Press Gang
by
❧ The Press Run

How to play

One round is one press run. Six movements, seventy-five seconds.

1
The rack drops

Seven fresh tiles per crew, dealt at once — crewmates share a rack, rival crews race their own. One board, one clock: 75 seconds. Every hand is playable: two to four vowels, no letter more than three times.

2
Everyone sets type

Every player drags tiles onto their own copy of the board. Standard placement rules: one straight line, connect to what's printed (round 1 must cross the centre star). Your score chip lights up only when the placement is legal.

3
The crew's best stick counts

A live HUD shows your crew's best score so far — without revealing any words to rival crews. At the bell, each crew's highest-scoring valid draft is auto-submitted. No captains, no votes.

4
The print

The top word across all crews is stamped onto the shared board in that crew's ink, with a +5 print bonus. Ties break to the earlier submission. The board grows — and every future round changes with it.

5
The proof sheet

Every crew's word is revealed side by side — the "we had QUAY and you played CAT?!" moment — along with the compositor's solve: the best placement anyone could have found.

6
The final edition

After the last round the board is the artefact: every word in its crew's colour, totals tallied, the winning crew's masthead across the top. Screenshot, share, argue.

The rate card

  • Every crew banksits own word’s full value, every round.
  • The print pays the winning crew a +5 bonus — and control of the board.
  • Back-to-back prints earn a streak marker. Bragging rights, not runaway points.
  • No valid draft? Zero this round. It happens to the best crews.

The shop rules

  • 4–16 players in 2–4 crews, named for the great typefaces.
  • Every word — including cross-words — needs 3+ letters.
  • Premium squares only pay on freshly set tiles.
  • A dead rack rerolls once per game; a second one closes the edition early.