A crossword board everybody plays into at the same time. Five private letters, one shared position, and the best word each round goes down. 1 to 8 people, about 10 minutes.
A crossword tile game is the last thing most people would put in a fifteen-minute break, and that is exactly the problem this one is built around. Everybody plays into the same board at the same time, so nobody is ever waiting for a turn and eight people take precisely as long as two. Six rounds of forty-five seconds is about five and a half minutes of play.
It is the gentlest game on the shelf for a mixed table. Words are three letters or more, the board is seven squares across, and the coloured squares are worth more than length is — so somebody who reliably finds four-letter words is competitive against somebody who does not, which is not true of word games that only reward vocabulary.
There is nothing to say out loud and nothing to read aloud, so it runs on a call with the room muted. It also runs on a phone: forty-nine squares is a thumb-sized target each, and a word is one tap and some typing rather than five drags.
A round
On the sheet
Also on