cross4

Game Design: Amabel Holland
Hex Number: 90
Duration: 30 minutes
Players: 1-4
MSRP: $25.00

Amabel Holland's throwback to the classic crossword dice games of the twentieth century, cross4 is the first of the genre to task you with building a crossword grid over consecutive rolls. The game comes with six different laminated grids and four dry-erase markers, and there are four ways to play.

Solo: A single player continues rolling and writing until they make a "blunder" - until they're unable to place a legal new word. Then, you score. It's a challenging solo mode because each new word added also limits your choices for the future.

Duel: Two players swap grids after placing the word for each roll, trying to set traps for each other. The first one to blunder loses.

Elimination: Three or four players each work on their own grid -- until a wild is rolled, necessitating that the grids pass clockwise. Players who make mistakes are eliminated. The last player standing is the winner.

Heads-Down: Three or four players play until one player makes a blunder. Then, all other players score, and the high score wins.

• (7) custom letter dice
• (6) crossword grids
• (4) dry-erase markers