London-born League of the Lexicon word game is breaking records in the UK
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- March 22, 2023
League of the Lexicon is a beautifully designed game about words and language, ideal for language lovers, quiz fiends and the incurably curious.
Designed by Joshua Blackburn, the game lauded by Stephen Fry, Susie Dent and Lynne Truss is a language game like no other – thanks to covid lockdown and two boys who didn’t like English homework.
At home with his two young sons, Joshua, Sonny and Jude made language games to avoid doing English homework. There was WordSplat, Word War, the fiendish Dojo and finally League of the Lexicon, which became an obsession.
There are many iconic word games like Wordle, Scrabble Boggle or Bananagrams but this is different. League of the Lexicon is a highly entertaining board game about words, made by word lovers, for word lovers.
Created in collaboration with the world’s finest linguists and lexicographers, many of whom contributed questions to the game, players face the ultimate test of worldly wisdom.
The League of the Lexicon, after whom the game is named, is a company of outcast lexicographers on a quest to secure rare lexical Artefacts. This intriguing cast, from the esteemed Doc Johnson to Roget, the martini-drinking badger, are the characters used during play and have been brought to life by the illustrator Stavros Damos.
This is the world of League of the Lexicon: exotic yet steeped in the history of language and with seductive 1930s aesthetic and graphic motifs that draw on the history of writing, players are drawn into a game world that is rich with detail and unlike any other quiz game.
League of the Lexicon
Simple to learn but challenging to win, the game is for two to six players, but with six rule variations, it accommodates both solo play and large parties. And with two levels of difficulty, younger or less confident players can join in.
Last year on a chance visit to Waterstones, Britain’s largest book-chain, the branch game buyer was shown a prototype. Six weeks later, and with the game still unfinished, Waterstones secured exclusive rights to sell the game in the UK and ordered 5,000 copies for Christmas.
With Waterstones on board, Two Brothers Games then launched on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter; it was fully funded in five hours, and within three weeks had become the most successful word game in Kickstarter history. When the game arrived at Waterstones it was made Game of the Month and sold out in record time.
The game features 2,000 questions probing every corner of language, from definitions and archaic words, to etymology, usage, and language trivia. But this isn’t any old quiz game; the world’s finest linguists and lexicographers have contributed questions to the game, making it the ultimate test of wordly wisdom.
Beautifully designed with a sustainable heart, the packaging and contents have been made to the highest standards with FSC sustainable paper stock, there are no plastic components and a compact shipping-friendly box design.
Having run his own design agency, the game had to look perfect. But as a game for word lovers, it had to have the brains to back it up. Joshua Blackburn started contacting dictionary editors, authors, lexicographers, linguists and more asking them to contribute questions to the game; meanwhile, a team was researching and writing hundreds of game questions.
Joshua Blackburn said: “The joy of League of the Lexicon isn’t just proving what you know, it’s finding out what you don’t. Until now, Scrabble has been the ultimate game for word lovers, but League of the Lexicon is a game about words, and there isn’t a game like it.”
The health benefits
This thrilling board game is great for players of all ages and word games support cognitive health. They can help to increase focus, concentration, and memory.
They can help us to be more present in day-to-day activities. While it doesn’t appear that brain games can prevent age-related cognitive decline and dementia, growing research indicates that they may slow or delay them.
Puzzles and games, especially those involving novelty, can stimulate and challenge key parts of the brain including language, logic, reasoning, visual perception, attention and problem-solving.
The game will soon be arriving at Barnes and Noble, ready for American language lovers. Available in the UK, priced £34.99 exclusively at Waterstones along with Blackwell’s, Foyles, Hatchard’s & Waterstones subsidiary brands.
