Honor System

Scrabble

Selchow and Righter

CONTENTS:

Gameboard, 100 letter tiles, 4 tile racks, letter pouch

In Scrabble, players form interlocking words crossword fashion, on the board using letter tiles of different values. Each player competes for high score by taking advantage of the letter values, as well as the premium squares on the board. In a 2-player game, a good player scores in the 300-400 point range.

SETUP

Turn all letter tiles facedown at the side of the board or pour them into the pouch or another container, and shuffle. Draw for first play. The player draw­ing the letter nearest the beginning of the alphabet plays first. A blank tile supersedes all other tiles. Return the exposed letters to the pool and reshuffle. Each player then draws seven new letters and places them in his or her rack.

GAME PLAY

1. The first player combines two or more of his or her letters to form a word, and places it on the board to read either across or down with one letter on the center * square. Diagonal words are not permitted.

2. A player completes a turn by counting and announcing the score for the turn. The player then draws as many new letters as played, thus always keep­ing seven letters in his or her rack.

3. Play passes to the left. The second player, and then each in turn, adds one or more letters to those already played to form new words. All letters played on a turn must be placed in one row across or down the board, to form one complete word. If, at the same time, they touch other letters in adjacent rows, they must form complete words, crossword fashion, with all such letters. The player gets full credit for all words formed or modified on his or her turn.

4. New words may be formed by:
a. Adding one or more letters to a word or letters already on the board.

b. Placing a word at right angles to a word already on the board. The new word must use one of the letters already on the board or must add a letter to it. (See Turns 2, 3 and 4 on the other side of this card.)

c. Placing a complete word parallel to a word already played so that adjacent letters also form complete words. (See Turn 5 on the other side of this card.)

5. No letter may be shifted after it has been played.

6. The two blank tiles may be used as any letters. When playing a blank, the player must state which letter it represents. It remains that letter for the rest of the game.

7. A player may use a turn to exchange all, some, or none of the letters in his or her rack. To do this, place your discarded letter(s) facedown. Draw the same number of letters from the pool, then mix your discarded letters with those in the pool. This ends your turn.

8. Before the game begins, the players should agree upon the dictionary 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.

Any word may be challenged before the next player starts a turn. If the word challenged is unacceptable, the challenged player takes back his or her tiles and loses that turn. If the word challenged is acceptable, the challenger loses his or her next turn. Consult the dictionary for challenges only.

9. ENDING THE GAME: The game ends when all letters have been drawn and one player uses his or her last letter; or when all possible plays have been made.

SCORING

10. Keep a tally of each player’s score, entering it after each turn. The score value of each letter is indicated by a number at the bottom of the tile. The score value of a blank is zero.

11. The score for each turn is the sum of the letter values in each word formed or modified on that turn, plus the additional points obtained from placing letters on premium squares.

12. Premium Letter Squares: A light blue square doubles the score of a letter placed on it; a dark blue square triples the letter score.

13. Premium Word Squares: The score for an entire word is doubled when one of its letters is placed on a pink square: it is tripled when one of its letters is placed on a red square. Include premiums for double or triple letter values, if any, before doubling or tripling the word score.

If a word covers two premium word squares, the score is doubled then re-doubled (4 times the letter count), or tripled then re-tripled (9 times the letter count). NOTE: the center Scrabble Star square is pink, which doubles the score for the first word.

14. Letter and word premiums count only on the turn in which they are played. On later turns, letters already played on premium squares count at face value.

15. When a blank tile is played on a pink or red square, the value of the word is doubled or tripled, even though the blank itself has no score value.

16. When two or more words are formed in the same play, each is scored. The common letter is counted (with full premium value, if any) for each word. (See Turns 3, 4 and 5 below.)

17. Any player who plays seven tiles on a turn, scores a premium of 50 points after totaling his or her score for the turn.

18. UNPLAYED LETTERS: When the game ends, each player’s score is reduced by the sum of his or her unplayed letters. In addition, if a player used all letters, the sum of the other players’ unplayed letters is added to that player’s score.

HOW TO WIN

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

EXAMPLES OF WORD FORMATION AND SCORING

Below, the words added on five successive turns are shown in bold type. The scores shown are the correct scores if the letter R is placed on the center Scrabble Star square. In Turn 1, count HORN; in Turn 2, FARM; in Turn 3, PASTE and FARMS; in Turn 4, MOB, NOT and BE; in Turn 5, BIT, PI and AT.

Scrabble Fig 1

STORAGE

After you’re done playing, place racks, tiles and letter pouch in storage com­partments as shown on the bottom of the box. Important: Spread tiles flat along bottom — do not store them in the letter pouch.

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