License Plate Game

A good twist on the normal license plate game, for Wordies, is - rather than punching each other for out-of-state plates - to make words out of the letters that comprise the license plates of passing vehicles.  Here are the rules:

Take the first 3 consecutive letters appearing on a plate and use them in the same order to form a word.  For example, if the plate reads 3CN RL4, then "canary" would be a valid response, because it contains the letters C, N, and R in order.  "Corn" would not be acceptable because, while it contains all 3 letters, they are not in the correct order.  Likewise, "normal" would not work either, because you are restricted to only the first three consecutive letters appearing on the plate.

Not all plates contain 3 consecutive letters, so the restriction that they must be consecutive may be loosened if desired.  Therefore, a plate like 4B3 R7Y could work, yielding "liBRarY," with the pertinent letters bolded.

Usually I play under a time constraint - 30 seconds or a minute, for example - whereby once a plate and its letters are identified, all contestants have to come up with a word within the allotted time.  The person who comes up with the longest word is the winner.  You could also play where the shortest word wins, rewarding whoever can do more with less.  Or you could volley the letters back and forth until someone is stumped for a longer response.  For the letters, C, N, and R from the example above, the volley could proceed as follows:
Player 1) CaNaRy        (6 letters)
Player 2) CorNeRs      (7 letters)
Player 1) CaNaRies      (8 letters)
Player 2) CaNceRous   (9 letters),
at which point, Player 1 might be stumped to return the volley and Player 2 would win the round.  Usually it's best to start using plurals or words ending in -ed or -ing if you're playing for the longest word.  Volleys usually don't last more than one round, just because each player probably used the longest word they could think of right out of the gate.  But it does give each player a little longer to think and challenge each other.

I wrote up an Excel formula to spit out 3 random letters for playing in bed.  Katie and I played a best of 7 the other night with the following results.  (Don't judge us):

ODE       Katie - Odometer       Jared - Encoded              Katie 1 - Jared 0
RLG                   Rolling                       Relishing              Katie 1 - Jared 1
JSY                                                   Jerseys                 Katie 1 - Jared 2
TJV
EJL                      Ejaculated                Rejailed               Katie 2 - Jared 2
MCL                                                    Immaculate          Katie 2 - Jared 3
MXN                                                    Maximization        Katie 2 - Jared 4

Yes, while I was eventually crowned the champion, I was beaten in Round 5 of my own game by ejaculated.