The Silver Bayonet may have taken over here at OTT as part of The Silver Bayonet Week, but I have recently picked up a card game by Osprey that bought lots of laughing, smiles and fun to the tabletop, bringing a new word game to my party-game essentials.

Alike me, you may enjoy the odd riddle. Some wordplay here and there, and take pleasure in pun-derful jokes that end in a facepalm from your audience. As somebody who loves a brain teaser, a cheeky bit of Scrabble and anagrams with or without a Happy Salmon, when I find a board or card game that can put my internal word-bank to the test: it’s go-time.

This year, Osprey Games released a card-based party game title, that requires creativity in wordplay when creating proposed words with inked cards, giving others an inkling of what word they are attempting to spell.

Inkling // John Keyworth &  Osprey Games

In Inkling, 3-6 Players will have a series of words provided to them for them to attempt to spell out on the table. To spell these cards they will need certain letters to encourage other players to guess the unspoken message. As you can imagine, drawing the letter that you need is not exactly going to be easy: forcing players to get creative with their ink-splodged cards.

Player Word Lists // Inkling

Each word provided is worth x amount of points. There are some easier ones with four letters, and harder ones with many. Players will need to arrange their cards into a pattern on the table in an attempt to spell out as many words as possible to rack up points if guessed correctly.

When I say “get creative” I do not mean just arranging letters to form particular words, there is another layer! Players can twist, turn and cover their cards to achieve their desired letter if it will help spell their keyword. An N can be turned into a Z, a P into a D - you can even cover up parts of cards turning a W into a V or an L into an I. If players can visually spell the word to enhance the chance of guessing - all that is stopping them is their own imagination. Meaning you could be as terrible at spelling as you want, as long as you can display the word that makes sense - the points are yours.

Player Example // Inkling

The game plays over three rounds, and can take roughly 15-20 minutes from start to finish. The more players in the game, the more fun and competitive it can get.

Some people love their tabletop experience full of numbers. Equating damage combined with fundamental tools such as dice. As much as I love the roll of the dice and incorporating numbers onto my tabletop experiences, quick stints into board and card games that explore words are right up my street.

If you are looking for a fun party game over Christmas that encourages teamwork and ambition for words, be sure to check out Inkling by Osprey Games.

Would you consider yourself getting more enjoyability out of Maths driven games or Word-driven games on the tabletop?