Paperback is a brain-game where you make words using the Letter cards in your hand. You aim to build words that score highest, so you can buy new Letter cards to add to your deck. It is a cumulative decision-making game, where you must build both words and the deck that scores the most points in the long run.

Like Scrabble, each Letter card is worth a different number of points. Unlike Scrabble the Letter cards each have different abilities. Adding a card to your hand not only ups your point scoring potential but also opens new ways to score. You win by adding the most Fame cards to your deck before the end of the game. These cards are wild, but cost a lot of points to buy, so you must build up your deck to enable you to score enough points to buy them.

As you progress, you gain more Letter cards and can make longer words, which in turn enables you to buy both more expensive Letter cards with better powers and Fame cards with more victory points. When the end of the game is triggered by the last Letter or Fame card, the winner is the player with the most Fame points in their deck.

This is a combination of word puzzle and deck building game, where you use your word making skills to develop the cards available to you. Your decisions about which card to choose from the shared piles are almost more important than your ability to make words.