How to Play Scrabble

The object of the game is to spell words to score points and have the highest total at the end of the game. The game ends when all the letters have been drawn and one player uses their last letter, or when all possible plays have been made. Setup: lay out the board and give each player a tile holder. The timer is optional to use to limit all or certain player’s turn length. Place all letter tiles in a pouch and each player draws one. the player with the closest letter to A goes first. A blank tile beats any letter; and if there is a tie, the tied players redraw. Each player draws 7 tiles. There are a few variations you can play with, but these are the standard rules. On your turn you place tiles on the board so that you spell a complete word that reads either top to down or left to right. One of your tiles must touch a tile already in play, and if it alters that word it must turn it into a new word. Additionally, any adjacent tiles your tiles touch must also form complete words, similar to a crossword. You score points for each letter in all new words formed during your turn. Some letters will be counted twice if they are in more than 1 new word. If you didn’t change a word you don’t count the points. You are not allowed to shift or move tiles already played. There are also bonus squares on the board. During the turn you place a tile on these squares you apply its effects to every new word that letter affects. Bonus letter squares only affect the letter’s score, while bonus words affect the entire word’s score. The premium star square in the middle of the board has two effects. First, it determines where the first play must be. The first word played must cover that square. It’s second effect is that is doubles score of the first word. If ever you play 7 tiles from your rack you receive a bonus 50 points after your total scoring for that turn. Blank tiles can be used as whatever letter you like, however, once they are played, the letter they represent cannot be changed. At the end of your turn draw tiles from the bag until you have 7 in your rack. Play passes to the left. During your turn, instead of playing letters, you may swap tiles from your rack with new ones from the bag as long as there are more than 7 tiles left in the bag. Place the discarding tiles face down, draw an equal number from the bag and add them to your rack, then place the discarded tiles in the bag. Types of words that are not allowed are: words that are always capitalized, abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes standing alone, words requiring a hyphen or an apostrophe, and any other non-real non-complete English word. Players may challenge the legitimacy of an opponent’s word. Using a dictionary agreed to before beginning, look up the word. If it is indeed a real word, then the challenger loses their next turn. But, if the word turns out to be unacceptable or spelled incorrectly, then the player takes back all the tiles used and loses that turn. ALL words (not just one) made in one play are challenged simultaneously. If any word is unacceptable, the entire play is unaccepted. Only one turn is lost on any challenge. You are only allowed to use a dictionary during a challenge. Keep score on a scorepad throughout the game. At the end of the game, all unplayed tiles in player’s rack are subtracted from their total score. If a player played all their tiles, then the total sum of all other player’s unplayed tiles are added to the total of that player’s score. The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, then the player with the most points before deductions is the winner.