Round & Revel / Conserved-letter transformation
The Letter Reservoir
The letter your partner releases may be the one your word needs.
Original authored print-and-play game. Time is a planning estimate; this edition has not had a live group playtest.
Good for: A cooperative word-game table that prefers a finite puzzle to dictionary disputes.
What you need
- One public 86-word bank and one two-row, three-space reservoir board
- Practice LR00 and eight challenge cards
- Eleven letter slips for each challenge, pencil, move log, and covered answer guide
How to play
Share the spare letters
Two four-letter words sit in separate rows beside a tray containing three spare letters. Change both words into the two printed targets by swapping one word letter with one tray letter at a time. Every intermediate word must belong to the public bank. A letter released by one row may be essential to the other. All eleven letters stay in the puzzle throughout, and the tray always contains exactly three.
Prepare the two work areas
Draw ROW 1 and ROW 2 with four positions each, numbered 1–4 from left to right. Draw a three-space TRAY below them. For a challenge, write its eight starting letters and three tray letters onto eleven separate slips, including repeated copies. Put each starting word in its named row. Tray order does not matter. Do not use spare alphabet tiles from another challenge or bring unused letters into play.
The printed bank is the vocabulary
All 86 permitted four-letter words are printed on the bank sheet. Keep it visible and use it freely. A resulting row is legal only when its complete spelling appears there, even if another spelling is a real word in a dictionary. There are no plurals, proper names, abbreviations, or spelling variants beyond what is printed. You never need to debate a definition. Both rows may temporarily show the same bank word if the letter inventory allows it.
Make one exact exchange
Choose one of the eight word positions and one letter currently in the tray. Exchange those two slips simultaneously. The incoming letter must differ from the outgoing letter, and the changed word must appear in the bank immediately after the exchange. The other word stays untouched. Record the row, position, and resulting word as one move. You cannot directly swap letters between rows, reorder a word, exchange two tray letters for a move, or change two positions at once.
Set a cooperative session
Use LR00 for practice, then select three different cards LR01–LR08 without opening their keys. Choose a first editor and continue clockwise across cards. Before each move, the editor proposes the exchange and another player checks the bank and tray inventory. Anyone may suggest a route, look several moves ahead, or explain why a needed letter is unavailable. The editor chooses after listening, or passes to allow more thinking. Passing uses no move.
Plan freely before moving
You may write candidate word paths and test letter counts on scrap paper before committing. Only exchanges announced and carried out on the actual board count. A legal committed exchange cannot be erased from the log; reversing it costs another legal move. An illegal proposal is rejected before pieces move and uses no move. A target row is not locked: you may change it again if doing so helps release a letter, provided it returns to its target at the finish.
Finish both rows together
The goal requires ROW 1 to show TARGET 1 and ROW 2 to show TARGET 2 at the same moment. Swapping the two whole rows is not a solution. The final tray can be in any order and has no separately required arrangement. Stop as soon as both rows match. The maximum attempt is PAR plus two exchanges. If that many moves end without the goal, stop and open the key rather than continuing for a score.
Score the shared transformation
Earn 2 points for finishing within PAR, 1 for finishing within PAR plus two, and 0 otherwise. Practice is unscored. Reset all eleven letters before each new card. After three cards, total the shared score out of 6; there are no individual winners or tiebreakers. The answer guide gives one shortest exchange sequence and its minimum length, but every legal solution within the relevant allowance counts.
Check the letters and support access
After a handling error, use the log to restore the last correct words and tray before continuing. If that position cannot be reconstructed, restart the card unscored. A helper may move exactly the slips named by the editor. Enlarge the word bank and let anyone read spellings aloud. No speed, pronunciation, or vocabulary-recall test is required. On replay, use different cards or explain an already-known route without comparing its score to a first attempt.
A worked example
Start practice LR00 with DEAR / MAIN and tray B C S. Make these row changes in order: row 1, position 1 → BEAR; row 1, position 4 → BEAD; row 2, position 1 → RAIN; row 1, position 4 → BEAM. After each change, exchange the incoming and outgoing letter with the tray and check the bank. The final rows are BEAM / RAIN. This takes 4 exchanges, exactly PAR, and would earn 2 points.
