With a growing army of ardent fans and with celebrity endorsements from Stephen Fry and Susie Dent, League of the Lexicon – the beautifully designed game about words and language, ideal for language lovers, quiz fiends and the incurably curious – is the board with a growing cult following and an ideal gift for Dads.
Launched last year, the ground-breaking board game was designed by Londoner and Dad Joshua Blackburn.
This 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.
League of the Lexicon is a highly entertaining board game about words, made by word lovers, for word lovers which was 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 wordly 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 a 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.
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.
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.
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. This is a game for couples, families, and anyone with a passion for language and learning, there isn’t a game like it.”
This thrilling board game is great for players of all ages and word games support cognitive health. 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.
There will soon be a global edition, written by Gaston Dorren, a lexicographer who has written two books on language; and a slang edition, written by Jonathon Green, the world’s foremost slang lexicographer.
Trading as Two Brothers Games, Blackburn is also working on a junior edition for ages eight and up and 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.
