Scrabble is a game that does not only provide great entertainment, but opportunities of honing one’s vocabulary skills as well. No wonder then that it is one of the most popular board games all over the world. Although it can now be played on the computer or even online, nothing can beat the fun and thrill provided by the bonding moments among peers or family members.

I started playing scrabble when I was in High School. But it was only during my college days in MSU that I was really hooked to this board game. It was also during that time that I came to know another game involving scrabble letter tiles.

This game, called scramble can be played by several players or teams. The object of the game is to form words (at least 3-letter long) out of the scrabble tiles shown on the table. Stealing a word formed by somebody is allowed as long as the stealing player changes the word completely by adding a letter or several letters to it. Of course, the highest scoring player or team after the game wins.

For this game, you’ll need only the letter tiles of scrabble.

How to play:

1. Place all the tiles (excluding the jokers) inside a plastic jar.

2. A person (preferably not a player) then shakes the jar of tiles and draws one tile at a time and places it on the center of the table for all players to see.

3. The players need to form words consisting of at least 3 letters out of the tiles shown on the table.

4. If a player spots a word out of those tiles, he/she has to declare it for everyone to hear then grab those letters and arrange it in front of him/her.

5. But as mentioned earlier, your words can be stolen from you so you need to be alert for possible letters that can be added to change your word.

For instance, you have formed the word “top.” If a letter R comes out, you can say “port,” and grab the R to add to your word. In that way, you retain your word. But if somebody spots an S, and says “sport,” that player can steal your word.

Note: Stealing is only allowed when the other player completely changes the meaning of the word by adding a letter or several letters to it, and not by merely adding S to pluralize it, or ED or D to form its past tense.

But you, as the owner of the word can pluralize it or change it to the past tense form to increase your score for that word.

6. The game goes on with the non-player drawing the tiles one by one and the players forming and stealing words until such time that no more tiles are left inside the jar, and those shown at the center remain unclaimed for a minute.

7. The players would then calculate their scores by adding the actual values of the letters in the words they have formed and stolen.

Each round could be considered a single game, or you could agree that a game should consist of several rounds such as 3 or 5; it really depends on you and your fellow players. After the last round, scores for each round will be added to determine the winner.