Kiitos: Kickstarter Review

Kiitos: Kickstarter Review

Information:

Mechanics: Word Game, Hand Management

Player Age: 12+ 

Player Count: 2 - 4 Players

Time to Play: 45 - 60 Minutes 
Game Designer: Matthew Thredgold
BGG Weight: 1.00

Publisher: Ludogix

Disclaimer: A preview copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

Kiitos is a unique word game that is reminiscent of trick-taking games. In Kiitos you are either trying to get your opponents to finish your word, therefore scoring you positive points, or leave your opponent with no letters that they can play, resulting in that player taking the letters already played as negative points. The way this works is the first player will announce the word that is being built and play the first letter, continued by the next player, each player must play the next letter in the word if possible. If they are unable to do this, they can now change the word by adding on a letter of their choice, however, the new word must use the already played letters in the order they appear.

Card Anatomy:

Letters:

There are 72 letters consisting of multitudes of the vowels and constants of the alphabet, but with the more challenging letters (x, y and z) being less frequent.

Rules:

There are three rules which come in the form of cards and involve the scoring of positive points, minimum letters for the announced words, and where the next letter can be placed. Each rule is double-sided and can be flipped over when a word is finished. These rules go from minimum four words to minimum five words, the face-up scoring is worth two per each card instead of one, the last rule allows a letter to be played at the start or the end of the word instead of just the end on the advanced side of the rule.

Challenges:

The challenge cards are worth one negative point and are used at the player's discretion. If a player is changing or creating a word, any other player can challenge that word. If the word is valid and not made-up, the challenger will take the card and place it into their negative scoring pile. If the word is not valid then the player that changed or created the word will choose another word and take the challenge card into their negative scoring pile.

Seasoning Cards (Variant):

Once you have played the base game several times and want to spice up the game play, there are several game changing cards you can add in called ‘seasoning cards’. These will change the game play drastically such as allowing players to play two letters a turn or letting players place letters in between letters instead of the end or front of the word.

Setup:

- Place the three rule cards on the centre of the table with the green side face up.
- Place the lock token and a stack of challenge cards next to the rule cards.
- Shuffle the letter deck and deal each player eight letter cards.

How to Play:

The game will continue for three rounds and each round will last until a player can no longer draw back up to right cards (letter deck ran out).

Starting a word:

The first player will announce a word (creating an active word) and play the first letter of that word face-up in the centre of the table. Going forward the other players and this player will have to build on this word until it is completed, or until it cannot be added to by a player. There are some rules that apply when creating a word such as no proper nouns, no hyphenated words, no abbreviations or acronyms.

Continuing the Word:

The next player must play the next letter in the word if they have that letter in their hand. For example, if the word is 'game' and only the G is played so far you have to play an A if you have that letter. If the letter played completes the active word then the player who originally announced that word will yell 'Kiitos' ('thank you' in Finnish) and take the letters as victory points.
If you don't have the next letter, then you can play a new letter to change the active word. However, the new word cannot be completed on the turn it was changed. This means that you cannot play the last letter of a word and change the word on the same turn.

Scoring Piles:

If a player cannot continue a word or make a new word with the existing letters, they will take the letters as negative points in a face-down pile. If any player completes the active word then the player that created the active word will score those letters into a face-up scoring pile worth one or two points depending on what side the scoring rule card is faced.

When a word is completed the player who announced the word will also flip one rule card to the other side and place the lock token on that rule. The lock token indicates that this rule cannot be flipped over again until another rule has the lock token.

End of Round:

Once a word is scored, each player will redraw their hand to eight cards. If any player cannot refill their hand the round will end and each player will score their face-up (positive points) and face down (negative points) piles. Once this is done, write everyone's score and begin again. Once the third round is complete, whoever has the most words is the greatest wordsmith.

Who is this for:

This is the most unique word game I have played recently as 'Kiitos' has a unique trick-taking mechanic that also adds bluffing elements. It creates a hot potato feeling as you don't want to finish another players word but do want to force players into finishing your words. This is a great unique and compact word game that I would recommend to anyone that grew up on scrabble or classic trick-taking games.

Click...feed the addiction: 

Ludogix
Kiitos on BGG
Kiitos on Kickstarter
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