Welcome to Paperback!

Hey there! Have you ever dreamed of becoming a best-selling author? Well, get ready to make that dream a reality! Paperback is the perfect game for you, where you’ll get to experience the exciting life of an up-and-coming writer. It’s all about creating amazing words, scoring big points, and maybe even getting your books published!

Setting Up the Game

Now, let’s get started with the setup! First off, each player will receive a set of cards: K, T, R, S, L, and N. They’ll also get five 2c Fame cards. In the middle of the playing area, you’ll find four stacks of Fame cards, sorted by rank. Make sure those are ready to go! Next, shuffle the Common Cards and deal four of them to each player. The rest of the cards should be placed face-up next to the Offer, which is located at the beginning of the length track. It’s important that the length track remains hidden until it’s time to reveal it.

The Letter cards are divided into different price groups: 104, 94, and 84. We combine these piles to make one big pile. For your first game, it’s best to leave out the attack cards. It’s important to get comfortable with the game before using them. You’ll place the Letter decks in the middle of the playing area, face up. Then, take the top card and put it at the bottom of the stack.

Now, we’re ready to start the game!

GAMEPLAY

To begin, each player will draw five cards for their starting hand. The first player will be the one who finished reading a book most recently. After that, the game will continue in a clockwise order. On your turn, you’ll do seven things: create a word, check the length, resolve, score your word, purchase cards, discard cards, and draw new ones.

When I start my turn, I get to pick a word from the letters I have in my hand. I have these cards in front of me, and I can use the wild cards to stand for any letter. Once I decide on a word, I count how many letters it has. If the word is as long or longer than the highest number on the length track, I get to take the Common Card.

Now, here’s the cool part: if any of the cards in my word have special abilities, they kick in and do their thing. I add up the scores from all the letters in my word, and if I got the Common Card, I include that score too. Some cards even give me bonus points, so I add those in as well. Based on my score, I can use it to buy cards from the Offer. I can buy as many as I want, but the price can’t be higher than my score.

In a game, all my cards go to the discard pile, and then I get to draw five new cards for my next turn. When I run out of cards, I can shuffle my discard pile to create a new draw pile with the cards I’ve collected. The game keeps going until we run out of Common Cards or both Fame piles are empty.

GAME OVER

The game ends when either one of the Fame piles is empty or there are no more Common cards to draw. When I take the last Common card, I finish my turn, and the game is over. Then we count up our Fame points from the cards in our decks. Whoever has the most Fame points wins the game!

Hi, I’m Ellie! I live in Northeast Tennessee and I’m a fan of all kinds of animals, fantasy books, and outdoor adventures. I have an amazing husband who loves me almost as much as our two furry babies. It’s great to be a part of this awesome community!