Six Tries — One word, six rows each, and the whole room is on the same one.

A five-letter word and six rows to find it, everybody in the room racing the same word on their own grid. 2 to 8 people, about 13 minutes.

Most of a table has already played something shaped like this on a phone over breakfast, so there is nothing to teach and no first round spent learning. It starts the second the word is dealt.

Nobody performs. There is no turn to wait for, nothing to say out loud and no camera to be good on — you type into your own grid — which makes it the one to reach for when half the call would rather not be in a party game at all.

The argument afterwards is the reason to play it together rather than alone. Everybody's grid goes up side by side, and somebody always found it in three by a route nobody else would have taken.

A round

The word is dealtSix rows eachSay when you are outEvery grid at once

On the sheet

+6Anyone who finds the word — on the first row

+5 … +1One less for every row it took — rows two to six

0Anyone who spends all six — and the word is still not there

0Anyone who says they are out — wherever the grid stopped

0Everybody — the room emptied before the word finished

Also on

Games for a team of six Games for eight people at once Games for two Games that are best with four Games that fit in fifteen minutes Word games for a team Games with a right answer

How to play Six Tries