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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Scrabble

14:31 / 15.08.05

Playing Scrabble with my S/O and Godness Gracious Meme last night I realised there were no board game threads here (AFAIK). After disputing 'Hebe'* I thought, the average Barbeposter has played, and probably a lot over the years. When did you last Scrabble?

Do you play at Christmas? Dinner parties? What's your favourite scrabble word? Any theories on why it's so popular?

(*Hebe- archaic name for barmaid, also type of plant named for goddess of youth)

16:11 / 15.08.05

...and just to make it clear I could easily whup any of you. I beat GGMeme by a clear hundred points for example, I am the Scrabblemaster.

16:27 / 15.08.05

When my better half and I were dating, her on one side of the Atlantic and me on the other, we'd often find ourselves playing Scrabble through this website: Internet Scrabble Club. I mention this solely in case any people here fancy playing together, though for all I know there are many other online Scrabble games out there.

As for favourite words, as I'm a poor sport I love any of the sneaky two-letter words that contain a high-point letter, as they can really get youplaces if you place them correctly.

madfigs #32, now with wasabi

19:36 / 15.08.05

I've had bad experiences with internet scrabble - the use of anagram generators seems to be rampant. I suppose it's possible that people can come up with seven letter words in about 20 seconds every time, but I kinda doubt it.

I do love Scrabble and it's a popular activity when we have friends over, although arguments have cast a pall over many an evening when a dictionary wasn't available. My favorite word that I've managed to work in was "Latrine" as an opening move - deadly! I've found that a key strategy is effective "S" usage - if you can pluralize an existing word you get points for it and your new word, which very few people seem to realize.

Is that the UK tileset pictured up there? In all the versions I've seen, K = 5, M = 3, Q = 10, W = 4, X = 8, and Y = 4. The entire strategy would have to change with different values.

12:46 / 16.08.05

No, that's a different set- not sure which country from though, what language has K as rare as Z?

14:45 / 16.08.05

My partner and I got into scrabble about a year ago when we gave up on chess. I love it, and we’ll play at least once a week if we can. We’re pretty evenly matched too, which is pretty important I think. I think I was put off the game during my early teens when my brother repeatedly thrashed me.

As mousezilla says, you quickly realise that the two letter words are key, and the more I play, the more I play the board rather than my tiles. And I’m more likely to employ spoiling tactics. And after playing for a while, different opportunities leap out of you. Now a vowel (particularly an ‘O’) adjacent to a triple-letter-score shines brighter than the triple-word. So my favourite words are probably Qi, Zo, stuff like that.

17:33 / 16.08.05

I was wondering when K became a 10-point tile...

18:25 / 16.08.05

I've just had a look at the image and it's from a a .fr domain so it's probably a French Scrabble set. Not many 'K' words I can think of in French...

One of the things I like about Scrabble is its ability to make whoever is playing it repeat the particularly high-scoring words they have made in order to annoy or demoralise the other player. I once spent a half hour sat listening to the word zits repeated in increasingly fruity tones. Next game, I got to say undulate quite a bit, which was satisfying. My mother once got the word equinox on a triple word tile, and didn't give up saying it for about a year.

I think it's popular because even though it's down to chance to some extent, winning a game makes one (me) feel brilliantly clever -and even if I don't win, there's usually going to be some word I've made that I was quite pleased with.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

18:48 / 16.08.05

I'm always partial to a bit of Scrabble, though in our family it was always Monopoly that led to violence and weeping.

17:51 / 18.08.05

A casual player might respond to an opponent's ZO by saying: 'Zo? What does that mean?' A more advanced player would say nothing, and stick a D in front of it. In English, zo and dzo are alternative spellings of zho, a hybrid cow found in the Himalayas, the offspring of a domestic horned cow and a yak (the female is known as a zhomo). In English, zo is not a very useful word. In Scrabble, ZO is the only eligible two-letter word with a Z in it: this makes it almost as useful as QI (neither, incidentally, is allowed in the United States). (from here)

Check out this list of acceptable two letter words. If I'd been allowed AA last game (I wasn't) I would have had ADORES parallel & adjacent to STAID and landing on the triple word, the last three & first three letters overlapping to get AA, ID, DO and ADORES all at once. Which would have been nice. I said it was a word but they *wouldn't* believe me, curse my poor quality concise dictionary.

