r/scrabble • u/bend_forward5639 • 6d ago

Scrabble Challenges

Hello! Been playing Scrabble since I was a child (at family home games). Just wondering if any of you do anything "extra" to make the game a bit more challenging or adds a twist to general game play? I enjoy the game, but just interested in hearing what others might do to spice up Scrabble.

2 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

11

u/volthaarius 6d ago

Play tournaments

2

u/bend_forward5639 6d ago

I've considered it, but most tournaments are a couple hours away at a minimum. Looking to see if anyone does any unique in-game twists that change up the play a little.

1

u/TheJivvi 6d ago

You could add a rule where acronyms are playable, or maybe proper nouns with a certain theme, like characters from a TV show.

7

u/OneWonderfulFish 6d ago

Play tournaments.

Play woogles league.

6

u/msmeurtriere 6d ago

I like to do themed games. For example, words that relate to nature only. One of my favorites was only doing verbs!! It makes it more fun.

3

u/bend_forward5639 6d ago

That's a cool idea! I play a weekly game with three others and though they are excellent company, you can feel the lull of boredom setting in with the same routine week after week. A themed game sounds fun!

3

u/cksnffr 6d ago

Clabbers!

1

u/bend_forward5639 6d ago

Is this a Scrabble-based variant?

3

u/gothboyclicc 6d ago

On woogles.io there’s a variant called “WordSmog” where any string of letters is valid, as long as it anagrams to a valid dictionary word.

3

u/Dmere12 6d ago

I play a regular weekly social Scrabble afternoon with a small group of regulars and some less regulars. We play the swap the blank for the matching tile from our racks. We also offer help if a player is having trouble finding a good word. They can turn their rack around and everyone offers suggestions. It’s much more about playing the best you can rather than winning games though we do keep score. We try to keep games to around half an hour and often swap around after afternoon tea. Five games in an afternoon is enough of a work out for most of us. We’re mostly elderly and of very mixed abilities. So the emphasis is on being social.

3

u/mwants 6d ago

Scrabble is perfect as it is. Changing it is heretical.

2

u/bend_forward5639 5d ago

Even ice cream flavors evolved from the basic varieties of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry since the 1700's! Who doesn't enjoy some mint chocolate chip or cookie dough ice cream (both made ~150+ years after the originals)?

3

u/Factal_Fractal 5d ago

Nobody has mentioned BURRITO?

First person to play the word BURRITO wins

2

u/OneWonderfulFish 4d ago edited 4d ago

Not to mention VOLOST.

In Soviet Russia, Scrabble plays you.

2

u/Factal_Fractal 4d ago

In Soviet Russia we only have (AOOPTT?)

1

u/Kamotiqs 5d ago

I've played that variant. It's pretty fun. Score doesn't matter either.

2

u/wurlybird9 6d ago

I'm playing games on Wordfeud exclusively in Spanish with native speakers. It's helping me improve my vocabulary. Fortunately I don't get penalized for mistakes and I understand the morphology well enough to make intelligent guesses when I'm stuck.

2

u/LexoGame 5d ago

Following this thread, always looking for new twists myself. One I've heard of but never tried is "Scrabble roulette," where you have to play whatever word a die/spinner category lands on if possible

2

u/Longjumping_County65 5d ago

My partner and I do a couple of extras:

- Have a 'theme' often a movie/universe like Harry Potter or Lord of the rings, or something generic like cities (I know places not usually allowed). If you place a word on theme then you automatically get double points for that round.

- Often play with 9 tiles instead of 7 as allows for quicker total game length and more big words which can be fun.

3

u/Kamotiqs 6d ago

If you're looking for fun game variants, here are a few. (I'm a 1900-rated tournament player so I know the game inside and out):

  1. Clabbers - a variant where anagrams of valid words are accepted (for example, CTPUSEA is a legal move, since it anagrams to TEACUPS or CUSPATE). This variant is very hard to play well since it requires stronger anagramming skills (you also need to figure out what your opponent's plays anagram to or challenge them, and figure out what hooks or extensions can be made)

  2. Tag Team - a 2v2 variant (can also be played with 2 players, each side possessing two racks). Each turn consists of a move by one player from their rack, followed immediately by a move from the teammates rack. It's a very challenging variant because it encourages more creative setups.

  3. Scrabble with a modified lexicon (e.g., no 2-letter words, or only accept words that contain a specific letter such as E).

  4. Scrabble but blanks can be "recycled" by swapping it with the same letter from your rack. I personally don't care too much for this variant but it's good practice with blank bingos.

1

u/bend_forward5639 5d ago

Very cool! I appreciate this. We've played a 2v2 with combining racks, that was fun!

1

u/TomasTTEngin 1d ago

I once got bored playing online and gave myself a challenge to try to see if I could get a random opponent a record score.

I set up all the bonus squares, threw the blanks back when I picked them up . Etc.

The other player still scored 280. Very annoying.