Glom Word Game Overview
Last year we had our 20th high school reunion. Wow, that makes me feel like I’m getting old, even though I don’t feel old. I wasn’t able to attend the get-together, so missed out on seeing some of the people who I have lost contact with through the years, and lost the opportunity to see those who I went to high school with. Those were some good times, but also some terrible times.
This year, some of my high school friends decided to organize a “guys trip”. This included mountain biking, golfing, go-cart racing, and of course I organized many board games to play. One of the games, Glom by Indie Boards & Cards, was geared toward adults. This was a welcome change since I usually play games with my children.
Cards are the primary game component for Glom, but really, they’re just used to set the stage. After that, it shifts to being a word game. You and your brain to write down one sentence that complies with the rules. It also has elements which match the way you are scored. When setting up the game, there shuffle the three decks and place out on the table. One of each card is revealed at the beginning of each round.
One card is the phrase card which you will need to reword without using the same words. If the card said “Go to bed”, then you could reword is as “Take a nap” or “Lay down to sleep”. All of these phrases essentially means the same thing. It’s not as easy as it sounds since even small words like “a”, “to”, “and” cannot be re-used if on that card.
The second card establishes some type of rule as to how you write your new phrase. The rule might be ‘No words may contain a letter “A”’. Continuing from example above, you cannot use “take a nap” or “lay down to sleep” because those words contain the letter “a”. Keep brainstorming for another phrase that fits the bill. The best I can think of is “be in bed to sleep”.
The last card is the goal card and the basis for how you gain points. This card might say “Most of the same letter”, which could be good if you use the phrase, “be in bed to sleep”. You can also try to add some more “E’s”. I would try to think of words that have more of the letter “e”, but don’t contain an “a”. “Be in bed to sleep before sheep be jumping”. would score me nine points.
Without regurgitating all the details, I can sum it up with this: The game was a blast with lots of laughing, and a lot of confused phrases. It takes a while to figure out exactly how to use words to repeat the phrase while also obeying the rule, and then trying to score the most points. Some phrases just didn’t make sense and so we would laugh with that person. But then some were so good that we couldn’t believe how the person even thought of the phrase they did.
Glom looks and sounds like something for kids, but it is definitely an intellectual game of words. Players with a good vocabulary are likely to excel, but the quirky rules help level the playing field. Each player has their time to shine when sharing their new phrase, so it fun to highlight each and every player in the game. This was the perfect game to bring for our guys trip, and we were able to re-connect and laugh a whole bunch.
If you want the kids to join in, just remove the scoring element and see what kind of phrases they come up with. If there’s a place for Glom in your game plans, pick up a copy from Amazon or direct from Indie Boards & Cards. Looking for something other than a word game? Check out some other titles from this brand such as Kodama 3D strategy game, Crack the Code cooperative deduction game or Doctor Doctor dexterity game!
What types of games would you play with old high school friends?
