One of my new years resolutions was to go out more more, socialize and meet more people. Luckily it’s the one resolution I’ve actually stuck to doing. And it’s been rewarding in one of the ways I’ll be talking about in this post.
Most of the events I’ve gone to has involved games at some point in the event and board games definitely are always there.
The one I seem to always enjoy is SCRABBLE. I play it at almost every game I go to because it’s the one board game I know how to play.
I tried chess one time, but that didn’t go well cos it was my first time and I wasn’t really paying attention to the lesson as the chess instructor was talking. @thisisnativeboy got the chess lesson and has been playing it though so he’ll be the best person to talk about it.
Anyways back to scrabble. As you can see from the pictures, scrabble is a board game and it’s played by forming words with letter tiles each player receives.
At the start of the game, each player is given these rod stack on which they’ll arrange the tiles they’ve been given. Next, each player fills up their stack with their letter tiles and you play in rounds.
The first person to play starts at a designated spot in the middle of the board. If you look closely in the image below here, that spot is where the letter L is resting on. From there, everyone else forms words branching out from the words already formed on the board. You can’t start a new word on your own unless at least one letter from the new word joins the maze already on the board.
But what’s the point of playing? How do you tell who the winner is? Well…If you watch carefully, you’ll see that each letter tile has a number written at the base of the tile. You score a number of points based on the letters you form on the board. So for instance, if I formed the word MERE that’ll give me a total point of (2+1+1) corresponding to the sum of the numbers of the letters.
Using letters which are difficult to make words with like X for instance rewards you well. What this does is that is that it encourages you to form more words with those complex letters because you get more points for doing that.
Also, if you look closely on the board, you’ll see spots with things like “Letter Double” , “Letter Triple” “Mot Double” or “Mot Triple” written on them. These are french for Double Letter, Triple Letter, Double Word and Triple Word respectively. They’re written in french because I guess this was made for or by francophone countries. But what they basically mean is that every time you form a word with one of the letters landing on one of these special spots, you multiply the number on the letter by two if “double letter” is written on that spot, and by 3 if “triple letter”, or you might even multiply the sum of all the letter of the word by a certain number if any of your words land on a “double word” or “triple word”.
So many fucking rules and cheat codes. When I just started, these were some of the tips I didn’t know and that was why I lost so many times.
Since I started playing, I’ve been getting better and better every time I play. The first game I played, I lost. We played 3 rounds in that game and I lost them all. Luckily though that was where my losing ended.
The first game I played, everyone but me at the table had played SCRABBLE before. So this was when I learned the rules and how to play. And just like with everything else in life, experience just puts you at an advantage. To the rest of them, all they were thinking of was forming words. But I was doing more than that. I had to make sure that I wasn’t only forming words, but also remembering the rules I just learnt to make sure I don’t violate them as I play and so that I can maximize my points too.
I also struggled because I was facing the direction the direction the board faced. Forming words in scrabble is one thing, but not sitting facing the board directly adds an extra layer of difficulty to it.
I like scrabble for many reasons. The most important being that it serves it’s purpose a game in the sense that it’s fun. But also, your vocabulary increases as you play more games, especially if you’re playing with experts or people good with words.
Like chess though, scrabble challenges you to not only know words, but have flexible strategies to be able to maximize your points. Anyone would be able to play if it was just about words. But the winner is obviously the one with the better strategies. The winner can form only four letter words through out the game but with complex letter with high points like words containing X. STRATEGY MATTERS!!!
Scrabble is a really interesting board game and if you haven’t tried it before, it’s a good brain trainer imo. And don’t worry about all the rules and cheat codes: you’ll learn as you play.
Everything is indeed better with more experience! I've never played Scrabble before, used to play chess awhile back. I really enjoy playing word games as it is mentally simulating, discovering new words and learning how to put them together. Strategy is always at the core of it. I'll give this interesting game of strategy a try :)
You definitely should, man. You’ll enjoy it a lot. And if you ever do, please let me know your experience. Thanks for passing by, man. Have a nice weekend:)
I downloaded the app a few hours ago and started a match with the computer, difficulty level medium, I'm trailing behind Zoey a little, understanding the DL and TL thing helped, that's the box are usually aim at filling.
I'm raking my brain for words :)
When I saw the WE topic about board games, it was Scrabble that came first to my mind.
I learned this in college when my instructor unexpectedly sent me to compete for our class..it was sports day if I wasn't mistaken and he needs a representative for our class. Seriously, it was my first time playing Scrabble but glad I wasn't the bottom player that day , but I was second to the last out of 5 players 🤣..
Lol you did impressively well for a first timer. Although I’m wondering why he would choose you, knowing you have no prior experience to it. That must’ve been a tough game!
Scrabble is an educational game that helps you think and learn new words
Really been aong time since I played last
It’s been a while I played myself because I don’t have a scrabble board myself. I mostly only play when I go to events.
Ok
But I think it's not costly you can get one for constant practicing
Yeah I’ve never really considered it. If I buy one, I’ll be playing it alone and that won’t be fun. So I’d much rather play with others at games. My circle is very small and are not where I am currently, so I’m just by myself right now.
Lol I understand tho, it's fun when both persons play. But then what about your siblings?
Wow
I do love scrabble a lot.
I have a mobile version I do play often. It's fun in a academic mind training way
I didn’t know there was a mobile app for scrabble. But then I’ve never searched so that explains it. I’ll check the mobile app out. Thanks for drawing this to my attention:)
Absolutely a great game and the only game I have on my phone.
How many in that tray though? Is there a bit of cheating going on? We only play with 7 tiles at a time!
You have a great weekend mate :-)
Lol yeahh there was a bit of cheating going on there. The picture is from my first game and I didn't really know you only pick 7 tiles. They just let it pass for my first game but for subsequent games, I've played 7 tiles. Scout's honor:)
It seems I'm the only person that didn't know there's a Scrabble mobile app.
Enjoy the weekend too, man. Waiting for another one of those post cards. Give me a ball pool in the next one:)
Yay! 🤗
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The first and last time a saw a physical scrabble game was in highschool, the rest of my scrabble games have been online. its actually a fun game to play especially the part where you're forced to remember English words. No one really loses as ever one gains; either you learn a new word or a new strategy.
Its one of those board games I'm in love with, after monopoly of course.
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