Scrountdown

[Marc Meakin]

I'm looking at devising a board game variant that combines the best features of both countdown and Scrabble.
30 seconds per move obviously.
2 bags to pick from , consonants and vowels.
9 tiles on your rack and double your score for playing 9 letter words.
Tile distribution would probably have to change to skew more scope for longer words especially if Premium squares were removed
I know there isn't much scope for the maths and conundrum elements of Countdown beyong adding up..

I guess I would have to devise a board that didn't infringe Hasbros copyright.
Maybe just a plain 15 x 15 grid board with no premium squares.

It's a work in progress so I'm interested in ideas.

[Callum Todd]

I really like this idea. Please keep us updated! I might try my hand at some computery stuff to see what that would be like.

[Fiona T]

Playing all 9 tiles or making any 9 letter word?

[Marc Meakin]

I really like this idea. Please keep us updated! I might try my hand at some computery stuff to see what that would be like.

This is where I wanted to go with it , though my computery prowess is poor

[Marc Meakin]

Playing all 9 tiles or making any 9 letter word?

I would have said making a 9 letter word
But I'm open to feedback.
I'm still thinking that the 9 letter rack is maybe a step too far and may alienate scrabblers.

[Ben Wilson]

Playing all 9 tiles or making any 9 letter word?

I would have said making a 9 letter word
But I'm open to feedback.
I'm still thinking that the 9 letter rack is maybe a step too far and may alienate scrabblers.

The obvious compromise would be eight tiles, then?

In all seriousness, a Scrabble variant that used separate consonant and vowel bags is long overdue, and the time-limited moves would certainly make the game a lot faster paced.

[Philip A]

Playing all 9 tiles or making any 9 letter word?

I would have said making a 9 letter word
But I'm open to feedback.
I'm still thinking that the 9 letter rack is maybe a step too far and may alienate scrabblers.

The obvious compromise would be eight tiles, then?

In all seriousness, a Scrabble variant that used separate consonant and vowel bags is long overdue, and the time-limited moves would certainly make the game a lot faster paced.

I have a two-player word game called A Little Wordy which has separate vowel and consonant bags.

I also have a Duplicate Scrabble board game, and racks of all vowels or all consonants are barred. It’s 2 minutes per move but you can adjust.

So these key elements are certainly viable.

[Marc Meakin]

I really like this idea. Please keep us updated! I might try my hand at some computery stuff to see what that would be like.

Another idea I wanted to test was a superscrabble sized board but playing with your own 100 tile bag.(so 2 bags of 100 tiles being used)

It would remove luck from the game.
I would trial it if I had a super scrabble board

[Callum Todd]

What is superscrabble?

[Ben Wilson]

What is superscrabble?

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/111 ... stribution).

Scrabble, but supersized. I played a game of this against Stewart Holden once where we both achieved scores of over 1000.

[Marc Meakin]

What is superscrabble?

21 x 21 squares 441 instead of 225 (15 x 15)
But 200 tiles in a bag not sure of distribution but I was proposing,a normal set of 100 for each player maybe a 30 minute clock or longer

[Callum Todd]

Ah nice. For scrountdown I was thinking a 19x19 board as I think the board has to be 2n+1, where n is the number of tiles the player has in their rack. Otherwise you can treble off the start.

[Fiona T]

Which dictionary are you using...

(ducks)

[Marc Meakin]

Ah nice. For scrountdown I was thinking a 19x19 board as I think the board has to be 2n+1, where n is the number of tiles the player has in their rack. Otherwise you can treble off the start.

Good idea

So how many tiles in each bag (vowels and consonant ) do you think?.
Edit 160 tiles is more or less the same ratio as a conventional scrabble board.
So 88 consonants and 8 vowels plus 4 blanks in the consonant bag possibly or 2 in each

[Marc Meakin]

Ah nice. For scrountdown I was thinking a 19x19 board as I think the board has to be 2n+1, where n is the number of tiles the player has in their rack. Otherwise you can treble off the start.

An inexpensive way of trialling this as a board game would be to use the 21 x 21 super scrabble board and blank off the outer 2 grids

[Thomas Carey]

What is superscrabble?

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/111 ... stribution).

Scrabble, but supersized. I played a game of this against Stewart Holden once where we both achieved scores of over 1000.

I played this with MSR once (he accidentally turned two letters over and used them as blanks. Called out). My first ever quadruple word score was CUNT. From what I remember hte distribution was mostly jsut double the scrabble one but with a few changes (10x S for some reason when the normal set has 4).

[Matt Rutherford]

What is superscrabble?

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/111 ... stribution).

Scrabble, but supersized. I played a game of this against Stewart Holden once where we both achieved scores of over 1000.

I played this with MSR once (he accidentally turned two letters over and used them as blanks. Called out). My first ever quadruple word score was CUNT. From what I remember hte distribution was mostly jsut double the scrabble one but with a few changes (10x S for some reason when the normal set has 4).

In my defence, the letters were entirely flat and came out of the bag upside down. I'm also fully aware that if I did such a thing a Scrabble tournament, I'd be facing a firing squad

[Marc Meakin]

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/111 ... stribution).

Scrabble, but supersized. I played a game of this against Stewart Holden once where we both achieved scores of over 1000.

I played this with MSR once (he accidentally turned two letters over and used them as blanks. Called out). My first ever quadruple word score was CUNT. From what I remember hte distribution was mostly jsut double the scrabble one but with a few changes (10x S for some reason when the normal set has 4).

In my defence, the letters were entirely flat and came out of the back upside down. I'm also fully aware that if I did such a thing a Scrabble tournament, I'd be facing a firing squad

Not for a first offence.
You just end up in a gulag