucleus ‘letr.’ Substantives and adjectives, derived from proper names and beginning with capitals (e. g. ‘Jacobite,’ ‘French’), count as proper names.

Rules

1. Each thinks of a nucleus, and says ‘ready’ when he has done so. When both have spoken, the nuclei are named. A player may set a nucleus without knowing of any word containing it.

2. When a player has guessed a word containing the nucleus set to him (which need not be the word thought of by the player who set it), or has made up his mind that there is no such word, he says ‘ready,’ or ‘no word,’ as the case may be; when he has decided to give up trying, he says ‘I resign.’ The other must then, within a stated time (e. g. 2 minutes), say ‘ready,’ or ‘no word,’ or ‘I resign,’ or ‘not ready.’ If he says nothing, he is assumed to have said ‘not ready.’

3. When both have spoken, if the first speaker said ‘ready,’ he now names the word he has guessed; if he said ‘no word,’ he, who set the nucleus, names, if he can, a word containing it. The other player than proceeds in the same way.

4. The players then score as follows:—(N.B.—When a player is said to ‘lose’ marks, it means that the other scores them.)

This ends the first move.

5. A ‘resigned’ nucleus cannot be set again during the same game. If, however, one or more letters be added or subtracted, it counts as a new one.

6. For every other move, the players proceed as for the first move, except that when a player is ‘not ready,’ or has guessed a word wrongly, he has not a new nucleus set to him, but goes on guessing the one already in hand, having first, if necessary, set a new nucleus for the other player.

7. The move in which either scores 10 is the final one; when it is completed, the game is over, and the highest score wins, or, if the scores be equal, the game is drawn.

I shall be grateful to any readers of the Monthly Packet who will try this game, and will kindly send me any criticisms, or suggestions for improving it, which occur to them. It seems to make a better game for sets of players than for individuals; the two sets ranging themselves on opposite sides of the room, and holding a whispered consultation on each side.