Scrabble variants are games created by changing the normal Scrabble rules or equipment.
Anagrab dispenses with the Scrabble board and just uses the letters. Initial words are made as letters are turned over, but these can then be 'grabbed' by opponents to make longer words. The game was first described in 1976 in Richard Sharp's The Best Games People Play [1], but his description suggests that he did not invent it.
Anagrams (also called Snatch or Snatch-words) is a fast-paced, non-turn-based Scrabble variant played without a board. The tiles are placed face-down in the middle of the table, and players take turns flipping a single tile, leaving it in clear view of all players. Otherwise the game is not turn-based, and the rules are very simple: any player who sees a Scrabble-valid word can call it out, take the letters, and lay the word out in front of herself. At the end of the game each player's collection of individual words is scored.
To create the words, players can:
A version of the game seems to be popular among tournament Scrabble players. Writers John Ciardi, James Merrill, John Malcolm Brinnin, and Richard Wilbur reputedly played together regularly in Key West, Florida, with novelist John Hersey also sometimes sitting in.[2]
Bananagrams is a commercial version of the variant Take Two (see below).
This is a family of games in which you can play words belonging to a category that aren't allowed in regular Scrabble. This can be used to handicap a game between players of different skill, for instance Pokémon Scrabble for a parent/child game. For a real challenge, only words in a given category are allowed. It is best to pick a large and varied category so that the game doesn't become too slow paced with frequent exchanges.
An interesting variation on this is Google Scrabble. In this, any word challenges are adjudicated by typing the word into the Google search engine, and if it returns over a given number of hits, the word is ruled valid.
Clabbers is the best known variant to tournament Scrabble players. All of the rules are identical to Scrabble with one exception: words played only have to be anagrams of real words.[3] For example, MPORCTEU is a valid play in Clabbers because it is an anagram of COMPUTER. The increased ability to play parallel to pre-existing words makes for much higher scores. Knowing all of the two letter words is very helpful in this game. (See picture at top of page.)
A variant of this is Multi-Anagram Clabbers, in which players receive the basic score for any set of letters played multiplied by the number of valid anagrams for that set of letters. Opponents may "steal" points, once the initial player has declared their turn complete, by announcing other anagrams that the first player neglected to mention. In finding such anagrams, the blank must be declared as only one letter and may not change. For example, with a rack of AEILNS? (? = blank), a player announcing that the blank was a C and announcing the words SANICLE and INLACES would receive twice the base score; their opponent could steal the word SCALENI and score the base amount themselves.
In this version, one big combined score is kept rather than individual scores. There are 4 main advantages of doing this: 1.It changes the emphasis from blocking play to building play and the atmosphere changes from intensity to a celebration of clever scrabble play made by anyone. 2.It allows people of varying ability to play together and each excel at their own level e.g. Adult and child. 3.It also allows people to come and go in a game as no individual score is dependent on one person so at the extreme it can be played solitare with one person competing against their personal best. 4.Everyone is always involved, so there is no waiting for other people to make their move.
Co-operative scrabble is even more fun with the rule that special squares are counted every time a word is extended not just on the initial covering (affectionately known as Danksy's rule). This leads to the technical term of milking when a word is extended on a lucrative square e.g. LOVE on a triple word score (21 points - (1+1+4+1)x3) extended to GLOVE (27 points - (2+1+1+4+1)x3) then GLOVES (30 points - (2+1+1+4+1+1)x3). It also leads to the possibility of getting two double word scores or two triple word scores in one word give a x4 (2x2) or a x9 (3x3) boost to the score of that word. Through playing regularly (using Danky's rule) the following guidelines are suggested: a par score is 700+, a good effort 850+, over 1000 is amazing and the top recorded score (on 22/5/10) is 1251.
This is a variant of Clabbers which addresses a few weaknesses in the more commonly played version. Because anagraming in Clabbers allows for more flexible word "hooking," a Clabbers board is more densely populated than in a normal game of Scrabble. As a result, the outer borders of the board are underutilized, because players run out of tiles before the game moves that far from the starting position.
