Re-usable letters?

[pat]

Please don't post your solutions here.

Alan, will the rule regarding plurals be the same as for Chi?

[pat]

Apart from that, the only slight problem at the moment is knowing if a word is common or not.

Why is that a problem, Mike? Surely it’s no different from playing Chi in that respect. And just like in Chi, the only way to find out if an obscure word is playable or not is to play it. Am I missing something?

[Hobbit]

(I wonder if the three-trophies-every-day-brigade are busily writing programs so that they can instantly get a trophy in the new game  )

Is that what they do Pat?  I never realised   Not much fun in that! Where's the challenge?
Loving the new game.
Pen

[pat]

I don’t know if that’s precisely what they do, Pen, but they certainly don’t play the game in the same way as the rest of us. I must say I’ve never understood what they get out of it.

[Hobbit]

You're absolutely right Pat.  The only thing I can think of is that they want to get the fastest rosettes & be quickest to the top of the leader board.  When I occasionally get a rosette I am so chuffed!  Love the game & the Forum.
Pen

[yelnats]

I hadn't seen any action in this thread until this morning and then there were 10 replies and wondered how I had missed them all but then saw they are all since 9pm last night. Early to bed, early to rise...

The word using all the letters jumped out at me, but haven't sat down (or even got up) to see how many I can get.

My only worry is that as I am addicted, it would take up more time and my preference would be that it was substituted for maybe standard rather than an additional puzzle. I also do the 9 letter from the Age every day in "Your Puzzles", "competing" with my wife.

(I wonder if the three-trophies-every-day-brigade are busily writing programs so that they can instantly get a trophy in the new game  Demon)

Maybe it's a time-saving ploy of those who get the rosette etc., and race up the list so quickly. All done in 5 minutes without coming back to the unfound 9/10 letter or need to ponder to get to or past Best.

7am, time to get up.

[mkenuk]

Apart from that, the only slight problem at the moment is knowing if a word is common or not.

Why is that a problem, Mike? Surely it’s no different from playing Chi in that respect. And just like in Chi, the only way to find out if an obscure word is playable or not is to play it. Am I missing something?

Sorry, maybe I'm the one who is missing something.

My task at the moment is to find 24 common words of 5 letters or more using the letters BEHILOR.

Now, the word boohoo is playable, but how do I know if it's one of the 24 common words or not?
It's not a word that is likely ever to appear in a 'real' Chi game (a game with 4 'O's would be very unusual) but that doesn't preclude it from being classed as common, or alternatively rejected, perhaps on the grounds that it should be hyphenated.
How can I check?

(If it is allowed, I'm currently 5 short of the target, by the way)

Also, since we are playing this particular game as 'guinea-pigs' I don't think it matters too much if I give away a couple of spoilers.

[Alan W]

MK, I think you've become a bit spoiled thanks to playing Chi all these years. When someone plays a Target Words type puzzle in a newspaper, it's quite likely that some of the words they come up with won't be listed in the solution the next day, despite being in the dictionary. All you can do is write down all the words you can think of and wait and see.

But since we are just in experimental mode, as you note, I'll inform you that boohoo and hellebore are both counted as common words, as is boiler of course, but reboil is not.

This puzzle type will have words in its solution that have never come up in Chihuahua, opening up a whole new province for common/rare disputation! Also, some puzzles of this type will have words longer than 10 letters, so I've extended the word list to include longer words. These longer words have been classed as common or rare by a quick and dirty method, so quite a few of these could be debatable too.

I'll post the full solution here tomorrow.

Pat, I might evade the plurals issue to begin with by excluding any puzzle with an S. There are still thousands of different possible puzzles. If I do ever allow the letter S to be part of it, I imagine I would keep to the same rule as in Chi, and for the same reason - to avoid tedious repetition.

[Alan W]

I was wondering if 7 is the ideal number of letters. Here is one for you to try, if you wish, with 6 letters and where words of 4 or more letters are allowed.

The letters are ACENPR and C is the mandatory letter. 37 common words of 4 or more letters can be made. Three of these words use all 6 letters.

Let me know what you think.

