I wrote about this game already this week, but this time we’re diving into a review for it. First-Class Letters is one of the games that came to me from Gen Con. And one of three GameHead games that I’ve picked up. This is a roll and write word game. Something that there aren’t a ton of, but it’s really more of a word game than anything. Is it a good word game? Or does it fall into any of the pitfalls that others might, aka, pattern recognition or knowing long words? Join me as I review First-Class Letters.

How To Play First-Class Letters

First-Class Letters is a word game played over seven rounds. The goal is to create the words that score the most points while following a few rules that sound simple but aren’t always as easy to complete to maximize your score.

Before the Game

Before the game the three brown dice are rolled. And those are going to be letters that seed three spots on your sheet. When you fill in those spots, the words you play there must start with those letters. This matters, as well because you put them in alphabetically. Any word that you play that isn’t in alphabetical order is not going to score at the end of the game.

The Rounds

Each round is the same, and there are seven in the game. You roll all four dice this time. The red die is going to be a letter that you are not allowed to use in your word. You u se that letter and your word is going to score you no points.

The other three are letters that you want to use in your word. Every time you use one of those three letters you get a point. And if you use all three of them your total points are doubled for that word. So it is possible to use a letter multiple times, and if you do that, it will score you one point each time.

Once you write your word, the first person to do so flips the timer. That is how much time, about 40 seconds I believe, that players now have to get a word written. And it is time for the player who flipped it or any player to try and come up with a better word to replace the one you have.

End Game

So at the end of the game you simply tally up your points. But you also verify that each word is in alphabetical order. If it is not in alphabetical order you cross it out and you do not score points for that word. The player with the most points is the winner of the game.

What Doesn’t Work

This in some ways is still a word game. It is possible to do well enough by just writing shorter words. Especially if the letters are difficult to make a long word out of. But a good vocabulary is going to be very helpful in this game. I think that the timer does help, though to alleviate some of this. As long as that person isn’t getting that large word immediately. The pressure of the timer is going to keep them from just being able to sit there and figure it out.

What Works

The system of the game works really well. I like how there is a letter that you can’t use. I believe on that die it has A, E, I, O, Y, and S (or T I forget which). But it is a common letter for words. So that makes it trickier. Often a A or E would roll and now all I can think of is a word that has them. The letters on the other dice are a good mix of more and less common letters.

I also really like how the game puts pressure on you by locking in some letters you need to use. First-Class Letters is played over seven rounds, so the spots for rows 2, 4, and 6 are the ones seeded with a letter. And it is possible to seed it with N, R, and T. Those are good letters to have, but it makes it really narrow in there as to what letters you can fit between. So the alphabetical order is a good stretch for players as well.

The time is nice how they use it too. I like that it isn’t just a timer that runs and counts down. It is only when one player feels comfortable to flip it. Now this sometimes can be fast because I like the word I got. Another time I might not like that word, but if I flip it, because I wrote a word, it is going to put pressure on the other players. And I get time to come up with another word.

Who Is First-Class Letters For?

I think it’s for people who like a nice fast word game. A lot of the more common ones, Scrabble and Boggle, can take a while to play. First-Class Letters is a very fast game in how you play and it is a game that makes it feel more balanced as you play it than some of those do. So if you know someone who likes word games or you are that person, but it is hard to find other people to play with, this one might be a great option for that.

Final Thoughts and Grade – First-Class Letters

I like this game a lot. I enjoy a good word game. And I appreciate how simple the game is to learn and play. The instructions for the game just take a few minutes and everyone is easily able to jump in and play the game. Is it going to be a highly strategic game, no, but it even says on the box it is a party style game. So you know what you are getting into.

Now, that all said, while I really like the game, it is going to be one that probably hits the table only sometimes. Why, because it is a word game. While I think it’s more accessible, I play games at times with people are not native English speakers. So is that the right game for them, or who have different levels of comfort with spelling. But I think that kind of goes without saying for a lot of word style games.

My Grade: A-
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B+
Strategy (out of 10): 4
Luck (out of 10): 4

Just one last thought, this game obviously has luck depending on what is rolled. But it is not a lucky game. And there is a little bit of strategy as you fill in words and figure out where you place them. But for the most part, like most word games, it comes down to the words that you can spot/know from letters given. So it is much more player dependent than luck or strategy.

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