Scrabble variants

Scrabble variants are games created by changing the normal Scrabble rules or equipment.

Variants with standard board and/or tiles

Anagrab

Anagrab is a word game which is usually played with Scrabble tiles. The name is an amalgam of the words 'anagram' (the basic game mechanism) and 'grab' - because a player's words may at any time be 'grabbed' by opponents. 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.

Game play

Letter tiles are placed face down and turned over one at a time. At any point (there are no turns) any player may call out a word of at least four letters. This word can be made either entirely from the pool of letters, or by adding at least one new letter to an existing word. If the new word is acceptable the person who said the word first takes the letters and places them in front of him or her. When making a new word the root of the existing word must be changed - for example you may not add a D to the word LIVE to make LIVED. All the letters in an existing word must be included in the new one, plus at least one more.

When a new letter is turned over, the first person to say a valid word takes it. If more than one is said at the same time the longer word takes it. If the two are the same length (or the same word) then that word(s) are banned for the rest of the game and nobody takes it.

Scoring

Sharp suggests that the score for each word is the face value of the tiles multiplied by the number of letters in that word. In practice any reasonable system, such as totaling the number of letters held, is acceptable.

Anagrams

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:

• take whole words (of 3 or more letters) from the communal pool of exposed, unused letters;
• add letters to an existing word on the table—whether their own or any opponent's. (Therefore, even if a player has found a word and placed it in front of herself, it can be stolen at anytime if someone can combine its tiles with any loose tiles to make a new valid word. For example, if Sally already has SATE in front of her and an G comes up in the pool, any player can steal it by calling out "GATES". Sally can prevent the theft by calling out the word herself.);
• take multiple words from the table and combine them with a letter (or letters) from the pool to create a new word. (For example, a player may combine his own CART with his opponent's HER and the letter S from the pool to create CHARTERS. You cannot simply combine existing words without adding at least one extra letter.)

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

Bananagrams is a commercial version of the variant Take Two (see below).

Clabbers

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 for himself.

Duplicate

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]

Ecological Scrabble

So called because in it the blank tiles are recycled.^[5] 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. For example, if the word STRETTa is on the board (with a blank A), the player may pick up the blank and replace it with an actual A. However, he cannot replace it with an E, I, or O to produce STRETTE, STRETTI, or STRETTO.

Solitaire Scrabble

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

Speed Scrabble is simply Scrabble played with a considerably shorter clock limit (e.g. 5 minutes), than normal tournament Scrabble.^[6]

Strategy Scrabble

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.^[7]

Tag Team

This variant is played with two teams of two players each, with each player possessing his/her own rack. On each team's turn, one of the players makes a play, followed immediately by a play by the teammate. Set-ups are quite common; a team set up a 302 point triple-triple MENAZo(N)S at the 2010 National Scrabble Championship's Tag Team Tournament.^[8]

Take Two

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 his 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

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]

Toroidal Scrabble

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.

Trickster

A new variant on Scrabble introduced by Mattel on April 6, 2010.^[13]

Variants with non-standard equipment

Super Scrabble

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]

Scrabble Slam!

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 on Scrabble Showdown.

Scrabble Flash

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 and Scrabble Showdown.

WildWords

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]

Scrabble II

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]

Scarabeo

Scarabeo is an Italian variant of Scrabble that is much more popular in its native country than the original game. It features a 17×17 grid of cells and peculiar rules.^[17]

Wordox

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.^[18]

Literaxx

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.^[19]

Literaxx is available at Kurnik.

Wordipelago

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.

WordSquared

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".^[20]

Scrabble Showdown

On the game show Scrabble Showdown, two teams play various games in order to win prizes including a vacation to anywhere in the world.

Number game variants

Gosum, or Equable

Gosum^[21] is similar to Numble. Users place sequences of numbers and equations, using the four main arithmetic operators (addition, subtraction, division, multiplication) and the equal sign in a Scrabble-like placement.

A similar Scrabble-like arithmetic game was published in Australia, during the 1970s, under the name Equable. Number tiles were white, arithmetic operations and symbol tiles (including decimal point, fraction-dashes, and percentage) were grey, and players could freely take special equal-sign tiles when they made their move. Clearly the name was meant to evoke the conceptual link with Scrabble. The game-board also had bonus-squares.

Numbly

One of the earlier number-based variants, Numble was a physical board game using numbers and basic mathematic equations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). Players form valid equations.

Triolet

Triolet^[22] uses pairs or triplets of numbers that sum up to less than, or exactly 15, respectively. The placement of the pairs or triplets is similar to Scrabble. Triolet means "triplet" in French.

Yushino

Yushino^[23] uses number sequences where every number is the last digit of the sum of the previous two. For two number sequences it requires that the numbers are adjacent.

Related games

UpWords

Scrabble Upwords (originally just named UpWords) is played with 100 letter tiles on a special 10×10 board with no premium squares (originally 64 tiles on an 8×8 board). 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.^[24]

WIM

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.^[25]

References