Printable materials
Print one board, one complete bank, and one copy of each challenge card. Make eleven letter slips from the active card’s starting words and tray; preserve duplicate letters. Keep the separate move-by-move answer guide covered until the attempt ends.
Two word rows and the shared tray
| Row | Position 1 | Position 2 | Position 3 | Position 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ROW 1 | ___ | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| ROW 2 | ___ | ___ | ___ | ___ |
TRAY: ___ ___ ___. Three letters throughout. Tray order is irrelevant.
Complete permitted word bank
These are the only legal words for both rows, including every intermediate state.
BAIL · BALL · BEAD · BEAM · BEAR · BELL · BELT · BOAT · BOLT · BOOM · BOOT · CAME · CANE · CARD · CASE · CAST · CAVE · COAT · COLD · CORD · COST · COVE · DEAL · DEAR · DEED · FARE · FARM · FEAR · FEAT · FEED · FINE · FIRE · FOAM · FOOD · FOOT · FORM · GAIN · GAIT · GEAR · GOAD · GOAT · GOLD · GOOD · LEAD · LEAN · LINE · LOAD · LOAN · LONE · LOVE · MAIL · MAIN · MOOD · MOON · NEED · PAID · PAIN · PEAL · PEAR · RAID · RAIN · READ · REAL · ROAD · ROAM · ROOM · SEAL · SEAT · SEED · SEEN · SOON · TAIL · TALL · TEAM · TEAR · TOAD · TOLD · TOLL · WAIL · WAIT · WALL · WARD · WARM · WOOD · WORD · WORM
Practice reservoir
START ROW 1: DEAR
START ROW 2: MAIN
TRAY: B C S
TARGET ROW 1: BEAM
TARGET ROW 2: RAIN
PAR: 4 exchanges. Maximum attempt: 6.
Letter reservoir 1
START ROW 1: COLD
START ROW 2: GOAD
TRAY: B F T
TARGET ROW 1: GOLD
TARGET ROW 2: COAT
PAR: 4 exchanges. Maximum attempt: 6.
Letter reservoir 2
START ROW 1: LOVE
START ROW 2: WAIT
TRAY: C F L
TARGET ROW 1: COVE
TARGET ROW 2: TALL
PAR: 4 exchanges. Maximum attempt: 6.
Letter reservoir 3
START ROW 1: TOLD
START ROW 2: PAIN
TRAY: A F N
TARGET ROW 1: LOAN
TARGET ROW 2: PAID
PAR: 4 exchanges. Maximum attempt: 6.
Letter reservoir 4
START ROW 1: FARE
START ROW 2: BOOM
TRAY: A C T
TARGET ROW 1: ROAM
TARGET ROW 2: BOAT
PAR: 6 exchanges. Maximum attempt: 8.
Letter reservoir 5
START ROW 1: LEAD
START ROW 2: ROAM
TRAY: M R T
TARGET ROW 1: TEAM
TARGET ROW 2: LOAD
PAR: 8 exchanges. Maximum attempt: 10.
Letter reservoir 6
START ROW 1: COLD
START ROW 2: TAIL
TRAY: A I M
TARGET ROW 1: LOAD
TARGET ROW 2: MAIL
PAR: 4 exchanges. Maximum attempt: 6.
Letter reservoir 7
START ROW 1: READ
START ROW 2: LOAN
TRAY: L S T
TARGET ROW 1: SEAL
TARGET ROW 2: ROAD
PAR: 4 exchanges. Maximum attempt: 6.
Letter reservoir 8
START ROW 1: FEAT
START ROW 2: TOLD
TRAY: L L S
TARGET ROW 1: DEAL
TARGET ROW 2: TOLL
PAR: 4 exchanges. Maximum attempt: 6.
Host material: Open the separate The Letter Reservoir answer notes. Contains solutions. Keep this guide away from players.
Round & Revel. First edition, October 2026. Uses only the listed printable materials and ordinary supplies.