How to Play Letter Jam (2026): Clues, Stands and Scoring

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How to play Letter Jam (2026): Letter Jam is a cooperative word game for two to six players where everyone can see your letter except you. Players spell clue words out of the letters they can see, and each clue hints at the letter in front of your face. Work out every letter, then unscramble them into your secret word. This guide follows the official Czech Games Edition rules: setup, the six stands, clue tokens, giving and reading clues, bonus letters, the endgame and optional scoring.

The goal of Letter Jam

Each player holds a hidden word, one letter at a time. You never look at your own cards. By listening to other players’ clues, you guess each letter, move on to the next, and finally rearrange your guesses into a real English word. Everyone wins or loses together, and the team aims for a high combined score.

Setting up secret words

1. Shuffle the letter deck and split it roughly evenly among the players.
2. Each player searches their pile and builds a five-letter word, then discards the rest face down. Players who struggle may look through others’ discards.
3. Everyone scrambles their word and passes it to the player on their right. You now hold a word someone else made, and you never look at it.
4. Shuffle all discards into a central deck.
5. Lay your cards in a face-down row. Put your leftmost card in your stand facing outward, so everyone but you can see it.

Newer spellers can play with four- or even three-letter words. Experienced groups can try six or seven.

Stands, nonplayer stands and clue tokens

The game always uses all six stands, so every player sees exactly five letters. With fewer than six players, the extra stands become nonplayer stands. Each one gets a green clue token and a face-down stack of cards, with the number shown on the setup card, and its top card goes in the stand for everyone to see.

Pick the setup card for your player count, put it in the middle and place the red and green clue tokens on the marked spots. These tokens are the team’s clue budget.

Playing a round

1. Look and think. Find a word you can spell using the letters you see. A letter may be used more than once, even if it appears on only one card.
2. Discuss without leaking. Players may say how long their clue is, how many players it helps, how many nonplayer stands or bonus letters it uses and whether it uses the wildcard. You may not say whose letters it helps or hint at what any letter is.
3. Pick a cluegiver and take a token. In a four- to six-player game, your first clue costs a red token, and later clues cost green ones.
4. Spell the clue. Place numbered tokens on the letters in order: token 1 on the first letter, token 2 on the second and so on. The wildcard can stand in for one missing letter, used as many times as that letter repeats.
5. Write it down. If your letter appears, copy the clue onto your guessing sheet with a question mark where your letter goes, then note your guesses.
6. Move on or stay. If you are fairly sure of your letter, flip that card down, record your guess and slide your stand to the next card. Once you move on, you can never return to a letter.

At the end of the round, any nonplayer stand whose letter was used discards it and reveals the next card. When a nonplayer stack runs out, its green token is freed and goes on the setup card, giving the team one more clue.

Counting clues by player count

• Four to six players: take a red token for your first clue. Once all red tokens are gone, the green token in the center of the setup card becomes available.
• Three players: your first two clues take red tokens.
• Two players: your first three clues take red tokens. When the reds are gone, three green tokens open up.

Bonus letters

When you run out of your own letters, draw a new card from the deck and keep it in your stand. If someone uses it in a clue, say your guess out loud and check the card. A correct guess becomes a bonus letter that anyone can use in a later clue, or to fix their final word. Either way, draw a new card.

Ending the game

The game ends when you finish a round with no clue tokens left, or when everyone agrees they need no more clues. Everyone then arranges their guessed letters into a word. You may swap in the wildcard or a bonus letter, and you do not have to spell the word you were given: if you were handed HORSE, SHORE counts too, as long as it is a correctly spelled English word you know.

Optional scoring

For each correctly spelled word, score three times its original length, plus one point per extra letter, plus one point per green token left on the setup card. An incorrect word scores one point for each original letter you guessed right. Compare the team total with the back of the setup card:

Team score	Result
16–31	Edible
32–47	Tasty
48–63	Yummy
64–79	Delicious
80+	Supersweet

Tips for a sweeter game

• Long clues that use every player’s letter are worth more than short clever ones.
• Write every clue down, even if you are sure. Two clues together often settle a tricky letter.
• Share whether you feel sure or unsure about your letter. That is allowed, and it helps others decide when to move on.
• Save the wildcard for the round when a great clue is one letter short.

Love word games? Browse our best word party games, game gifts for word nerds and best cooperative card games.

Letter Jam rules questions

Can you look at your own letter in Letter Jam?

No. You never look at your own cards. You only see other players’ letters and work out yours from their clues.

How many players can play Letter Jam?

Two to six. The game always uses six stands, so missing players are replaced by nonplayer stands.

Do you have to spell the exact word you were given?

No. Any correctly spelled English word made from your letters counts, such as SHORE instead of HORSE.