Kiitos (2020)

About this game

Kiitos is a fast-tempo, card-based word game with novel, simple rules and deep, emergent game play. Can you make a word with the letters in your hand, and what letters that may or may not be in your opponents’? Players start by playing one letter of a word and saying a target word. Then subsequent players build up the target word, either playing the next letter if they can, or by changing the target word dynamically if it can’t be continued. Can your word be finished for positive points, or can you trap your opponent into not being able to play and force them to pick up the unfinished word for negative points? Can you outwit your player with cleverness? If your opponent finishes your word for you say “Kiitos”, the Finnish word for thank-you. The rules change dynamically as the game is played and the game play switches between two modes: Kiitos which builds up words from left to right, and Super-Kiitos which builds up words at either end. Dubious words can be challenged. Fake words are OK if you can get them past your opponent unchallenged. Kiitos edge-case tests the dictionary like no other game. It’s a word game that feels somewhat like a trick-taking game, with a bit of deduction and bluffing. Lateral thinking and clever strategising are rewarded, sometimes. Luck can make or break your strategies. The target word can change 5 or more times just in the one hand. —description from the designer

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 2 to 4.
• Rules load. At 1.7/5 this is a light game — explain it in a few minutes, good for a table that has not played much.
• Age. The publisher suggests 12 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.