To compensate for this, Dense Escalating Clabbers adds 1/3 more tiles. In addition, every bingo increases a player's rack size by one, and the play times are increased from 25 minutes to 33 minutes 33 seconds. There is also a 100 point bonus for playing a fifteen letter word. These modifications also make the game more challenging and interesting, and also increase the likelihood of triple-triple plays).
Double Scrabble is played with normal rules and equipment, but with double the number of tiles (by purchasing a second game set). This becomes much more difficult, and can result in the board becoming almost solid with tiles.
A neutral official draws 7 letters to start the game. He announces these letters to the players who draw the same letters from their pool. The players now have a fixed time limit to find the highest scoring word. At the end of time, runners collect slips of paper on which the players have written their word (word, score and placement) and the official announces the highest scoring play which the players will now place on their own board. The official draws new tiles to make the total number up to seven, and the game continues until either there are no more consonants or no more vowels. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins the game. There is no limit to the number of players that can participate in the same duplicate game. The official record for participation in France where duplicate is the preferred form of the game is 1485 at the 1998 tournament in Vichy.[4]
So called because in it the blank tiles are recycled. If a blank tile is played to represent a particular letter, a player before his turn can pick up the blank and replace it by the letter that it represents. E.g. if on the board is LO*D, stated to represent LOAD, a player who has an A can pick up the blank and replace it by his A. But he cannot replace the blank by another letter to produce e.g. LOUD or LORD.
This game takes place between two players (or teams). Sight unseen, both players take it in turn to draw a tile from a container and place them face up in front of themselves. The aim is to produce a word of four or more letters. If a four letter word can be formed by one player, that player gets one point. At this stage, if both players have a four letter word, no points are scored. If no four letter word is possible for either player, tiles are again drawn alternately until a word is formed. Before scoring points for these words, the players must have drawn the same number of tiles. Scoring works as follows. A four letter word gets one point, a five letter word gets two points, and so on. If both players get words of different lengths in the same turn, the player with the longer word scores. The winner is the first player to get ten points.
Also called Attack Scrabble. This is a version of anagrams played with 100 or 200 Scrabble tiles. The tiles start face down. Each player turns the tiles over one at a time until one player is able to form a word. The player with the most words at the end of the game wins. The catch is that players may "steal" a word from another player (or add the letter themselves) by taking additional turned over letters and adding them to words already flipped over. An example would be taking "quit" and making it "quiet".[5]
Also called Reverse Scrabble or Low Scrabble. Play order and tile draw is the same as in regular Scrabble, but in this version the goal is to have the lowest possible score. Knowing two and three letter words is helpful, and players generally avoid the bonus squares. Variants allow negative small points (-10) for bingo plays. When one player empties their rack and no tiles remain to draw the other players gain whatever remains in their rack.
Nickolai Scrabble is a solitary Scrabble game where one must create a theoretical endgame Scrabble board with 14 bingos and no invalid words. The player starts the game with all 100 tiles face up and he can pick which tiles he wants to use. The player is free to switch tiles and replace words indefinitely. Dictionary use is allowed. Anagram solvers are forbidden.[6]
No Plural Scrabble follows the standard rules of Scrabble, with the exception that a tile is only worth points when it is first played. For example, a player could play PAT, receiving five points. Another player could make PATENT from PAT, but would only receive points for ENT.
While tournament and club games use the Official List books, some players are unhappy with what is perceived as a commercialization of the original idea and prefer to use the Full Oxford English Dictionary as the source of acceptability.
The reverse of Reward Scrabble. A more generic form of Strip Scrabble. Penalties can be drinking, clothing removal, household chores, etc. Penalties can be assessed at the end of each game to the loser, at the end of each round (based on the highest/lowest score for that round), or based on the score of each individual play, with penalties for scores less than X. Note that the difference between a penalty and reward is both subjective and a function of who it is assigned to.
