A game by myself and Kim Adams

You will need:

• A Scrabble set (Junior Scrabble will do)

• One counter per player

 

Start by arranging the letters on the Scrabble board, face up. Go for a symmetrical layout, and leave the edges and corners empty, and enough space to move around the letters. Also put down one player counter for each player, in the corners of the board. Do not use blanks.

@ . . . . . . . . . . . . . @
. D E U M . . T . . E T E R .
. S . . . . . A . . . . . E .
. D . . . U L U E O . . . T .
. I . . . B . . . L . . . K .
. . . O G U V . N A R I . . .
. . . F . X L . P N . W . . .
. D S N . . . . . . . I H C .
. . . O . N A . Y E . O . . .
. . . D O O C . B I I R . . .
. I . . . P . . . A . . . F .
. I . . . L A A S O . . . W .
. N . . . . . G . . . . . E .
. E E M Y . . A . . I Q G E .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . @

. IS AN EMPTY SQUARE
@@@ ARE PLAYER COUNTERS

If there are more than 4 players, find somewhere other than the corners for the player counters. Players take turns. On your turn you can move as a queen in Chess: diagonally or horizontally as far as you like.

A . Y E . O . . /
C . B I I R . / .
. . . A . . / F .
A A S O . / . W .
. G \ | / . . E .
. A - @ I Q G E .
. . / | \ . . . .

If you move diagonally you can only move through empty squares. If you move horizontally or vertically you can shunt along letters in your way.

S O . . . W .
. . . . . E .
@ . I Q G E .
. . . . . G .

S O . . . W .
. . . . . E .
. . @ I Q G E
. . . . . G .

You can shunt as many letters as you like as far as you like (without pushing them off the board). You are allowed to start pushing half way through a turn, as shown above: you move in a straight line, when you reach letters you start pushing them, and you can push them as far as you like. You cannot push other players.

The object of the game is to form words from the letters by pushing them. The word 'egg' is formed above. Words read downwards or left to right. Words can consist of some of the letters in a row, but must be adjacent.

The letters of the newly scored word are removed from the board and placed in front of the player who created the word for scoring at the end of the game. At least one of the letters of the word must have been moved by the player on the turn he scores the word. The word 'so' was there from the beginning of the game; to score it, the letters must be first disrupted and then brought back together.

The game ends when there are not enough letters left on the board to create any more words, then the players count up how many letters they scored, and the winner is the one with the most letters.

Note: When a letter gets to the edge of the board it can no longer move out from that edge, and when it reaches a corner it is totally immobile. This is because it is impossible to get behind the letter to push it back into the board. Bear this in mind when working out if words can still be made out of the remaining letters.

. . . . . .
. M . . . .
. . . . . V
. . . M . .
. . . . I I
. . . I I I

M = mobile letters
V = vertically mobile letter
I = immobile letters

Back to Games Menu