Imagine the scene. You have these tiles in your rack.

D X I O I E S

Suddenly you see a protruding "REA_" Rear, you think! The word 'oxidiser' enters your head and you place down the tiles quickly. "I believe that word is 'Reap' " says your opponent.

"If only I had dry erase blanks, I wouldn't have had that false glimmer of hope" you think.
-- modular, Sep 09 2003

Scrabble international http://www.scrabble.com/
Just thought I'd give them a bit of credit [modular, Oct 05 2004]

Sounds good to me. Although I would think that Dry Erase would already work on the tiles.
-- DeathNinja, Sep 09 2003


Try P I X I E S for 17 (excluding bonuses)...(+) for one of the most sensible and easily bakable ideas I have ever seen on this site!
-- silverstormer, Sep 09 2003


Another option is to play with a flexible blanks rule, which allows blanks to represent different letters in each connected word. That way, the power of the blank is still available to later players, even though it's been played. (In your example, it could be a P across for "SOAP" and an R for your OXIDISER simultaneously.)
-- waugsqueke, Sep 09 2003


The Z (as in OXIDIZER) in American Scrabble should be worth a little less.
-- FarmerJohn, Sep 09 2003


And just what is wrong with OXIDISEP?
-- PeterSilly, Sep 10 2003


doesn't a dry-wipe marker already work on the blanks?
-- suctionpad, Sep 10 2003


It was originally 'Wipe away marker' but DrCurry suggested dry erase.

Also, the marker would be included in the game pack along with a small cloth with 'SCRABBLE' written on it.

Oh yeah, and the tiles would have a little '0' in the corner. To clarify that they are blanks.

The marker would have to be red or green or blue so that nobody turns that 'O 1' to a 'Q 10'
-- modular, Sep 10 2003


yeah but who the devil is Remy?
-- po, Sep 10 2003


Ah well. Score more for SOAPS and OXIDISE anyway. Or if that doesn't work, above it for OP and OXIDISE.

Or Onto the S for OXIDISES.

The sad part, is that you listed the letters DXIOIES and it took me about 1/2 second to come up with the bingo. I think I've been playing too much!

So.. I can go way off topic. But the number of times I've wanted a Dremil and Black Marker to change that one tile into something else...
-- Britlion, Nov 11 2003


Some "house rules" allow you to "capture the blank":

If you cross a word at the blank AND you have the correct letter to replace it, you can pick up the blank and add it to your rack.
-- not_only_but_also, May 12 2004



random, halfbakery