Qinjoa is a noncompetitive variant in which only words that appear to be pronounceable English words, but are not found in any dictionary and are not pronounced like any real words, may be played. At the end of the round players take turns defining their made up words. Definitions must be unique, meaning that no qinjoa word can have an exact English synonym.
The reverse of Penalty Scrabble. A more generic form of Strip Scrabble. Rewards can be household chores assignment (to others), money, etc. Rewards can be assessed at the end of each game to the winner, at the end of each round (based on the highest/lowest score for that round), or based on the score of each individual play, with rewards for scores greater than X. Note that the difference between a reward and penalty is both subjective and a function of who it is assigned to.
Alternate names for the variant Anagrams (see above).
Solitaire Scrabble follows the same rules and word acceptability as normal Scrabble, but there is only one player. Solitaire Scrabble can be played against a clock, trying to get the most points in a certain length of time or for highest maximum score.
Speed Scrabble is simply Scrabble played with a considerably shorter clock limit (e.g. 5 minutes), than normal tournament Scrabble.[7]
Strategy Scrabble is a two-player variation. Both players can see their opponent's rack. This allows players to develop more situational strategies based on their opponent's rack.[8]
Similar to regular Scrabble but clothes are removed during play. If players begin with not too many clothing articles and have the patience/stamina for multiple games (perhaps combined with one of the Speed Scrabble variants listed on this page), then an article of clothing is removed by the loser of each game at the end of each game. Alternative versions leading to quicker nudity involves taking off an article by the lowest scorer of each round, or the low scorer taking off an article each time a play worth less than X points is played, or designating someone else to take off an article each time a play worth more than Y points is played.
Take Two (also called Speed Scrabble[9] or Bananagrams) is a fast-paced, non-turn-based Scrabble variant played without a board. Tiles are placed face-down in the middle of the table in a communal pool and each player is given a small number of face-up starting tiles. From their starting tiles, each player tries to build his own valid Scrabble grid—players do not use each other's grid or tiles. When a player successfully uses all of her face-up tiles, he shouts "take two", and every player takes two more tiles. Play continues until there are no more tiles left to draw. In some variants, the person who creates the first complete grid when all the tiles run out is the winner. In others, a calculation based on word length is used to determine the winner.
Some variants allow for the exchange of unwanted tiles. Local variants include Take One or Take Four; the banning of 2 letter words; having a dictionary on hand for any players to use (but since it is a game of speed, this doesn't get used much); a bonus of 50 points for building the word "chicken", a bonus for longest word (number of letters in word, not tile values; and only if a single player has longest word), etc.[10][11]
Team Speed Scrabble is when teams of 2, 3, or 4 race to play legal Scrabble words as quickly as possible. Scoring does not matter; all that matters is how quickly words are played. This can be a co-operative game where all players are simply trying to complete the game as fast as possible.[12]
In Tonica, each player receives all their letters at the start of the game. In the event of a three person game, this means that an unequal number of letters will be distributed to the players.
Also known as "Scrabble on the Torus," this version can be combined with nearly any other variant. The premise is that the board is not two dimensional but is toroidal (shaped like a donut), such that the top and bottom connect, as do the two sides.
A new variant on Scrabble introduced by Mattel on April 6, 2010.[13]
This game has the same rules and tiles as Scrabble, but the board is larger (21x21 vs. 15x15 in the original). With the larger board there are more premium squares, going up to quadruple letter and quadruple word scores. There are also twice as many tiles with a slightly different distribution.*[14]
This game uses cards for tiles where players throw down a card with a letter to change a four-letter word to another four-letter word by placing the card on top of one of the four piles of cards that form the word. So if the word shown is LACE, one player can put the M on the L to make it MACE and the next player could put a Z on the C to make the word MAZE and so on. Scoring is based on how many words are formed. This variation is also used in season two of Scrabble Showdown.
This game uses five electronic tiles that is placed on the table to create as many 3, 4, or 5-letter words as they can within the time alloted. This variation is also used in two game shows on The Hub: Family Game Night & Scrabble Showdown.
