Copyright Haba Spiele Bad Rodach

Who already knows the letters of the alphabet and how it works?
An educational game for 2-4 players ages 6-10

Authors: Dr. Habil. Gerhard Friedrich, Viola de Galgóczy,
Haba Games editorial staff, Illustrations: Ales Vrtal
Length of the game 15 - 30 minutes.

What Hob Hotchpotch likes doing most in the alphabet village is playing tricks on the letters, hiding the G behind a house, the H in the
fountain and the B in the garden. Helped by fairy Forget-me-not, the eager letter dwarves then try to put things in their correct place in the
village. Can you help them?

Contents
4 dwarves, 1 game board, 40 cards, 6 letters, 26 coins, 1 alphabet strip, 1 die, 1 little bag, set of game instructions

The aim of the game is to be the first to collect three coins and have
made at least one complete trip around the dwarves' path.
Using a letter of the alphabet, the players search for objects, animals and
motifs on the cards whose descriptions begin with this letter. Whoever can
get their dwarf on one of the treasure squares, gets a coin.

Spread the game board in the center of the table and take a look at the
route for the dwarves, please note where the market place and the four
barrels are located. Each player takes a dwarf and places it on the big
market square where the dwarves’ path begins and ends. Decide in which
direction the dwarves should move during the game.
Sort out the less frequent letters (for example K, Q, V, X, Y, Z) and put the
rest in the bag and jumble them up. Then pull out four letters and place
them on the four barrels.
Shuffle the cards and place them in a pile face-down next to the game
board. Get the coins, the alphabet strip and the die ready.

The youngest player starts and turns over the card from the top of the
pile.
What is shown on the card?
• A picture of the alphabet village?
Take a look at what is depicted on the card and what you would call it.
Decide on one of the four letters placed on the barrels and name a
motif beginning with this letter. To make your choice clear, you should
also pronounce the letter separately.
The other players check your word.
You could say for example:
“I see a towel – T as in Towel!“ or
“I see an umbrella – U for Umbrella“!
Then move your dwarf as many squares as the
number corresponding to the barrel of the chosen letter. Return the
letter and the card into the game box. Now pull a new letter out of the
bag and place it on the free barrel. Then it's the turn of the next player
in a clockwise direction to turn over the top card from the pile.
No suitable word found?
If you don't find a motif corresponding to one of the four letters you
may not move your dwarf and have to place your card back in the box.
It's then the turn of the next player.
• Hob Hotchpotch
Hob Hotchpotch always plays around in the alphabet
village and spends all day hiding letters. Look at the
card and say which letter represented by a question
mark is missing. Then name any word beginning with
this letter. Check the result with the alphabet strip.
In this example you would say: “Letter B is missing – B as in ball“!
If the letter is correct, you roll the die and move your dwarf as many
squares as dots are shown on the die. Then you put the card in the box
and it's the turn of the next player.
• Fairy Forget-me-not
The fairy helps you move on, but in return she asks you to resolve a
problem:
Name two animals! Name two objects! Give two names!
Take a look at the card and the question the fairy is posing. Then
decide on one of the four letters. Say the letter and two words
(animals, objects or names) starting with this letter. The other players
check if you are right.
If you have named correctly two things you move your dwarf the
number of squares indicated by the barrel in question. Return the letter
and the card to the game box, pull a new letter from the bag and
place it on the free barrel. It's the turn of the next player.
The treasure squares
Your dwarf lands at the end of his move on a treasure square?
Well done! Take a coin from the provision and place it in front of you.

The game ends as soon as a child has collected his third coin and moved
his dwarf around the dwarves’ path at least once. It does not matter if the
dwarf reaches the market place exactly or moves past it.
This player wins and all together the dwarves of the alphabet village
celebrate a big dwarves' party.

• Of course you can also play with the less frequent letters such as K, Q,
V, X, Y, Z and put them in the little bag.
Have you still not found words beginning with these letters?
Then take a closer look and search for the kiwis in the fruit bowl
or a koala. The little bear in the bed is covered with a quilt and
starting with Y are the yo-yo and the yogurt cup. Have you
also discovered the viper or the vase with flowers,
a xylophone and the zebra?
• You will soon discover that there a plenty of words
to find in one picture.
For example: Take a closer look at the family portrait
we found:
A = arm, animal
B = boy, brow, buckle, braid
C = couple, collar, child, chin, curls, cloud, claws, cheek
D = dog, dad
E = eyes, ears
F = frame, family, face, forehead, father, fur
G = girl
H = hair, head, hook
J = jumper, jersey, jaw
L = lady, lips
M = man, mouth, mother, muzzle
N = nose, nail, nostril
P = pullover, plaits, picture
Q = quiff
S = sister, sky, shirt, sweater, shoulder
T = throat, tongue, teeth
W = woman
There are still missing words for the letters I, K, O, R, U, V, X, Y, Z.
If you find any, tell us!