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SPEED SCRABBLE OFFICIAL RULES (ALSO KNOWN AS: "TAKE TWO", "SCRIBBLE") PLAYERS & MATERIALS 1 scrabble set per every two players is ideal - multiple sets may be and are often used. 1 set may accommodate up to four players, but each round will be shortened. Other materials needed: 1 dictionary, paper and pencil to keep score, and ample flat table space. SETUP Take the tiles from a standard Scrabble set (100 tiles in English); you don't use the board. Agree on a score that you want to play to (250, 1000, etc.) and a fun prize if applicable (eg. loser does the dishes). Spread the tiles upside down in the center of the table (as a last resort it may work to keep them in an opaque bag instead, if there little concern with cheating, or in a more casual or travel settings). Make certain that each player has plenty of room to work. Each player chooses 7 tiles and leaves them upside down in front of them. BEGINNING When all players have 7 tiles and are ready, the person that went out first the last round says slowly, clearly and loudly: “OK, 3,2,1, GO!”. If someone isn’t ready, they yell out and stop things during the countdown. THE PLAY When “GO” is called, all players turn over their tiles and begin making words, attempting to use all of their letters in a single crossword layout. The players boards DO NOT interact in any way. IT IS OKAY TO REARRANGE--that is, disassemble all or part of your crossword to make new word configurations--AT ANY TIME. When one player has used all of their letters in complete words that cross each other, with no letters left over (see example) that player calls out "Take Two!". EXAMPLE JAM E AT TAKE TWO When a player calls "Take Two!", EVERY PLAYER takes two tiles and continues working. This means that at all times, all players should have the same number of tiles. If two people call "Take Two!" simultaneously it is treated as only one "Take Two!". END OF A ROUND When the number of remaining tiles is not enough to allow for everyone to take two, the person calling take two instead calls “Take One!”. When all the letters are gone, the next person to call "Take Two!" instead cries "I'm Out" and play immediately stops. No one may add, change or append words after play stops. SCORING Points are scored just as in normal scrabble, normally counting all points of horizontal words then all points of vertical words. Those players with letters left over that are not part of words, subtract these points from their score (letters part of incomplete words are similarly removed from the crossword and counted against the score). Words of 7 letters or more are +10 points - more than 7 letters is still only and always +10 points. The person that was first to go out gets +10 points for finishing first. No one is allowed to add or change their board after play stops. Usually at this point everyone compares words and looks for style (really cool words). You also check to make certain that all of the individual boards/words that each person used are legal. Record all scores on a piece of paper. First person to reach the agreed upon score wins, or in case of more than one player reaching the score in the same round, the player with the higher score wins. RULES Regular Scrabble rules apply: No abbreviations or proper nouns. No slang, hyphenated, or apostophized words. No foreign words (unless they have been fully assimilated into the English language, or are frequently used in English because they have no English equivalent). Normally, a dictionary is made available to look up and verify words and shared around the table - preferably an official scrabble dictionary, but a normal dictionary is fine, or a dual language dictionary works well when traveling. Using the dictionary usually wastes too much time unless you are stuck. If there is no dictionary and a word is in question, the player should call it out and the group of players will vote on whether it is allowed. People may ask the group about spellings too. NOTES You can rearrange your words and letters at any time if you feel it will be useful. (And, in fact, strategy usually dictates that you use 2 & 3 letter words at the start and then midway through the game rearrange for longer words and potentially 7+ letter words!) No trading letters amongst players is allowed. If after an extended period it becomes clear that NONE of the players can use all their tiles to complete a board ALL the players can agree that they are stuck and every player takes two. (This almost NEVER happens with unless you have only 2 or 3 players.) In the rare case that a person draws 7 vowels or 7 consonants at the beginning, they may show the group immediately after flipping their initial letters and call for a redraw. Everyone replaces their letters, mixes the upside down pile and draws again. On rare occasion or in more casual games, if there is confusion about the number of tiles that each person should have (everyone should have the same), someone may ask for a brief time-out for everyone to count their tiles and ensure the numbers match. Blanks are wild cards that can be any letter, but they must represent the same letter in every word they are in. In the example below, the words could be TOCK and BOX, but not TACK and BOX. B TCK X There are only two blank tiles per set, so keep your eye out for any extra that show up in the end (you may want to make a habit of pointing out who the lucky ones were that got the blanks) to ensure that people don’t cheat by flipping letters over to appear blank. ADDING THEMES TO SCORING (VARIATION FOR INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED PLAYERS ONLY) After everyone is comfortable with the rules, scoring and so on, and has become proficient with the game, you may consider adding themes. In this case either the group agrees or the first to go out in the previous round picks a theme. For example, animals, plants, food, etc. For each word in a persons board at the end of the round that meets the theme criteria, the player gets +10 points. In case of dispute, the group may vote. More advanced themes, if agreed upon by the group, may break the normal scrabble rules: Spanish words, cities, movie titles, etc. - but remember to define them well enough so that there will not be an argument to discuss them first , and to vote in case of a dispute. STRATEGY The following may be fair game: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, te, do, qat (a leafy narcotic popular in certain areas of Africa and, more recently, Britain). There are very few words in which q is not followed by u, and all but one have reached English from other languages (may or may not be deemed legal):
Players should vote or agree in advance as to what words are legal, or what list or dictionary shall act as the definitive list. Remember that tiles can always be moved around after their initial play. Longer words are better (since they have more connection points), so it is always advantageous to combine shorter words into longer words, particularly if you can reach 7 letters.. Blank tiles can be a particularly big advantage. Since blank tiles can be any letter many players will use them to represent a common letter. Then when they acquire that letter they switch the actual letter for the blank and can user the blank again. ALTERNATIVE SPEED SCRABBLE RULES AND VARIANTS In some variants (Seattle) only one tile is taken at a time instead of two. In another variant (Idaho) instead of "TAKE TWO!" someone calls "PICK!", and every player takes enough tiles to leave them with 7 unused tiles. (So if you have all of your tiles used, you pick 7, if you have 1 unused, you pick 6, if you have 2 unused you pick 5, and so on. If you have 6 unused, you only pick one and if you have 7 or more unused, you don't pick at all.) You want as many tiles as you can get; More tiles = more points. If two people call PICK! simultaneously it is treated as only one PICK!. TEAM SPEED SCRABBLE Speed scrabble can also be played with the standard rules in teams. This variant is substantially different from the standard rules: Speed Scrabble can also be played as a team game, which is played with a normal Scrabble board. Each player is dealt 7 tokens at the start and the object of the game is to complete a game of Scrabble (use all the tokens in the bag) as fast as possible, with the whole team racing against the clock rather than each other. No scoring takes place and special spaces, such as ‘Double Word Score’ are ignored. Play must process clockwise, however players can pass or opt to change all their tokens for their go and while they're getting on with this, the next player can go. It’s possible to play a whole game of Speed Scrabble in under 5 minutes – so play quick! SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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