Designed by: Matthew Thredgold
Kiitos is a word game where you are trying to finish a word – but other players may finish their word instead.
All the players are dealt a hand of 8 cards and the three Kiitos cards are placed green-side up in the middle of the table. These define the starting rules: a word must be at least four letters long, letters are added to the end of the word, and any cards you collect from winning a hand are worth 1 point each.
Play begins with the starting player announcing their target word – the one they hope to spell – and playing the first letter. For example, I say ‘Sheep’ and play the S.
If the next player has the next letter in their hand (the h in our example) they must play it, and then the turn moves on again, with the next player obliged to play the next letter in the word, if they have it. If they don’t have it, however, they can play a different letter and announce a new target word. So if you had no h for sheep, you could play an a instead and make the target word ‘Sale’.
Each round ends in one of two ways. If a target word is ever finished, the player who announced it keeps the cards as points (note however that you’re not permitted to announce a new target word and instantly complete it on the same turn) and everyone refreshes their hands back up to 8 cards. The other way is when no word is completed – either someone accepts they have no legal letter to play (for example there is SHEE on the table and my hand contains nothing that completes the word or changes the target) or someone has bluffed a word and is called on their bluff (EG you tried to bluff a V, giving the target word SHEEVES) . In either case, the player who could not or did not play legally now takes the cards – but as negative points.
When a round ends – as it often does – with negative points picked up, play continues after hands are replenished to 8 cards. But if anyone wins a round by having their target word completed, they must flip one of the green Kiitos cards to it’s other side, turning the four letter minimum to five, each card in your positive pile from 1 to 2 points, or allowing players to add letters at the start instead of the end of the word if they choose. These cards can also be flipped back to their green side as well.
The game continues until the deck of cards has run out and then players minus their negative points from their positive to find out who is the winner.
There are also some optional variant cards in the box, including our favourite – the ability to slide a new letter in anywhere in the word!
There's a slightly combative air to Kiitos because when things go badly for you, there's no doubt it's helping your opponent. But it's all so wordy and abstracted it's hard to feel offended by anything.
High with 4 players in particular, as what the player after you does has very little bearing on your future turns. But it drops considerably with less players.
Although it's not a deduction game per se, there's definitely an element (in the 2-player game anyway) of deducing your opponent's hand - or parts of it - in order to serve your needs. And as with many deduction games, there's also room for a little bluff as well.
Well, you need to like word games, obviously. But assuming you do, as you've read this far, Kiitos is a clever little curio that has a few machinations beneath the calm surface you'll begin to notice halfway through your first game, and the random element of how the cards fall can be enough to keep it feeling fresh.
2-4
Players
10+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
Probably at it's best with two, as more players makes the game more chaotic and luck-driven, when played as a head to head Kiitos allows both sides to pick up clues about what cards their opponents might have and react accordingly. You play your S and say 'Sheep'. I don't have an H but I strongly suspect you have an E, so I play my T and announce the new target word of 'Step'. If you play an E, I can complete the word with my P! With 3 or 4 players that canny aspect of the game recedes somewhat, but for 2 this is an excellent word game, albeit - like many word games - word knowledge does help.