Chain Breaker

Think you can keep your words straight when the pressure is on?

Join TJ and Kate for Chain Breaker, where quick thinking meets sneaky strategy, and every word is a chance to keep your team in the game or leave the other team scrambling for an answer! The challenge is simple: keep things going, outsmart your opponents, and whatever you do, don't be the one who breaks the chain!

Come join the fun, and let the word battles begin!

Chain Breaker is one of the games TJ and Kate rotate through their Friday hosting slots, so check the schedule to see when it's up next.

SETUP

• Divide players into 2 teams.
• The host provides the starting word for each round.

HOW TO PLAY

1. The host gives a starting word and says whether play goes "above" or "below."
2. Team 1 has 15 seconds to give a valid connecting word.
3. Teams alternate turns, with each player building on the latest word.
4. A team breaks the chain if a player runs out of time, gives an invalid word, or fails to respond.
5. The team that doesn't break the chain wins the round and earns the points for every word in that chain.
6. Start a new round with a new starting word.

SCORING

• Regular round: 1 point per word.
• Bonus round: 2 points per valid word.

BONUS ROUND

• The host gives a starting word.
• Each team has 1 minute to build the longest chain possible.
• Each valid word earns 2 points.

WORD RULES

• Words must have at least 3 letters.
• Compound words are allowed.
• Proper nouns, including names and places, are allowed only when they also have a common-word meaning (e.g., Tom, a male cat; China, a type of plate).
• Singular and plural forms are allowed, but players must clearly state which form they mean.
• A word may be reused only if it appeared in a previous round, never in the current chain.
• A word that breaks a chain can only be used once during the entire game.

NO COPYING OLD CHAINS!
You cannot repeat parts of a previous round's chain in the same order.
Example: A previous chain was Cover → Girl → Friends → Forever.
In a later round, a player may say "Cover" again, but the next player cannot say "Girl" if doing so would repeat that same sequence from the earlier chain.