Roger That

It’s 1918 and you are a part of an elite team of linguists and code-makers tasked with developing a standard phonetic alphabet to be used for all military radio communications. You’ll need to come up with a word for each letter of the alphabet and you’ll need to do it fast so we can get it to our boys on the front lines. Lives hang in the balance, not to mention fame, glory and a nice promotion for the most productive member of the team.

Roger That is a game of words and codes. On your turn you'll be drawing letters that let you spell words, but this game is not about rewarding those with the biggest vocabulary. In fact, each Alphabet card has 30 words written on it that players may use if they wish. No, this game is about using every opportunity to complete words, balanced with finding the words that will bring the most value.

And what brings value? There are multiple ways you score points in Roger That. Each letter card in your completed words bring you points. But also, the starting letter of that word has a value on the code card, so the first person to complete a word with a given letter will score those (which you keep track of on the code card). Then, if you manage to have all the starting letters for one of the code words, you'll score more points. And at the end of the game you'll score points for each letter of the alphabet that you have words for.

Where is the strategy? Of course longer words will bring you more points. But taking turns drawing letters to make the perfect word may not be worth it because whoever is first to complete a word, even only 3 letters, will score the code points. So it would seem short words are the name of the game. Except players are allowed to steal words from one another provided they make a longer word. So, you must strike a balance between scoring quickly and not having all your words taken from you.