Scrabble Games
Tiles on a board, points for the letters you place and more for where you place them. If you have played the boxed game, the rules will feel familiar within one turn.
The board is worth more than the letters
This is the whole game, and it is the thing beginners take longest to believe. Bonus squares pay once. Whoever lands on one keeps that value for the rest of the board, and everything else is arithmetic around it.
- A short word on a word multiplier routinely beats a long word on plain squares.
- Hold the S and the blank. Both are worth far more attached to something the opponent has just played than spent early on their own.
- Put J, Q, X and Z on a letter multiplier or keep them until one is free. A ten point tile on a plain square is a wasted tile.
- Do not open a lane to a triple. If your word leaves the opponent one move from it, find another spot even at a cost.
- Swapping is not a lost turn when the alternative is four points and the same unplayable rack next time.
Why the computer knows words you do not
Because it is reading a list rather than remembering. Every game here checks against a dictionary, and those dictionaries contain a long tail of two and three letter words that exist mainly to make tile games work.
Learning twenty of them will change your scores more than learning any number of long words. They are what turn a blocked rack into a playable turn, and they are the difference between a beginner and someone who looks like they practise.
The endgame
Near the end the bag empties and the board tightens, and the arithmetic changes. Count what is left. A five point word that blocks the last open multiplier is usually worth more than a twelve point word that opens it, and the player who works that out first wins games they were losing.
Where to start
- Wordmeister for the closest thing here to the familiar board game.
- Word Candy for the same idea somewhere lighter and less strict.
- Wordy Night if you want a calmer pace and a smaller board.
- Word Cube Online if you would rather build in three dimensions.
- Outspell in the word category, which is the strongest tile game on the site and sits under a different heading.
Are these the real thing?
None of these are the trademarked board game, and none of them pretend to be. Board layouts differ, bonus squares sit in different places, and the dictionaries are not identical to the official word lists. The game is the same shape and the details are its own.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as the boxed game?
The idea is the same and the details are not. Board layouts differ, the bonus squares sit in different places, and the dictionaries are not the official word lists. None of these are the trademarked game.
Can I play against another person?
These are single player against a computer opponent. The difficulty setting changes how well it plays rather than how much it knows, so a lower level is a genuinely easier game and not a handicapped one.
What happens if I try a word that is not allowed?
The move is refused and you keep both your tiles and your turn. Nothing is lost by trying, which is worth remembering when you suspect a word exists but could not swear to it.
How do the coloured squares work?
One kind multiplies the value of the single letter placed on it, the other multiplies the whole word. Once a tile sits on one, that square is spent for the rest of the game.
Are there more of these coming?
Yes. Tile games are among the most searched for things here and among the hardest to license, so this is the shelf we add to first whenever a good one becomes available.