Crosscheck (board game)

Components

The game consists of a several clue books — some for adults, some for children — a grease pencil, a ten-sided die, and a large diamond-shaped board marked with a blank crossword puzzle grid. Some of the squares on the board are colored, blocking them from being used. In the middle of the board is a large square bounded by four colored Starting Bars. Four Home Bases occupy the corners of the board.^[1]

Set up

The players must first decide

• Which dictionary will serve as the spelling and vocabulary authority.
• Which of the clue books to use.
• Which victory conditions to use: "Time Limit" (players must choose how long the game will last); "Points Limit" (players must choose how many points are needed to win); or Home Base Game.
• Each player chooses a Home Base, which is the same color as the player's starting bar.

Gameplay

The object of the game is to link words together in a chain that stretches from a player's Start Bar to the Home Base.^[1]

The first player rolls the die.

• A roll of 1 allows the player to place a block anywhere on the board,. The player also earns 1 point.^[1]
• A roll of 2 gives the player a free letter. The player chooses whichever letter is the most useful and places it anywhere on the board adjacent to a word. The letter must form a word, or modify an existing word to form a new word. The player earns 2 points.^[1]
• A roll of 3 to 10 determines the number of letters that the player's answer must be. The player then must answer one of the short crossword clues from the clue book. The player's answer must match the answer given in the clue book, or must be a synonym of the answer.^[1]

For example, the player has rolled a 6 (a six-letter word) and is given the clue "Slower than a gallop." The cluebook identifies the correct answer as "canter". If the player gets this answer, then the player can write "canter" on the board, forwards or backwards, but starting on the player's Start Bar. If the player replies with a synonym of "canter" that is also six letters in length such as "barrel", "hustle" or "scurry" — and the other players agree that it is a synonym — then the player can add that word to the board instead.

Answering a clue successfully earns the player 5 points plus a point for each letter in the answer. ("Canter" would earn 5 + 6 = 11 points). On subsequent turns, the player can write answers anywhere on the board and may connect their words to other players' words.^[1]

If any letters from an answer are adjacent to another word, then like Scrabble, all adjacent letters must form words. Example The player must add "LITTLE" to the board:

     T
ANSWER 
LITTLE 
L    E

This is incorrect play, since "NI", "WT", etc., are not words.

     T
ANSWER
L    E
LITTLE

This is correct play.

The first player to connect their Starting Bar to the Home Base with an unbroken string of words earns 100 points.^[1]

Victory conditions

• Time Limit: The player with the most points at the end of the chosen time limit is the winner.
• Points Limit: The first player to reach the chosen point level is the winner
• Home Base Game: This game does not use points. The first player to connect an unbroken string of words from their Start Bar to their Home Base is the winner.