Scrabble variants

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

An example board from a game of Clabbers

Contents
1 Variants with standard board and/or tiles

1.1 Anagrab

1.2 Anagrams

1.3 Anti-Scrabble

1.4 Category Scrabble

1.5 Clabbers

1.6 Duplicate

1.7 Ecological Scrabble

1.8 Extensions

1.9 Forwards-Backwards

1.10 Grabscrab

1.11 Lhasa Apso Nullification

1.12 No Plural Scrabble

1.13 Scrabble Towers

1.14 Solitaire Scrabble

1.15 Speed Scrabble

1.16 Strategy Scrabble

1.17 Take Two

1.18 Team Speed Scrabble

1.19 Tonica

1.20 Toroidal Scrabble

2 Variants with non-standard equipment

2.1 Super Scrabble

2.2 WildWords

2.3 WordSteal

2.4 Literaxx
3 Related games

3.1 Upwords

3.2 WIM
4 Notes

Variants with standard board and/or tiles

Anagrab
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
Anagrams, also referred to as Snatch-words, is played without a board. Tiles are
placed face down in the middle of the table. Taking turns around the table, each
player will turn over a tile, leaving it in clear view of all players. A player who sees a
Scrabble-valid word calls it out, takes the letters, and lays the word out in front of
themselves. From then on each player may take letters from the "unused" pile or
whole words from any player to call out new words. At the end each player's
collection of individual words is scored.
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]

Anti-Scrabble
Anti-Scrabble or Alt-Scrabble, as it is known in some quarters requires the use
of all that is disallowed in standard Scrabble (not including made-up words or
random letters), including proper nouns, acronyms, all foreign words (foreign relative
to the language of the Scrabble set being used), expressive noises such as

"nooooo" and "mwoohahaha", and abbreviations. In the case of acronyms, one must
declare what it is one is referring to, and in the case of a challenge, if the declared
acronym is not found but another acronym using the same letters is found, that
particular combination of letters is nonetheless disallowed. This is to prevent the
practice of "acronym fishing" in which one puts down a random letter combination in
the hopes that it will be found to be a legitimate acronym (most combinations of 2 or
3 letters turn out to be actual acronyms).

Category Scrabble

A completed game of Geek Category Scrabble

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 Pokmon 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
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 anagrams to COMPUTER. The increased ability to play parallel to preexisting 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.

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. 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.

Extensions
In this variant, players may designate any one letter in the word they play to
represent a contiguous series of letters within a longer word. Bonus points are
assigned based on word length, beginning with the standard 50-point bonus for a
seven-letter word and adding an additional 10 points for each two subsequent
letters. For instance, with the seven letter rack of ANTIHSM, a player could play
ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM, announcing that the letter H represents all
the letters between D and the final I, earning the proper bonus for a 28-letter word of
150 points. Players must properly spell the resulting word in order to earn the bonus.

Forwards-Backwards
Players may play any legitimate word in either direction. Thus COMPUTER may be
played as RETUPMOC. Players score double points for words that form other words
when reversed (e.g. REIFIED/DEIFIER) and for palindromes.

Grabscrab
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".

Lhasa Apso Nullification

This is a variant that combines numerous elements of other Scrabble variants,
including Toroidal Scrabble, Forwards-Backwards, and Extension Scrabble and can
adopt as many or as few as desired by the players. It was developed around 2003
and has been played intermittently since by Matt Graham, Mark DiBattista, Dan
Wachtell and others. Its name derives from a mishearing of its actual name, which
has since been lost to history. The basic 100 tiles are used, with one tile of each
letter from a separate set arrayed next to the board. Each player also may hold in
reserve one "blankety-blank," which enables them to "void" any one space on the
board that may otherwise have interfered with their desired play. Thus there is a total
of 128 tiles available. Each player draws six tiles, rather than the typical seven, and
may select their seventh tile from amongst the set of 26 tiles beside the board (or
choose a seventh at random from the bag). On each turn, a player may, prior to
playing, also exchange one tile on their rack with one tile on the board, provided that
the resulting board position remains legal. Modifications of the basic rules are
encouraged.

No Plural Scrabble
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.

Scrabble Towers
A player may play letters on top of letters that are already on the board, even
noncontiguously, as long as all letters placed in one turn are in the same row or
column, and no more than half (rounded down) cover up pre-existing letters. For
example, the words DAWN and IT, with one space between them, can be changed
to the single word DABBLING by covering up the W, N, and T, but cannot be
changed to the word DECOYING because more than half of the letters in DAWN
would have to be covered up. Scoring is the same as Scrabble; zero points are

scored for tiles covered up. The concept of building upwards was implemented in a
commercially released game called Upwords.

Solitaire Scrabble
Solitaire Scrabble follows the same rules and word acceptability as normal Scrabble,
but there is only one player. It can be played against a clock, trying to get the most
points in three minutes for example, or for highest maximum score. Trying to set
yourself up for a good play on the next turn is a good way to learn what not to do in
a normal Scrabble game, as not you but your opponent will most likely reap the
benefit of opening something up.

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

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.[6]

Take Two
Take Two is played without a board. Tiles are placed face down in the middle of the
table. Players draw from these communal letters trying to build words with their
personal tiles in front of them. Words can be built by rearranging tiles already there
and by playing through pre-existing words as if they were playing Solitaire Scrabble.
If a player plays all of the tiles in front of them, they call "Take two", and everybody
takes two tiles. Play continues until there are no more tiles left to draw. Take One or
Take Four can also be played. Take Two is often also called Speed Scrabble.[6]
Once someone has used all their tiles and shouted "Stop!" players add up the value
of each tile used (blanks score zero, and each tile only counts once, even if used in
two words in their grid). Any tiles not used count against that player, so negative
scores in a round are possible. Local variants include 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), bonus of 50 points for getting the word "chicken" in,
bonus for longest word (number of letters in word, not tile values; and only if a single
player has longest word), etc.

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.

Tonica
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.

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.

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.* [7]

WildWords
This game has the same size board and 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.

WordSteal

The Literaxx board

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. [8]

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, triple
letter squares are only active when the tile colour matches that of the square. [9]
Literaxx is available at Kurnik.

Related games
Upwords
Upwords is played on a special 10x10 board with no premium squares. It has a Qu
tile instead of Q and a different tile distribution than regular Scrabble. All tiles, with
the exception of the Qu tile in certain circumstances, are worth the same. Words can
be formed as in Scrabble as well as by playing on top of previously formed words.
All words that are on the first level receive doubled points. Stacks can't go higher
than five tiles. When playing over a word, at least one tile from the original word
must be incorporated into the new word.[10]

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 the blank tile. 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.

Notes
1. ^ Sharp, Richard, The Best Games People Play London: Ward Lock Limited. ISBN
0-7063-5088-X
2. ^ Hills, Rust, "Wordplay" an article in Esquire; March 1996, Vol. 125, Issue 3
3. ^ [1] Scrabulous Web site, accessed September 1, 2007
4. ^ [2] Poslfit.com
5. ^ [3] Rules to Speed Scrabble as played in Toronto, Canada, from Poslfit.com Web
site
6. ^ Scrabulous.com-Strategy Scrabble
7. ^ [4] A Super Scrabble board
8. ^ http://ress.co.uk/html/wordox__or_wordsteal.html]
9. ^ http://www.kurnik.pl/literaxx/rules.phtml
10. ^ [5] Upwards Web psge at BoardGameGeek Web site, accessed September 1,
2007

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