Your goal in Word Heist is to create clever words that others don't steal, while ideally snatching words from their grasp.
To set up the game, take a number of consonant, vowel, and special letter cards based on the number of players, shuffle them, then place one card each in the +1 and +2 slots by the game board, while laying all the other letters in a row. Reveal two "bonus vault" cards that show special ways to score.
Each player then simultaneously and secretly writes a "heist" word on their player board using only the letters revealed, with as many copies of those letters as they like. Once everyone has finished, each player drops clues to their word by placing their personal clue tokens on as many public letters as they wish; if you use a letter multiple times in your word, you must mark the letter that many times.
Next, after looking at those clues, each player writes a "halt" word on their player board that they think corresponds to an opponent's word.
All players then reveal their words one by one. If two or more players have the same word, none of them score for that word; if an opponent has "halted" your word, then they score for that word instead of you! A word scores 1 point for each clue token you placed, +1 or +2 points for you using the letters placed in those slots, and bonus points if you met one or both "bonus vault" challenges.
After writing all the used "heist" and "halt" words on a public board, shuffle the letter cards, then play another round. You cannot repeat a previously used word. After a third round conducted in the same manner, the player with the highest score wins.