Message in a Bottle

Letter dice sit inside a plastic bottle. You shake it, look at the letters showing through the side, and race to shout a real word that uses every one of them. The first person with a correct word takes a token, then someone shakes again. Whoever has the most tokens when the group calls it wins. There is nothing to set up and nothing to teach past a single shake. English spelling is the whole game, so it suits a table where everyone reads English comfortably and is quick with words, and it rewards vocabulary over strategy. It fills ten minutes while waiting for food or for the rest of a group to arrive, and it works with children of eight or so as spelling practice they will not resist. Not a full evening's game; a warm-up on our Party shelf that is easy to keep in a bag.