Scrabble - Crossword Game.

Setup

You should have a game board, 100 letter tiles, a letter bag, and four racks.

Before the game begins, all players should agree upon the dictionary that they will use, in case of a challenge. All words labeled as a part of speech (including those listed of foreign origin, and as archaic, obsolete, colloquial, slang, etc.) are permitted with the exception of the following: words always capitalized, abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes standing alone, words requiring a hyphen or an apostrophe.

Place all letters in the pouch, or facedown beside the board, and mix them up. Draw for first play. The player with the letter closest to "A" plays first. A blank tile beats any letter. Return the letters to the pool and remix. All players draw seven new letters and place them on their racks.

The Board

The game board is made up of 15 by 15 squares. Each square is either blank or has an assigned point multiplier value. These special squares have their value written on them, and they are also color coded for easy recognition.

While there are several modern versions of the Scrabble game board, the classic board follows this pattern- pink squares indicate a double word score, red squares indicate a triple word scores, light blue squares indicate a double letter score, and dark blue squares indicate a triple letter score.

Important Note About Multipliers – Only the first player to lay a tile down on a multiplier square receives the multiplied point value. While future players may modify the played word, they will only receive credit for the face value of tiles which are in play unless they themselves have played a tile on a new square indicating an additional point multiplication.

The Tiles

Scrabble includes 100 letter tiles per set. All of the tiles are inscribed with letters, except for two blank tiles. The blank tiles act as wild cards. They can be counted as any letter of the alphabet. The one drawback from the benefit of the blank tile is that it has no point value of its own.

Every tile with a letter has its own point value. The more tiles there are of any particular letter, the lower the point value is for that letter. A, E, I, L, N, O, R, S, T, & U all earn one point. D and G earn two points, B, C, M & P earn three points, F, H, V, W & Y earn four points, K earns five points, J and X earn eight points each, and the highest value tiles, Q and Z earn ten points each.

Tile Values

0 Points - Blank tile.

1 Point - A, E, I, L, N, O, R, S, T and U.

2 Points - D and G.

3 Points - B, C, M and P.

4 Points - F, H, V, W and Y.

5 Points - K.

8 Points - J and X.

10 Points - Q and Z.

Extra Point Values

When looking at the board, players will see that some squares offer multipliers. Should a tile be placed on these squares, the value of the tile will be multiplied by 2x or 3x. Some squares will also multiply the total value of the word and not just the single point value of one tile.

Double Letter Scores - The light blue cells in the board are isolated and when these are used, they will double the value of the tile placed on that square.

Triple Letter Score - The dark blue cell in the board will be worth triple the amount, so any tile placed here will earn more points.

Double Word Score - When a cell is light red in colour, it is a double word cell and these run diagonally on the board, towards the four corners. When a word is placed on these squares, the entire value of the word will be doubled.

Triple Word Score - The dark red square is where the high points can be earned as this will triple the word score. Placing any word on these squares will boos points drastically. These are found on all four sides of the board and are equidistant from the corners.

One Single Use - When using the extra point squares on the board, they can only be used one time. If a player places a word here, it cannot be used as a multiplier by placing another word on the same square.

Starting the Game

Without looking at any of the tiles in the bag, players will take one tile. The player that has the letter that is closest to “A” will begin the game. A blank tile will win the start of the game. The tiles are them replaced to the bag and used in the remainder of the game.

Every player will start their turn by drawing seven tiles from the Scrabble bag. There are three options during any turn. The player can place a word, they can exchange tiles for new tiles or they can choose to pass. In most cases, players will try to place a word as the other two options will result in no score.

When a player chooses to exchange tiles, they can choose to exchange one or all of the tiles they currently hold. After tiles are exchanged, the turn is over and players will have to wait until their next turn to place a word on the board.

Players can choose to pass at any time. They will forfeit that turn and hope to be able to play the next time. If any player passes two times in a row, the game will end and the one with the highest score will win.

The First Word Score

When the game begins, the first player will place their word on the star spin in the centre of the board. The star is a double square and will offer a double word score. All players following will build their words off of this word, extending the game to other squares on the board.

Play continues in a clockwise direction around the Scrabble board.

Replacing Scrabble Tiles

Once tiles are played on the board, players will draw new tiles to replace those. Players will always have seven tiles during the game. Drawing tiles is always done without looking into the bag so that the letters are always unknown.

The Fifty Point Bonus

Exciting rewards can come when players use all seven tiles to create a word on the board. When this happens, players will receive a 50 point bonus, in addition to the value of the word. If the game is near the end and players are not holding seven tiles, they do not get the bonus for using all of their tiles. This is only collected for seven letter words placed.

The End of a Scrabble Game

Once all tiles are gone from the bag and a single player has placed all of their tiles, the game will end and the player with the highest score wins.

Tallying Scrabble Scores

When the game ends, each player will count all points that are remaining on their tiles that have not been played. This amount will be deducted from the final score. An added bonus is awarded to the player that ended the game and has no remaining tiles.

The tile values of all remaining players will be added to the score of the player who is out of tiles to produce the final score for the game. The Scrabble player with the highest score after all final scores are tallied wins.

Accepted Scrabble Words

Any word that is found in a standard English dictionary can be used in the game of Scrabble. There are also Official Scrabble Dictionaries that can be purchased for more word options.

There are some words that are not allowed to be played and these include suffixes, prefixes and abbreviations. Any word that requires the use of a hyphen or apostrophe cannot be played in the game. Any word that required the use of a capital letter is not allowed.

When playing an English version of the game, foreign words are not allowed to be placed on the board. However, if the foreign word does appear in a standard English dictionary, it is allowed. The reason for this is due to the fact that the word is spoken enough and is considered part of the English language.