What “house” rules do you use in Scrabble?
beingzoe 3 months ago // Sports and Leisure Game night talk

Scrabble is among my favorite games. Out of the box, by default rules, Scrabble is a perfect and balanced game that takes on a unique life depending on who sits down to play. Whether you have a big or small vocabulary, beginner or advanced player who has every two and three letter word list memorized, the game offers a fun and stimulating challenge. Even when players are mismatched in skill advanced players can enjoy challenging themselves by making more interesting longer words even if they score lower.

Basically, Scrabble will become what you want it to be as you lay your tiles down.

But do you have any special “house” rules you use to make the game even more your own?

One of my favorites is the “take the blank tile” rule. When a blank tile is played any player after that may take the blank by switching it with the actual letter it was played in proxy for. (e.g. if someone played SCRAB_LE players could then switch the blank out with a “B” from their rack). Then the tile becomes a blank again in their rack. I am fond of this rule because it seems to stimulate longer and more interesting word plays throughout the life of the game. Note that the blank must be switched at the beginning of a turn and does not count as the turn (unlike switching out tiles from the pile).

Depending on who I am playing with I also enjoy the 4, 5, or 6 letter minimum to start the game. This rule variation is listed in the official Scrabble rules I believe but is a great way to start a game. Not only does it mean the board starts out with a better building position, but it also adds some excitement to who gets to go first and get that valuable first double word score. If everyone passes you can either choose to switch out tiles as a turn or simply start over with everyone selecting new tiles.

Some variations we have discussed but never followed through on were allowing certain illegal words, such as proper nouns, company/brand names, foreign languages, and phrases. Though it always sounded interesting to try I personally have not tried any of these variations. I would also like to try a game that allowed phrases (such as when my friend tried to play PINTOBEANS).

Remember that all “house” rules need to be declared and agreed upon before the game starts for maximum fairness, generally at the same time you are choosing the official dictionary for the game. Which reminds me of one last variation my friends and I have discussed but never implemented, which was using either jargon dictionaries or dictionaries from pre or early 20th century.

What are some “house rules” you use in Scrabble?

Scrabble: Flickr image courtesy of Ella’s Dad from Flickr under a creative commons license shows what a game might look like that allowed jargon. What a neat picture for this post! Thank’s Ella’s Dad.

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