How to play “The longest word”
Set up
Players
Between 2 and 10 players, from 7 years old. Got more than 5 players? Pair up for extra fun!
What you need to play
All you need is a set of letter dice, a stopwatch, and pen and paper for each player — easy!
👉🏻 Don’t have letter dice? You’ll find a buying guide further down.
Set the time limit for each round
You should agree on how much time each player will have to create their words. We recommend 1 minute.
Deciding the number of rounds
We recommend starting with a 5-round game.
Goal of the game
What do you need to do to win?
Create the longest possible word from the letters obtained after rolling the dice.
“The longest word” rules: playing a game
Rolling dice and thinking of a word
Roll the dice, start the timer — and go! All players, at the same time, try to create the longest word they can think of with the letters they have come up with and write it on a piece of paper.
Round winner
Whoever builds the longest word wins the round and writes down their score.
In case of a tie in the number of letters, the one with the highest score wins (in the letter dice, each face is associated with a score according to the letter), and only they will score the points.
Rule 1 – About vowels
If a single vowel or no vowel is rolled, the dice can be rolled again to change the letters.
Rule 2 – About valid words
No names, no weird verb forms, no foreign words, no abbreviations — and absolutely no made-up nonsense!
Rule 3 – About a possible wildcard
Some packs of letter dice have a die with a joker on one side. The joker can be used as any letter but does not add points. If it has been used to join two words in both words, it must symbolize the same letter.
Rule 4 – No external aids
During a turn it is not possible to consult anywhere whether a word is valid or not.
Game over – And the winner is…
End of game
The game ends when the rounds agreed upon before the start of the game have been played.
And the winner is…
At that time, the points obtained in each round are added up. The player with the most points is the winner.
Variants of “Crossdice”
In pairs
If you play in pairs, both components can speak and actively participate in the creation of the words during their turn.
Final by time
Instead of playing 4 rounds you can set a time limit, for example one hour, always ending the current round when the time expires.
Final by number of points
In this variant the game ends when a player reaches a certain number of points, for example 100 points, always ending the current round.
Buying guide
You’ll find letter dice in specialist board game stores, although the best price and the best deals are usually on Amazon.
Games similar to Crossdice
With the letter dice you can play other games such as Crossdice and The Fastest Word, for us the most fun and dynamic of them all.
