This game works pretty much the same way as the game show “Chain Reaction.” If you’ve never seen it, the idea is to figure out the words that complete the chain linking a series of seven words together. Each word is connected in some way to the word above it and below it. Here’s an example:

COMIC
BOOK
SHELF
LIFE
TIME
OUT
SIDE

So that’s: comic book, bookshelf, shelf life, lifetime, time out, and outside. Notice how the words can be a phrase or a compound word (this is not explained in the in-game instructions, so you may want to let your group know – if they know the difference, that is…).

At the start of the puzzle you will be give the first and last words (COMIC and SIDE) and an arrow will appear on the right side of the puzzle to let you know if you will be working down the chain or up it. The chain will always read from top to bottom, but if the arrow was pointing up, the first word you would have to find in the example above would be OUT. For questions 1, 3 and 5, the words are revealed going down and for questions 2 and 4, the words appear heading up (it makes more sense playing it than trying to read about it…).

So let’s say a down arrow appears. On the next mouse click, the first letter of the word below COMIC is revealed.

COMIC
B

The team whose turn it is attempts to guess the word. If they guess it incorrectly, no points are given and play moves to the next team. Another letter is added to the word.

COMIC
BO

This is obviously an easy one and a team would most likely get it right away. But let’s say it somehow made it to the fourth team and they hadn’t got it yet. Instead of giving them the last letter, the puzzle brings up a question mark.

COMIC BOO?

This lets the team know that we’ve reached the end of the word and there are no other letters to be revealed. If the team misses it, the next team can attempt to guess it.

If a team guesses a plural form of a word (like BOOKS), you can still give it to them. If they guess a different form of the word (like BOOKING), the answer would be wrong.

This is a hyper-linked game, so you can jump to the next word if someone guesses the current word before you have shown all of the letters. To do this, simply click the red circle at the end of the line the word is on. Clicking anywhere else on the screen will bring up the next letter in the current word. Clicking in the red circle will reveal the complete word and move you on to the next one.

When a puzzle is completed, you can read the entire chain (comic book, bookshelf, shelf life, etc) to show how it all fit together.

There are five puzzles each with five missing words, giving you 25 total answers for the game. There is a second set of five puzzles included so you have two separate versions of the game (Chain Letters A and Chain Letters B). The length of a game will vary with how well your group is doing at guessing the puzzles. If your group has taken too long to make it through the first two or three puzzles, you could always stop there and play the rest another time.

Scoring: One point for each correct answer. There’s a tiebreaker if any of the teams/individuals are tied after the last question.

Any questions or problems please email: service@pointmangames.com