Crypt-O

A unique game of guessing a hidden word. There is a deck of 52 Letter Cards -- 2 of each letter, except 1 J and Q, 3 As and Es. On the front it has the letter and its value (1-5), and on the back it has its value and all letters of that value: 1 - AEIOU 2 - HLNRY 3 - CSTVX 4 - BDFGZ 5 - JKMPQW There are also 7 Clue Cards - "1st Letter" thru "6th Letter", and "Any Letter". The game board has 6 spaces for cards with an elastic to hold them in place, and a scoring dial.

A dealer is chosen, who thinks of a word of 4-6 letters, takes the Letter Cards that spell it, and places them face down under the elastics, showing the points and possible letters of each. The Crypt-O Number for the word -- twice the sum of its letter values -- is set on the dial. Each other player is dealt a random Clue Card.

In a turn, a player either: asks a general yes/no question, asks a yes/no letter question ("is the 4th letter R?"), guesses the word, or gives the dealer his Clue Card and peeks at the front of the card indicated. The turn continues until a "no" is received or the Clue Card is used. Whatever the answer, for each question the scoring wheel is decreased: for a general question, 1; for a letter question, the letter's value; for a wrong word guess, 2.

If a letter is guessed it is turned face-up; if the word is guessed or the last card expose, the round ends. To score, if the word wasn't guessed, the dealer scores its Crypt-O value, other wise the guesser gets the value on the scoring wheel and the dealer gets the Crypt-O value minus that amount; and each player gets 5 points for each Clue Card they hold. If the word is unknown to half or more of the players, the round doesn't count.

Rotate the dealer with each round; the game is won by the player who first hits 150 points.