Boggle is an under-appreciated game. Big Boggle even more so. You may be asking, what is this strange word? You may be asking, has she finally gone totally batty? Well, maybe not. Maybe it’s a really well known game and the only reason I’m not aware of that is because there wasn’t one [not even one!] set of Boggle at The Black Squirrel, which is the Sarah Lawrence student-run cafe.
Boggle, in case you don’t know, is a pretty simple game. There are sixteen six-sided dice, and there’s a sort of box thing that has little openings the size of those dice. And then there’s a cover. You shake it around until the dice fall into place, and then you see only one side of each of the dice, and those are the letters you get to work with.
You then need to try to write down all the words you can find in that little box of letters in front of you.
That was probably one of the worst explenations of Boggle ever written, but what can I say? I don’t remember how the rule-book words it.
The point is, it’s a fun game. It’s a wordy game. It’s a game I’m really good at. Scrabble? I’m okay. Quiddler? Well, both my brother and Sir B. F. beat me every single time. They have strategies, you see. If you haven’t heard of Quiddler, I highly recommend looking into it.
But Boggle – that’s a game that plays to my strengths. I write fast, I remember that words like “pot” and “tin” and “teem” can all be written backwards and mean something else, so I always get two words when I see these.
It might be possible, ever so slightly, to tell that it’s 1:24AM and I don’t have much to write about. I spent a half hour today starting to write something that Anne Lamott recommends doing in her amazing book, Bird by Bird. Anyone who wants to read a book about writing that’s both honest and hilarious should read it.
So now, without further babbling, rambling, chatting or similar, I bid you, good fellows or fellowettes, good night.
Slightly Ignorant 
I love games like boggle and scrabble.
Yay! Kindred spirit :).
I love Boggle! For years it was my absolute favourite game. I’ll have to check out Quiddler; I’ve never heard of it.
I also love Balderdash. And Ghost. As far as word games go. And anagrams!
I’m not big on Scrabble. I don’t know why. I’m just not. Especially if people are keeping track of scores. (Scores are fine in other games.) I hate Monopoly (which has nothing to do with words, but is related through games). It’s a sadistic game. But I love trivia games.
RANDOM, I know. I don’t even have the excuse of it being late at night. =]
Wheee! Another Boggle fan! Quiddler is a word-card game and it’s amazing.
Balderdash and Ghost I’ve never heard of – I’ll look them up! And if you love anagrams… Have you heard of the game Bananagrams? It’s soooo fun.
Aw, Monopoly is fun in its own sadistic way, though :P.
The randomer [I know that’s not a word] the better! You know, unless you somehow start talking about conspiracies and how nobody actually landed on the moon :P.
Balderdash is a game where you get a weird (real) word and you have to make up your own definition and try to fool other people into picking your definition, while trying to pick the real definition yourself from amongst the fake definitions other people made up and the real one on the card. It’s great fun!
Ghost is what we called the game where you start off with any letter, then the other person picks another letter, and the object of the game is NOT to be the one to finish the word. The letters people pick have to be able to form a real word, though, so it couldn’t be, like, XRQKO. So if someone picked R, and the next person picked E, then you wouldn’t want to pick D, because you would have formed the word “RED.” I’m probably not explaining it properly. It’s pretty straightforward once you’ve done a trial run; good when you don’t have any other games but don’t want to play I-Spy. =]
I’ll have to check out Bananagrams! Thanks!
I always ended up crying during Monopoly games. Well, I did as a little kid, and I’ve tried to keep away since. XD I actually played my first full game of Monopoly . . . last year? And though I lost horribly, I didn’t leave the room in a huff, ha ha.
Yay Boggle! I love Boggle. I just played it with my cousin about a month ago.
It should be a sort of standard things that bookworms get in the mail, I think… You read books? Here’s a FREE Boggle set because we know you like words!
Games!! Oh goody…….I have never played boggle but like you, I think I’d be really good at it. I have a quick “work” mind that same way. I will have to check this game out. I think it would be fun to play with my 10 year old grandkids.
I’m not fond of scrabble. I mean, I like it. But like someone mentioned above, the scoring kills it for me. I’m not a very competitive person so when I play scrabble with someone, I just like to add the words together and see how many good words and a playable board we can bet but I play with people who will add “ax” for points and wreck the playing board!!! I hate that.
I have to admit, I like Monopoly. *shrugs* I just do. It brings back good memories of my brother and I being little and playing it over and over on a rainy weekend.
I also love Risk. You really have to think that out and I love the strategy of it.
This is a great post. Would you mind me using this idea on our blog? I love hearing about new games.
Have you heard of Scrabble Slap? It’s deck of cards with letters and you have to lay one card on one letter and change the word only using one card. I have it but haven’t played it yet.
Okay, okay, I love Monopoly too… Mostly because I have this set that my mom and aunt played when they were kids, and it’s all original and good quality, not like the cheap plastic things that are sold in games today, you know?
Sure you can use the idea on your blog! No problem 🙂
I’ll have to find this Scrabble Slap game – it sounds good!