Game Daze Park Place Mall Employee Recommendation, November 2011

Janae -

Unspeakable Words is a word game combined with the well known Cthulhu theme. The goal is to reach 100 points first, or be the last one standing.

Game play is surprisingly simple for a Cthulhu game. Each player gets 5 Sanity tokens, and a 7 card hand. Cards have a letter and a point value on them. On their turn players spell a word using their cards. Words that have already been spelled cannot be repeated. Then, players must pass the well known Sanity Test that is usually present, one way or another, in Cthulhu games. Players add up their points from the word they spelled, and must roll a 20 sided die. If they meet or exceed their point value, they are safe, and keep the points from their word. However, if it is lower, players lose a Sanity token. Players who fail a Sanity Test do get to keep their points, unless that word would have won them the game. Instead of spelling a word, players may also discard their entire hand, and draw another 7. Also, if there is only one player left with a Sanity token, they win.

The strategy is all about what kind of words to play. Low value words will likely keep you from losing Sanity, but it will take longer to reach 100. Larger values get you to 100 quicker, but you could lose Sanity just as quickly. It all depends on the luck of rolling a die.

Unspeakable Words also provides 4 optional rules. 1) Players can spell gibberish words if they have only 1 Sanity token left. 2) If a player discards their hand, the others can look through the discarded cards to try and form a word. If they do form a word, the others can force the player to spell that word and score like normal instead of discarding. 3) If players discard their hand, they may roll against the value of the hand. If they roll higher, they regain a Sanity token, but may not exceed having a total of 5. 4) If one player reaches 100 points, all players get one more turn to try and beat that players score. Highest score wins. These optional rules add some fun variety to the game.

Overall, Unspeakable Words is a fun addition to the world of Cthulhu based games.

Game Daze Tucson Mall Manager Review, May 2009

Ron-

In Unspeakable Words, you research and spell words "man was not meant to spell." To do such a thing can bring insanity, but luckily you have totems to the mighty Cthulhu to protect you from falling into lunacy! The first person to score a total of 100 points without going insane wins.

Out of a hand of seven cards, players take turns spelling words and scoring points like many similar card games, but there are two great twists to this game: 1) letters' point values are calculated by the number of angles in the letter (so a "Z" is worth two points, while an "A" is worth five points), and 2) whenever you spell a word, you must see if it drives you insane! How do you do this?

Say I spell "game," that's two points for the "G," five points for the "A," three points for the "M," and four points for the "E." That's a total of 14 points. A great word! But now I must find out if this word cost me a piece of my sanity, so I roll a 20-sided die (that's a "d20" for hobby gamers or a dodecahedron for latin enthusiasts) and compare my score to the die roll. If I roll equal to or greater than my score for the word, great! If I fail the sanity check by rolling less, I still get the points, but I risk losing my mind. Fortuitously, I have in my possession (as does everyone in the game) five totems to Cthulhu, which are represented by these cute, stubby, plastic Cthulhu Pawns, and I can spend one to stave off the insanity. If I use my last pawn, I fall into gibbering lunacy and am out of the game, left fit only for Arkham Asylum.

The game is a lot of fun to play. It's great for people with mixed vocabulary levels, since typical, Scrabble-style, high-scoring words won't get you any farther than plain, old, common words like "game."

Unspeakable Words is for two to six players, ages 10 and up.