Ages 7 and Up Up to 8 Players Tri-Virsity® Instructions... RULES OF THE GAME EQUIPMENT: 132 playing cards in three different colorful suits (WINDING RED, WAVEY GREEN, and CURVY ORANGE) lettered A through Z with point values of five, ten and fifteen, with wild cards valued at twenty points and tri-colored wild cards valued at twenty-five points. Before beginning play combine all cards from both decks (132 cards total) and shuffle thoroughly. OBJECT OF THE GAME: To spell words of three letters or more within the same suit while compiling the maximum amount of points. EXAMPLE OF PLAY: Ten cards are dealt clockwise from the dealer to each player. The remaining cards become the "draw" pile and are placed face down in the center of the table. The top card is turned over and placed face up to become the "discard" pile. Play begins with the player to the left of the dealer drawing the top card from the pile of his choice. A card taken from either pile does not have to be used at that time. The player then attempts to arrange the cards in his hand to form words of three or more letters of the same suit. Note: The wild card may be used as any letter but must be used in the same suit. The tri-colored wild card may be used as any letter in any suit. Once a word(s) has been formed, the player has the option of placing it on the table during his turn or holding it in his hand until he can go out all at once. The cards should be placed vertically in front of the player so all may read the word. If the word(s) is placed on the table, the other players during their turns are able to build on that word keeping their additional letters in front of them and scoring only those letters, not the entire word. For example, RE can be added to PLAY to form REPLAY, or one could add ING to form PLAYING, but the player who added RE would score only 10 points, the combined point value for R and E. Similarly, the player adding ING would score only 15 points for his addition. Note: A word placed on the table may only be changed by adding to the first or last letter, the original word order cannot be rearranged. In order to stop other players from playing on his words, a player may choose to hold them in his hand. This strategy is effective, but may prove to be a disadvantage because if another player goes out while one is holding all of his cards, he will lose points. A player completes his turn by discarding a card on the "discard" pile and play progresses until a player has played all ten cards and discards a throw down card. The first player to go out with a discard and announces Tri-Virsity, receives an extra ten points. If a player does not want to discard because he needs the card drawn to complete the spelling of the last word, he will keep the word in his hand and announce that he has no discard. Play then continues one full turn at which time he will draw a card, lay down his final word, and discard completing his hand. The announcement of no discard allows the other players time to lay down words in their own hands, discard high point values, or to go out themselves. If a player is able to lay down his hand and discard, the hand ends at that point and only that player receives 10 extra points for going out. When a hand ends, the points are added by subtracting the total amount of points in one's hand from the total amount of points played on the table. The total is then added or subtracted from the score sheet. A standard point count to achieve in one game is 500 points, however this can be varied by the players before the game begins. REMAINDER OF THE RULES: • Proper names and abbreviations are not allowed. • A discarded card may be claimed by any player if it can be used to play on an existing word. It must be claimed before the next player draws a card and must be played immediately. • Challenge - After a word is spelled, any player may contest the spelling or meaning by stating his challenge before the next player starts his turn. The person spelling the word must know the SPELLING and DEFINITION. If the spelling is wrong, it is placed back into the players hand, twenty-five points are deducted from his score, and play continues with his discard. If the spelling is correct, but the definition is wrong, the above rule applies, but the player may play the word on his next turn since he will then know the correct meaning. If the spelling and definition are both correct, the Challenger loses twenty-five points from his score and play continues with the discard. Challenges will be decided with a dictionary. • A player scores double points if he can go out and all the cards he played are of the same suit. Wild cards may be used. GAME VARIATIONS: • The game may be made more difficult by spelling words of four or more letters with a hand of twelve cards, or five or more letters with a hand of fifteen cards, or made simpler for children by allowing words of two letters or more with either a six, eight or ten card hand. • Complexity may also be increased by including foreign words or by limiting words spelled to a certain description, such as words describing objects found in a house, articles of clothing, sight words etc. Also try the game with some of the wild cards removed. • Team play may be used by team-mates sitting across from each other and combining their points. • Spell TRI-VIRSITY(TRI in one suit and VIRSITY in another suit) and receive 500 points. • Keep the playing field level! Deal experienced players 10 cards and have them spell words of three letters or more. Deal beginners 8 cards and allow them to spell two letter words or more. Note: This can be varied any way you like. PLAYING ALONE OBJECT OF THE GAME: A player attempts to spell words of three or more letters before solitaire completes two suits of five letters. Solitaire does not need to spell words. EXAMPLE OF PLAY: A player deals ten cards to himself and places ten cards face up for solitaire. Solitaire cards are arranged by suit. If a tri-color wild card comes up while dealing or playing the solitaire hand, it is placed on the bottom of the deck and another card is drawn. The hand begins as the player draws a card from the draw pile or the discard pile. The same rules of standard Tri-Virsity® apply. The player discards to complete his turn and solitaire begins by drawing from the draw pile. Solitaire does not draw from the discard pile. Solitaire attempts to complete two suits of five cards each. If solitaire hand has more than five cards of any suit, the additional cards must be discarded until the suit is down to five cards at which time that suit is "frozen". If solitaire is dealt three suits and no suit has more than five cards, the discard must come from the suit of least cards in an attempt to build the other two. Play continues until the player spells words and goes out or the solitaire hand builds its two five card suits. STATISTICS: Total number of cards per game: 132 Three suits: WINDING RED(41 cards), WAVEY GREEN(41 cards), CURVY ORANGE(41 cards) Wild Cards(9 total): WINDING RED(2 cards), WAVEY GREEN(2 cards), CURVY ORANGE(2 cards), tri-color(3 cards total) All three suits are identical. Letters and point values are as follows: Letter Point Value Per Suit Letter Point Value Per Suit A 1 5 3 N 5 B 3 10 1 O 5 C 1 10 1 P 10 D 1 5 2 Q 15 E 2 5 4 R 5 F 2 10 1 S 5 G 2 5 1 T 5 H 2 10 1 U 5 I 1 5 3 V 10 J 1 15 1 W 10 K 1 10 1 X 15 L 2 5 1 Y 5 M 1 10 1 Z 15 Wild Cards: Tri-Color 25 3 cards total WINDING RED 20 2 Combination of WINDING WAVEY GREEN 20 2 RED, WAVEY GREEN, and CURVEY ORANGE 20 2 CURVY ORANGE (good any suit) 1988-2004 © Gentertainment Inc. Gentertainment Inc. PO Box 9471 Cincinnati, Ohio 45209