[mkenuk]

My first reaction: the second game (only 6 letters, 4-letter words allowed) was much easier than the first game.

Depending on whether crapper and carapace are common, I may have made the target in just under 12 minutes.

The first game (7 letters, words of 5 letters and above) took me a lot longer, and in fact it wasn't until  your declaring  hellebore to be common that I got to the target of 24.

[Alan W]

The answer to the BEHILOR puzzle.

Common words:

BEERIER
BELIE
BELLE
BERIBERI
BIBLE
BOBBLE
BOILER
BOLERO
BOOBOO
BOOHOO
BOREHOLE
BORER
BRIBE
BRILL
BROIL
BROILER
HELLEBORE
HOBBLE
HORRIBLE *
LIBBER
LIBEL
LIBELLER
REBEL
ROBBER

* uses all 7 letters

Rare words:

BEEBEE
BELEE
BELIER
BEROB
BIBBER
BILBO
BILLER
BILLIBI
BILLIE
BIRLE
BIRLER
BLOOIE
BLORE
BOBBER
BOBBLIER
BOOBIE
BOOER
BOREE
BOREL
BORREL
BORRELL
BREER
BRERE
BRIBEE
BRIBER
BRIER
BRIERIER
BRILLER
BRILLO
BROOL
HERBIER
HOBBER
HOBBLER
LIBELEE
LIBELER
LIBELLEE
LIBER
LIBERO
LIBRI
LOBBER
LOBOLO
LOOBIER
OBELI
OBOLE
OBOLI
ORBIER
ORIBI
REBBE
REBELLER
REBILL
REBOIL
REBORE
RIBBER
RIBBIER
RIBIBE
RIBIBLE
RIBIER
ROBER
ROBLE

[Alan W]

Here is the solution to the 6-letter ACENPR puzzle. I'm giving only the common words, with the three words using all 6 letters marked with an asterisk.

The question I'm interested in is how this variant of the puzzle compares with the 7-letter version. I tend to agree with MK that it's less challenging. Does anyone else have a view?

ACNE
ACRE
APACE
APPEARANCE *
ARCANE
CANAPE
CANCAN
CANCER
CANE
CAPE
CAPER
CARAPACE
CARE
CAREEN
CAREER
CARER
CARP
CRANE
CRAP
CRAPE
CRAPPER
CREEP
CREEPER
CREPE
NACRE
PACE
PACER
PANACEA
PEACE
PECAN
PENANCE
PENCE
PRANCE *
RACE
RACER
REAPPEARANCE *
RECAP

[Alan W]

If I should go ahead with making a puzzle of this type, the really big question is, what to call it?

A descriptive name would be helpful, but I can't come up with a snappy name conveying the concept of a word puzzle based on 7 reusable letters.

Following a similar line of thought to that which led to Chihuahua, a possible name is Hexagram. I came up with Chihuahua when I saw that there was a possible nine-letter puzzle where only one word could be made - CHIHUAHUA. There are a few puzzles of 7 reusable letters that have only one (common word) solution, but AEGHMRX, with X mandatory, caught my eye, because one meaning of HEXAGRAM, a 6-pointed star, suggests a visual design for the puzzle. The mandatory letter could be in the middle of a hexagram, with the other 6 letters on the points of the star. Possible disadvantages of the name Hexagram - it seems a bit mathematical and nerdish, which might put some people off, while to some people it might bring to mind the I Ching, leading to expectations of prophecy rather than puzzling.

Another possible name would be Chickadee. Like Chihuahua and Chinchilla, it's a cute little creature. It has 7 different letters, so it would be part of the solution of an ACDEHIK puzzle. However, it wouldn't be the only solution word using all 7 of the letters - there would also be the less endearing DICKHEAD.

[pat]

Chickadee sounds good to me. Keep going with the alliteration.

[TRex]

Another possible name would be Chickadee. Like Chihuahua and Chinchilla, it's a cute little creature.

Sorry, but I have to disagree. Except for the Long-Coat Chihuahua, they look like oversized rats and, pound-for-pound, are the nastiest dog I've ever encountered. And I've found many people who agree with that assessment. If they were larger and could bite above the ankle, they'd be outlawed in many places.