We enjoyed playing Scrabble (and its various spin-off games) while the kids were growing up and yet found it was even more fun all around to modify the rules for everyone to win, every time. People can become so vexed in competition against one another; believe it or not there was even a death in Alaska (by shooting, if I recall correctly) resulting directly from a heated game of Scrabble gone tragically wrong. Using our House Rules we all end up enjoying the conversation more than in regular Scrabble and usually learn something new, too, using this modified approach described below. In case anyone is interested:
House Rules for Scrabble at AlaskaSteven’s Place
1) The object of the game is to enjoy each other’s company while learning.
2) We are in competition to beat our old highest score, have the most fun, and learn something new or interesting--both individually and as a group--not to beat or defeat anyone else.
3) Sometimes more honor and glory are earned by a player who takes a lower score individually so the group as a whole may score higher overall.
4) When placing words, play to open up areas of the board and to leave as many open letters as possible for others (not to “block” options).
5) Save red squares and other high point-gainer opportunities for someone who has high-value letters to play on them (e.g., if on your turn you could play “so” on a triple word square, refrain and place “so” somewhere else, allowing the teammate with “zoology” to play the high point letters there instead).
6) Words in any language are allowed as long as they do not need to be capitalized, the English character set reasonably accommodates them, and a dictionary is available to prove the word if challenged (for example, “nyet” is allowed if there is a Russian-English dictionary present, but a word requiring Cyrillic characters is not allowed). The exception to this rule is if a player has one or two blank tiles and chooses to use them for representing characters not in the regular letter set.
7) Players may use a dictionary at any time except when it is their turn; a player’s dictionary or dictionaries stay shut from the beginning to the end of his or her turn unless the word is challenged, in which case s/he may use the dictionaries to defend the word (this rule speeds up the flow of the game enormously).
8) When a player places a word, s/he pronounces it correctly, states what part of speech it is (if known; discussion on such aspects is allowed) as s/he intends to use it, and --if from a language other than the main language of play during that game-- from which language the word is drawn. The player then defines the word in his or her own terms and uses it correctly in the context of a sentence. Extra honor and glory for weaving the word together with a joke, a bit of trivia, a personal story, snippet of poetry, a work of art, historical reference, demonstration, and suchlike. Example:
“jagged” -adjective describing a zigzag, serrated, or uneven surface (often an edge) or quality. “The broken peanut brittle had jagged edges.” (Show-and-tell demo with some peanut brittle, shared around).
9) Any player may request the assistance of any and all other players at any time, including by showing tile boards and asking for suggestions or begging for a particular spot on the board be left open until his or her turn comes around.
We also use the common rule which allows folks to (during their turn) swap a letter tile on their board for a blank tile already placed on the board whenever they are holding a letter the blank was used to represent, if indeed they want to swap ‘em, and so on. We are fairly flexible. The main point of the House Rules is everyone enjoys the game, learns something, and nobody “gets beaten” -up, down, or otherwise. Much more fun for younger and older players mixed together in the same game, as well as for super-spellers together with the spelling-challenged.
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Nirvana vs Rick Astley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN75im_us4k
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