How to play Scrabble

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By WesleyJ
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Scrabble

Scrabble is a word game that takes 2 to 4 players. The goal is to form words with the letters you have, and get as many points as possible to win. Scrabble can be found in 121 countries, in 29 different languages, and several different names. Here's how to play.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Scrabble
2 to 4 players
A place to play
Dictionary

Step 1

letters placed strategically on the board

Your Scrabble game should come with 100 letters, 4 racks and a letter bag (if you bought it new). Your goal in the game is to form words in a criss-cross manner. Each player must take advantage of the letter values, in order to get the highest score. Letter placement on the board is crucial.
Step 2

To setup the game, put all the letters into a bag(or another container), and mix them up. Each player draws a letter. The player drawing the letter nearest to the beginning of the alphabet plays first. If your game has more players, successive turns come based on the alphabetical order of the picked letter. Remember a blank tile picked means automatic first player.
For example: If Mikey got an A, Sally got P and you got T. Then the order of play is Mikey, Sally and You.
Step 3

Return the picked tiles to the bag and mix. Each player then picks 7 letters at random, to be placed on their rack. It's time to begin!
Step 4

The first player must combine 2 or more of his or her letters to form a word ("A" is not a word). Place the word on the board, where one letter must be on the "star" square. You can't make diagonal words. The player's turn ends with the count-up of their overall points for the turn, and picking out as many new letters as were used.
Step 5

Continuing play, each successive player must add their own words by linking to at least one letter already on the board. No letters may be moved after it has been played. Blank letters can be used in place of any letter.
Step 6

What if you don't like your letter? That's fine. It'll take one of your turns to exchange one, some, or all of your letters. Draw an equal amount of tiles that you are replacing.
Step 7

Keep your trusty dictionary by the side of the game. It'll serve as a "silent referee"..at least until there's an argument about if "that's really a word" (it'll happen if the game lasts long enough). The "silent referee" can't cheat, which means you can't use it for help.

Remember though: if you challenge a word and it REALLY IS A WORD, you lose your turn.
Step 8

Time to explain how to end the game:
The game will end if:
- all tiles are used
- all possible plays have been made
- if a majority of the players have to go to sleep, or head home.

The player with the highest final score wins the game. In a tie, the player with the best score before adding or deducting unplayed letters wins.

Comments

shannonny said

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on 10/13/2008 I love house rules Scrabble. Straight-rules Scrabble means you can't use capitalized words, slang words not in the dictionary, and made-up words when you start to run out of good tiles. Good article!

kaseysviewblog said

on 10/7/2008 Very good instructions.
Scrabble really is a lot of fun.

cyclegirl98 said

on 10/7/2008 Great step by step instruction and well detailed! Thanks.

slphilbrick said

on 10/7/2008 I didn't know if you challenge a word and it really is one, that you lose your turn ! Wow... we did that all the time.....good thing we didn't know it when we played a lot, the game would never end !! Good directions and thanks, I think, for the new to me info..lol