This game has the same size board and nearly the same scoring system as Scrabble. The major differences are the inclusion of twelve wild tiles marked with an asterisk that may represent one letter or any series of letters and special board squares that convert a regular letter tile into a wild tile (the tile in question is placed upside down on such a square). The nature of these changes shifts the emphasis of the game from playing short words to playing words of any length. For example, QUA*IST, could be the word QUARTERFINALIST. Good players must find 7-tile bonus plays a majority of the time, and the short odd words that are a staple in Scrabble are of little use in WildWords.[15]
This game retains the feel and spirit of classic Scrabble while opening it up to the formation of much longer words. Along with an eighth tile on the rack, there are stepped bonuses of 20, 50, and 80 points for the play of six, seven, and eight tiles, respectively. Around the classic 15x15 Scrabble board are three extra rows, with no premium squares, to be used only for extensions from the main board. Plays consisting solely of two-letter words are not allowed. There is no bluff element; a player must make valid words to score points. A fresh set of 100 tiles is drawn for every game from a mixture of three standard sets. Longer words mean more natural and more vocabulary-based words, and use of a conventional dictionary is recommended to further distance the game from the artificiality of modern Scrabble. [16]
This game is a cross between Othello and Scrabble played on a 13 x13 board. Each player has different coloured tiles. The rack is common and always contains 7 tiles. All tiles have the same value, one point. Points are scored for how many tiles are currently your own colour. The special squares are pink and orange. A word with a tile on a pink square clears the board. When this happens a bonus point is received for each tile you placed on an orange square on that board.[17]
Literaxx is the English version of Literaki, a popular online Polish variant. Tiles are worth 1, 2, 3 or 5 points and are coloured according to their value. Double and triple word squares function in the same manner as standard Scrabble. However, the coloured triple letter squares are only active when the tile colour matches that of the square. [18]
Literaxx is available at Kurnik.
This is Scrabble played as a massively multiplayer online game on an infinite board. People play via a web browser at their own speed, without waiting for others, and track their personal progress via world wide leader boards. Since the game effectively never ends, smaller week long competitions are also staged focusing on scores, averages, and various other stats.
Another version of Scrabble played as a massively multiplayer online game on an infinite board. Once you place your first word on the board, you must keep building off your own tiles. Formerly called "scrabb.ly". [19]
On The Hub's game show Scrabble Showdown, there are variations that teams must play through. Here is a list.
This variation uses three extra letters that teams must knock out to create five words that corresponds to the categories.
This variation uses two players that can shout out the five words using both halves.
Introduced in season 2, this new variation uses clues to identify the mystery words.
Also known as the Final Showdown on the show, teams must rack up as much points as possible to win a trip to a city from around the world. To start, teams use the Bonus Tiles from the three games, then the game goes on as they unscramble words by using clues. The first team to 100 points, wins the showdown.
Scrabble Upwords is played with 100 letter tiles on a special 10x10 board with no premium squares. It has a Qu tile instead of Q and a different tile distribution than Scrabble. Words can be formed as in Scrabble as well as by playing on top of previously formed words. When playing over a word, at least one tile from the original word must be incorporated into the new word. All tiles, with the exception of the Qu tile in certain circumstances, are worth the same, with additional points scored for higher stacks of letters. Stacks can't go higher than five tiles and all words that are completely on the first level receive doubled points.[20]
WIM is played with 96 square tiles that may be oriented in different directions to make different letters. Players compete to score the most points by forming interlocking words in all directions. It is played without a board. There are 19 distinct tiles which make the 26 English letters plus blank. Eight of the tiles are ambiguous and can be read as two different letters, depending on orientation. For example, an upside-down A is a V, and a sideways N is a Z. Three of the tiles may be used as the same letter in more than one orientation (O, S, and X). A tile may be used as different letters in different words at the same time, even in the same play. Mechanics are similar to Scrabble with a 7-tile rack and a bingo bonus. Scoring is based on point values for each letter, with bonuses for letter and word orientation changes. The blank scores the value of the letter it represents.[21]