"Tolstoy" by Sid Sackson (Excerpt from "Beyond Words")
Cleaning out some old office furniture, I stumbled across a cache of vintage game books I purchased from Dickson Street Books many years ago. Among the collection is this well-loved 1977 edition of Beyond Words by Sid Sackson, the legendary designer of Acquire and Can't Stop. This was the third in his series of "Beyond" game books, the first two being Beyond Tic Tac Toe and Beyond Solitaire . This book contains six word- and letter-based games named in honor of famous writers. The book presents short rules for each game, followed by perforated sheets that you were meant to pull out and play on with pencil or pen. Kind of a crossword or word jumble book you'd find in a supermarket checkout. The first of these games is titled "Tolstoy," which I share below. First, some historical notes if you've never read rules by Sackson. I've often considered Sackson's designs years ahead of his time, yet I still get tripped up by how he writes his rules. I...