Also check out the Phrontistery which I may cross post to the 'interesting words' thread.

07:30 / 19.08.05

See, this is the problem I have with Scrabble. I only like playing it if the rule is to only use normal words, hence I only play it very occasionally. I played a few games with friends who are right into it and knew all those random little 'words' like in the post above and I just got annoyed.

If prowess at the game comes down to memorising a list of meaningless two and three letter words that are only barely considered English, then the language itself becomes secondary, in which case why not play flipping sudoku? I mean really, how on earth can phonetic spellings be considered words?

Rant over (for now).

08:26 / 19.08.05

Just because you don't know a word doesn't make it abnormal.

08:36 / 19.08.05

That's not what I said. I'm happy to abide by the dictionary (although I'm not very keen on jargon words), but I don't see how phonetic spellings count as words.

09:53 / 19.08.05

but I don't see how phonetic spellings count as words.

I don't understand. What shouldn't count as words?

10:19 / 19.08.05

Maybe I was duped, but according to my scrabble playing chums, "es" (or was it "ess"? - I can't remember) as a phonetic spelling of the letter "s", for example.

I can't remember off the top of my head but I seem to recall others in their list of two-letter words that seemed fairly dodgy, but perhaps they are all in the dictionary.

I don't want to rain on anybody's scrabble board, but I'm simply outing myself as a casual player, and if I am playing with someone I would expect that a term should have some level of general currency to be used in the game. For instance, I would probably get pissed off if someone used "dzo" as per the example above. Obviously it's nigh impossible to agree on how obscure is too obscure, but I'm sure plenty of people draw their own rules for their games and are perfectly within their rights to do so.

For me the enjoyment is coming up with interesting words rather than going to a scrabble website, memorising thirty useful short words and waiting for a chance to deploy them. Both are valid ways of playing, as long as the terms are agreed beforehand.

Don't have a dzo, man. (Sorry - couldn't resist.)

10:55 / 19.08.05

Oh I see, yeah, all of those (ay, ef etc) are bona fide scrabble words and I think I'd struggle without them. Remember this isn't generally about in-filling (although that's often necessary at the end), but about opening opportunities for placing longer words. I think if the more unusual 2-letter words were banned, the board would quickly become a collection of 3- and 4-letter words. Zo and Qi might boost your score if you're lucky, but more often they make useful connectors.

I'm all for personalising the rules though. For instance, my Scrabble partner and I sometimes institute a 10-point bonus for rude words. Puerile maybe but it's a good way of compensating a player for playing a lower scoring but otherwise amusing combination.
Anyone else tailor the rules to better entertain them?

11:02 / 19.08.05

Obviously it's nigh impossible to agree on how obscure is too obscure

I'd always thought that the rules were that the person who is currently playing can't use a dictionary, and should be able to define any word they play. That tends to keep things on the 'normal words' level, unless someone really does make the effort to learn 2-letter words and their definitions. Personally the 2 letter words that dick me off the most are the names of musical notes (until I have to use them, of course) -it just seems too convenient that 'LA' is a word.

Quantum, aa is a type of rock found in Hawaiian volcanoes. Feel free to claim your moral victory next time you see your fellow players...

I love the +10 points for rude words. Going to try to instigate that one next time.

11:26 / 19.08.05

That rude words idea is genius. How about playing a whole game of rude words, with a -10 penalty for every non-rude word.

16:11 / 19.08.05

Also txt words, Harry Potter words, star wars words variations. Rude is best though, I love the additional points rule. You might need more Ks in the bag though..

