Wibble
Overview
Players race to shout out words that use at least
one letter from each central card AND one letter
from each card in front of themselves. As the
game goes on and you collect more cards, it will
get harder and harder! Whoever collects the most
cards wins the game.
Setup
If playing with 2 players, use 23 random cards.
Put 25 random cards back into the box.
If playing with 3 players, remove 11 random cards.
With 4 or more players, use the entire deck.
Place the deck face-down between everyone. You
don’t need to shuffle, but go ahead if you enjoy the ceremony.
Start the Round
Flip 2 cards face-up.
Everyone races to shout a word containing at least
one letter from each card. Use any additional letters
you wish. The letters on the cards are NOT a restriction on
what you can use, but a requirement to be met.
The first player to do so takes either card (they
choose), places it face-up in front of themself, and
then flips another card to start the next turn.
In future turns, players need to shout out words
containing at least one letter from each of the 2
central cards AND every face-up card in front of
themselves.
[deck] [NZ] [IQ] [SG][SH]
Example: Micol has 2 cards in front of herself. She could
shout, “hints”, “mission” or “kissing”. “Sin” would be invalid.
Valid Words
You may not use any proper nouns. No names of
places, people or companies.
Also, you can’t shout words already used to take
cards this game, nor derivatives of those words.
E.g. If someone already used ‘explore’ to take a card, you
can’t say ‘exploring’ or ‘exploratory’. If you already said a
word but didn’t win a card with it, you can repeat the word.
Ending the Round
When someone takes their 3rd card of the round,
they take both cards from the centre. They choose
any one of their 4 cards to keep as a permanent
handicap!
Then, everyone flips their other cards face-down.
You no longer have to use those cards within your words.
NOTE: You need to win 3 cards within a single round to
end the round (and get a permanent handicap). Permanent
handicaps don’t count as one of the ‘3 cards won’. If the
same player wins a 2nd round, they take a 2nd permanent
handicap. Someone who keeps winning rounds will get more
and more permanent handicaps.
Permanent handicaps are never flipped face-
down, but still count as points at the end of the
game. If you keep your facedown cards side-ways, and
place your permanent handicaps on top, you can more easily
distinguish between permanent handicaps and cards you won
this round. See illustration above.
Start a new round
You then start a new round simply by flipping
over 2 new cards.
Play as before.
Ending/scoring the Game
Keep playing until the deck runs out. Whomever
wins the last turn of the game takes the final card.
If the round is reset when only 1 card is in the deck, the
round winner takes the final card.
Count all your cards - whoever has the most is the
winner! Count your face down cards as well as any perma-
nent handicaps. There can be multiple winners.
Congratulations are in order!
Precise rules on timing and other notes can be seen overleaf.
FAQs/CLARIFICATIONS
When multiple people shout a word:
Whoever FINISHES saying the word first takes
a card. If unsure who finished first, the shortest
word wins. If the words are the same length, the
first - alphabetically - wins. If the words are iden-
tical, put the 2 central cards underneath the deck,
shuffle the deck, and redeal.
If someone shouts something wrong:
If you make a mistake, you can no longer win the
current turn. If only one player is competing for a
card, they collect it automatically.
If many cards have the same letter:
If you want to use (e.g.) an ‘A’ on multiple cards,
the word needs to contain an ‘A’ for each card.
Can I shout something after someone else?
When someone else shouts, you can still shout, or
keep thinking if you’re not 100% sure that the oth-
er person’s word is ‘correct’. After you’ve shouted
your own word, you can check the earlier words.
Do I take a card straight away?
When you shout a word, double-check and wait
for someone else to agree that it’s valid before you
take your card.
How do we check a word?
If unsure, look it up online (perhaps you have a
smartphone?) on any agreed dictionary. David Brain
suggests Collin’s Dictionary if you’re speaking British English,
like wot we are. If you don’t have access to the internet, con-
sult a local dictionary. If there is no dictionary in your room,
just try to come to a consensus without killing each other.
OPTIONAL: PLAYER HANDICAPS
If someone consistently wins, start them with one
or even 2 permanent handicaps! These will NOT
count as points at the end of the game.
OPTIONAL: SIMPLE MODE
End each round when someone wins their 4th card
rather than the 3rd. Take the 5th card as a bonus
but do not keep it as a permanent handicap. This
will make the game generally faster as a whole.
For an even simpler game, end rounds as normal
(end when a 3rd card is taken, and the 4th card is taken as a
bonus) but do not use permanent handicaps.
AS A LEARNING AID
The game is very useful for helping expand the
vocabulary and recall of words. If teaching English
as a second language, maybe ask students to define
each word after shouting it. To make it more of a
shared learning activity and allow everyone more
opportunities to participate, perhaps the winner of
the previous turn cannot shout this turn.
CREDITS/HISTORY
Gil Hova made Prolix. I (Bez), inspired by that
game, designed this in January 2015. Originally,
getting to 5 cards won you the game. It was en-
joyed but was too short and unsatisfying.
I decided to just try playing multiple rounds until
the end of the deck. That worked well enough.
Permanent handicaps were then added, but were
originally just a variant.
Many helped playtest, including Rob Harris, Fabio
Lopiano, David Brain and Ben Neumann. Massive
thanks to everyone who helped out.
After the 1st edition deck was released, I observed
hundreds more games at conventions and wanted
to try ending after a 3rd card is taken, rather than
after the 4th card. Winning a round is now far
better, as you get a permanent handicap but have
won double the points! Each round’s difficulty
increases less, but the catchup element over the
entire game is greater.
These rules were blind-tested by Doruk, Ruth,
Hywel, Michele, Phil, Ding, and various others at
Waterloo. Phil made some wonderful suggestions
regarding layout.
These rules were proof-read by John Brieger,
Ayden Lowther, Michael Belsole, Chris Zlinski
and Rachael Mortimer.
MAYBE TRY...
Wobbell. A game created by James Davies, as a
‘sequel’ to Wibbell. Wobbell is more chaotic, as
you steal cards from other players, scrambling to
be the first to have 3 cards.
The rules for Wobbell (and many other games) are
available at: stuffbybez.com/wibbell/
Here’s an idea for a tournament: Play 2 games of Wibbell,
each followed by a game of Wobbell. Then serve jelly on a
plate as a prize for the winner.
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