Ruckus

Ruckus is the colorful, riveting, brisk, exuberant, free-for-all word game! Players play simultaneously to make the highest value interlocked words that they can, grabbing all the letters they want before another player gets them.

Ruckus is unlike any game you’ve ever seen before, but you can learn to play it in minutes! Start by dumping all the letters into the middle of your table.

Each player grabs a letter to start.

The youngest player says “Go!” and everybody starts grabbing letters, one at a time, and starts connecting them like jigsaw puzzle pieces to add to their cluster of letters. Every letter added must make at least one new word, which must be able to be read through connected letters in order. The orientation of letters doesn’t matter, and short words are ok.

In this example, an E is added to the W from above to make WE or EW

Next, an N is added to make NEW

Then a T is added to make WENT

An R is added to make RENT

An A is added, making ARE and ERA

A P is added, making PER, REP, PEW, PEN, and PENT

Finally, an O is added, making OPE, OPEN, REPO, and OPERA

It’s worth noting some missed words. The letters aren’t in the right order to make NOPE, NEAR, and NEWT. The R is not connected to the W or N, so WREN can’t be made. The Latin word AREPO is also not allowed.

Players score points in two ways. First, they get points for all letters they use, with letters valued in rainbow order — red letters are worth 1 point, while violet letters are worth 5 points. Second, players score points for the longest word they are able to make. The example above scores 19 points for the letters plus 5 bonus points for the longest word, OPERA.

The two scoring objectives means that players can’t just play words as fast as they can. Players have to play and think fast, to strategize about the best letters and words to play, and get to those letters before their opponents get them first.

You can also play collaboratively, working with other players to construct a single cluster of interconnected words before the timer runs out, with the goal of making high scoring words and using all the letters. Solitaire is played the same way.

© Copyright 2023 Almanaq LLC

All Rights Reserved

Ruckus, the distinctive design and artwork of the Ruckus game, and the unique gameplay of the Ruckus game are trademarks of Almanaq LLC.