Lexicant
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Lexicant is a paper and pencil word game for two players. A letter is written on a sheet of paper, and each player takes turns adding a letter either to the beginning or the end of this ever-growing "word-stem". The first player to create a word loses.
Lexicant is popular because of its inherent simplicity. It requires no preparation and nothing more than paper and pencil. It can even be played orally.
Bluffing and Challenging
At any turn a player is expected to have one or more "reserve words" in mind which could be formed from the exact word-stem in play. If the letters in play were MICAB, for example, valid reserve words would include AMICABLE, AMICABILITY and SEMICABALISTIC. However, a player can opt to bluff their turn - that is, they can add a letter to the word-stem without actually having a reserve word in mind. Bluffing is almost always done as a last resort, though some players may use bluffs strategically to force their opponents into untenable positions. If a player feels their opponent has played a bluff and has no reserve word in mind, they may lodge a challenge at any time before the next turn is played. The recipient of the challenge must then provide a valid reserve word which contains the word-stem in play. If they are able to do so, the challenged player wins the game. If they can not provide a reserve word, the challenger wins the game.Strategy
Lexicant requires a strong vocabulary, but that alone is not generally enough to truly master the game. Familiarity with commonly-used suffixes, prefixes, and pluralizations is a must, as these can be used to extend word-stems into larger and larger formations before a word must finally be created. But simply extending the length of a word won't guarantee a win. A player must also employ simple strategies to ensure that the final word contains the proper number of letters required for them to win: an even number if they made the first move, or an odd number if they played the second move.Example Game
Two example games could be played as follows:A
AT
ATI
PATI
IPATI
IPATIO
CIPATIO
ICIPATIO
TICIPATIO
NTICIPATIO
NTICIPATION
ANCITIPATION
V
IV
TIV
ITIV
SITIV
NSITIV
NSITIVI
NSITIVIT
ENSITIVIT
ENSITIVITI
ENSITIVITIE
SENSITIVITIE
OSENSITIVITIE
OSENSITIVITIES
POSENSITIVITIES
YPOSENSITIVITIES
HYPOSENSITIVITIES
External links
- [Lexicant.org] - Online single-player version
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