Alphabet Auction

by Allan Stagg 1999

Summary

The game is played over six rounds, by up to six players. Players bid for groups of letters, and at the end of each round they use these letters to form words that have been listed at the beginning of the game. Points are scored for each word completed, and bonuses are earned for words completed before the end of the game. The winner of the game is the player who, after six rounds, has scored the greatest number of points for words formed.

Start

The GM prints a list of between 10 and 26 words. The words should be between 3 and 8 letters in length, and each letter of the alphabet should appear at least once in the list. An example of such a list would be:

Aviemore, Bath, Cardiff, Dundee, Eton, Frimley, Glossop, Hull, Ilkley, Jarrow, Keele, Luton, Margate, Norwich, Oxford, Perth, Quainton, Rye, Stoke, Taunton, Uxbridge, Ventnor, Wigan, Exeter, York, Zetland

Bidding

b) Each round, the GM will print a number of groups of six letters. The number of groups should be 1 greater than the number of players, and the letters should be selected so that there is a reasonable spread of common and uncommon letters - one possible method would be to draw scrabble tiles. Example of groups would be

1. ADEHKS 2. BEILRX 3. CFOPQT 4. AGNSTU 5. EHJMOY 6. EINVWZ

Players will bid for these groups. Each player starts with £100 to bid with, and is given another £50 at the beginning of each subsequent turn.. Unsuccessful bids are returned to the player to be used next turn, together with the new £50. Tied bids will be awarded to the player with fewer victory points. If this does not produce a winner, the player with the smallest number of unplayed letters will win the bid. If this does not produce a winner (as may be the case in the first round) the group is held over to the next round. Only those players whose bids were tied may bid for this group.

If there are no bids for a group of letters, that group will be offered again in subsequent rounds.

Scoring

At the end of each round, a player will try to use the letters he has successfully bid for to form one or more of the words in the GM's list. At the start of the next turn he informs the GM of the words he wishes to form: these letters are then taken from his hand, and he is awarded victory points for the words he had formed. Each word has a value equal to the number of letters in the word. This value is multiplied by a number which varies with the round in which the word is claimed. Words claimed after the first round are multiplied by 10, the second round multiplies words by 9, the third round multiplies words by 8, the fourth round multiplies words by 7, the fifth round multiplies words by 6, and the last round multiplies words by 5.

Once a player claims a word, he cannot claim it again in a later round.

Trading

Players may agree to trade amongst themselves. Letters may be traded for other letters, or for money. Players only need to let the GM know that they wish to carry out the trade: the GM will accept any trades between two players if the orders of those two players give unambiguous details of the trade.

As an alternative, a player may at the beginning of a round order one of his letters to be put into 'the pot'. At the end of the round, the GM distributes all letters in the pot amongst the players who have placed letters in the pot in that turn. A player may get the same letter back, or he may get a different letter.