Rough clinky scoriaceus lava is known as Aa, but I was playing with illiterate losers (hope GGMeme doesn't read this thread) who denied me my rightful glory by scoffing at the word.
Personally I value elegance, and like to open up the board with interesting words, but it's frustrating when 'filial' gets you seven points and gives someone a triple word score, when you could get forty-odd points with a well placed 'ex' suffix. I play for words, but the temptation to play for points is sometimes overwhelming (ditto spoiling and blocking).

Professor Silly

17:13 / 19.08.05

Next to Skipbo and Uno, Scrabble is probably the game my wife and I play most often. She has the better vocabulary, but I've been better at strategy (hitting those double and triple word squares are key)...but lately she's been learning my strategies and beating me pretty regularly.
As far as the rules go, I believe it says that everyone agrees on a English dictionary before the game starts. Players don't need to know a definition so long as it's in there. Some dictionaries have vulgarities like "shit" and "fuck" while most don't. As far as the little words go (like Pi or whatever) I think it's great to learn new words, however obscure!
As a sidenote, my grandparents loved this game and played in regularly, when we weren't all playing Uno!!!

rising and revolving

17:17 / 19.08.05

We used to play Scrabble after clubbing, but with our own set of rules. I can't remember if we didn't own a dictionary or whether we were just being difficult, but our house rule was that words were legal if you could comprehensively justify them.

This would mean that we'd get words like Horsey, followed up with Hayes (which, obviously, is what Horseys eat).

My moment of utter triumph was playing Phoneman, using all letters and on a triple word score. When challenged as to the validity of Phoneman as a justifiable word, I picked up the phone, flicked it on to speaker mode and called the Telecom company

"Hello?"
"Hello there. My phone is broken. Could you send me a Phoneman to fix it?"
"Of course Sir. What is your address?"
"Click"

Game, set, and match.

18:45 / 19.08.05

Sweet! People keep trying to play Democratic scrabble where if the majority agree it's a word it's allowed. Balls I say to that.

semioticrobotic

22:05 / 19.08.05

I've felt renewed interest in the game since I read Word Freak, and just bought a Scrabble set to take along to school.

Goodness Gracious Meme

01:34 / 20.08.05

Rough clinky scoriaceus lava is known as Aa, but I was playing with illiterate losers (hope GGMeme doesn't read this thread) who denied me my rightful glory by scoffing at the word.

Thing is, when challenged on 'aa', there was surprisingly little talk of lava on your part, and much more talk of 'utterances'.

Darling, I think you have to *know* and justify a definition before we'll give it to you.

20:51 / 13.12.05

Having to know a word would deny me the pleasure of correctly guessing something "Saxon sounding" at the end of a game.
As with most games, it's definitely important to play with others of a similar level of skill and expectation. The air of a family game that surrounds it, hides the brutal heart within. I love my spoilers I do. If I'm ahead I'll turn that board into a solid block of unplayable tiles first chance I get.

06:48 / 14.12.05

...and just to make it clear I could easily whup any of you.

Oh dear. You're going to get quite the nasty shock should our Scrabble paths cross at any point...

...although I haven't played for some time. Perhaps typically, it was the traditional drag-the-set-out-at-Christmas event in our family. IIRC the fights didn't start as a result of the validity of words being played, so much as heated debates about their etymology.

14:33 / 14.12.05

I've not played that version of scrabble...

15:47 / 14.12.05

...and just to make it clear I could easily whup any of you.

Oh dear. You're going to be quite the nasty shock should our Scrabble paths cross at any point...

C'mon, cocks on the table, what kind of scores are you averaging in 2-player games.

12:31 / 23.12.05

I love love love Scrabble, but I get my ass kicked regularly because I am proud of my vocabulary and have a weakness for flashy moves.

That is, I'll hoard tiles and watch little letter-clusters form and rub my hands until I can triumphantly spring forth with EXCHEQUER, and cry out, "Hah!" But of course I'll only get face letter-value, 32 points or something, because of placement.

Then D will lay down O-U-T on a triple-letter/triple word score combo for like a hundred and eighty points, and then sit back with a tiny, infuriating smile.