Yell-A-Gram 2026

Goal: Be the fastest player to spot and shout a valid word using the pool of shared letter tiles. Win tiles by calling out the longest or alphabetically highest word. At the end of the game, the player with the most Winner tokens wins.

Components: • 72 Single Letter Tiles • 16 2-Letter Bigram Tiles • 10 “Won a Round” (Winner) Tokens

Setup: • Shuffle the tiles face down as the draw pile. • Place seven letter tiles face up between the players as the pool. • Everyone can see all letters at all times. • Decide how many rounds to play (three recommended). • Place the Winner tokens aside.

How to Play: 1. Everyone studies the same exposed letters. 2. When you see a valid word, shout it out! 3. That word becomes the current leading word. 4. Other players have five seconds to beat it with a word that is: longer, or same length but alphabetically higher. 5. When the five seconds expire, the best word wins. 6. The winning player collects the tiles used in their word. 7. Replace the used tiles with new ones from the pile. 8. Continue until all rounds are complete.

The Five Second Rule Examples After the first word is shouted, a virtual five second countdown begins. During those five seconds, anyone may shout a better word. Example 1: With these letters: F W S M N D A • First shout: FARM • Within five seconds: WANDS • WINDS wins because it is longer. If no one beats the first word within five seconds, the first caller wins the tiles. Example2: With these letters: N J I L O E E • First shout: EEL • Within five seconds: OIL • OIL wins because it is alphabetically higher.

Age Based Word Lengths: To keep the game fair for mixed ages: Age Group Minimums Kids (under 10): 3 letters, no time limit Teens (10–15): 4 letters, 10 seconds Adults (16+): 5 letters, five seconds. Players may shout any valid word, but only words meeting their age minimum count. In a family game, the youngest player always grabs their winning letters before an older player who made another word. The older player can only claim any remaining letters matching their word.

End of Round Scoring: • Each tile has a point value. • Add up the points on your tiles. • Highest total wins a "Winner" token. In case of a tie, both players will get a token. At the end of the round, start another round with all tiles face down.

Perfect Yell Bonus: Grab a Winner token when using all eight letters.

Winning: After all rounds have been played. the player with the most Winner tokens becomes the YELL A GRAM Champion. In case of a tie, play another round.

Valid Words: In this game, just about all words are valid including first names, places and countries. Acronyms are not valid.

—description from the designer