When playing the game, sometimes you have a good word and no easy place to play it. You can double your opportuinities by allowing the tiles of your words to be placed either forwards or backwards on the board. All the other rules still apply.
Anyone who has ever played those "Word Find" or "Word Search" puzzles should have no trouble "reading" the backwards-spelled words. As if that really matters, when you simply want a particular letter to link your word (and available empty space).
Note that in this Idea, I am specifically NOT promoting diagnonal placement of the tiles. Because I see that as being another variation altogether. TWO more variations, that is. (A diagonal-play ONLY game, and a mixed orthogonal/diagonal game.)-- Vernon, Dec 07 2004 Magic Cube 4D http://www.superliminal.com/cube/cube.htmA 4D Rubik's Cube in Java. Amazingly there's a 5D version as well on the same site. [wagster, Nov 06 2008] why not?-- po, Dec 07 2004 I assume if you make a play that can be read either direction, you score double.-- phundug, Dec 07 2004 OK, but this should NOT apply to 2 letter words - too many / no thinking required.-- sophocles, Dec 07 2004 // NOT promoting diagnonal placement of the tiles. Because... //
...Because you could get 6 double word scores at a time that way?-- phundug, Dec 07 2004 [phundug], with respect to scoring double for certain words (NOT palindromes like "nun", but instead words like "tip"), that sounds OK. Next, heh, as it happens, a diagonal-only game can only use about half the squares on the board. I suspect there are too many tiles for that to work well. if it is decided to START such a game one-off from the central square, then practically no extra points will be available to anyone. Instead of a black/white checkerboard, think of a score/noscore checkerboard. So, perhaps an alternating-diagonal playing system would be appropriate. Player 1 plays diagonally through the central square. All the other players connect to that. Sure, high scores are going to happen. So? Then Player 1 plays on a noscore diagonal near the center. All the other players connect to THAT. Then they all play again on the scoring diagonals, and so on, alternating. In terms of orthogonal connections, IGNORE the ugliness. Only diagonal arrangements matter!-- Vernon, Dec 07 2004 In case any Scrabble experts out there didn't already know this, one of the highest-scoring words, if you are lucky enough to get the both the needed letters and the opportunity to put it in the right place, is "QUIXOTIC". It can stretch between two triple-word scores, with the "X" landing on a double-letter score.-- Vernon, Dec 08 2004 Yesss! CITOXIUQ! On 6 double word scores and a triple! That's 25 times 192 equals... I win!-- phundug, Dec 08 2004 I wonder whether "TRANQUILIZINGLY" would pass muster as a word. It's too long to appear in any lists, but if the edge of the board was "_RAN__I__ZING__", then if TRANQUILIZINGLY" were acceptable I think it would score almost 1,050 points.-- supercat, Dec 08 2004 'Xyzygy/syzygy' is also a good one, but is only in half the dictionaries I've found, and even then, the spelling fluctuates.-- Detly, Dec 09 2004 I got a rather good score with JAZZ the other day. In terms of points per tile, that's a pretty high ratio.-- zen_tom, Nov 04 2008 Shirley there is only one 'Z' in scrabble? (and only one Y for 'Xyzygy/syzygy')-- MadnessInMyMethod, Nov 04 2008 I guess he used a blank as a Z - a creative use.-- phundug, Nov 04 2008 How about a hex-grid word game?-- supercat, Nov 05 2008 Oh, we/they must have been playing "Super Scrabble" instead.
How about adding a third dimension, and allowing cubic tiles to be placed on top of one another to form word skyscrapers?-- zen_tom, Nov 05 2008 [+] Might make a interesting game but isn't Scrabble already Orthogonal, at right angles? Shouldn't this be called something like Reversi-Scrabble or Drow-Word to Sarah Palindrome it.-- theGem, Nov 06 2008 [theGem], you have a point, but you seem to be missing the point that in ordinary Scrabble only 2 of the 4 orthogonal directions are used, in terms of reading the words that are played. Perhaps this could better be called "Fully Orthogonal Scrabble", though.-- Vernon, Nov 06 2008 //How about adding a third dimension, and allowing cubic tiles to be placed on top of one another to form word skyscrapers?// - or a forth dimension, where you have three-dimensional 'stacks' of scrabble pieces on multiple boards and words can span boards - i.e. by having successive letters from a word placed in the same board position on the multiple boards.-- hippo, Nov 06 2008 Like 3d chess - sounds positively Brainstawmian - only you'd have to somehow account for pieces that form inter-board words, but which might span otherwise empty space within the bounds of a specific board... which might look odd - plus which would be tricky to implement without complicated arrangements of string <goes off wondering how to take this dimensional arms-race to the next level>-- zen_tom, Nov 06 2008 Why not 4D scrabble? There's a 4D Rubik's Cube (link).-- wagster, Nov 06 2008 "Fully Orthogonal Scrabble" works for me as a name. Backward words would make the game easier since you have more options with the letters you have, although the confusion factor makes it more fun.
The diagonal only version isn't really any different then orthogonal version it only rotates the board. The mixed diagonal/orthogonal version seems like it would be tough if you have to make a word in the diagonal direction as well. If you had the word "HOW" on the board vertically, in regular Scrabble you can add an "E" to make the word "WE" horizontally, but in D/O Scrabble the "OE" or "EO" diagonally wouldn't make a word.
Vernon it's a nice idea, I have to play a game that way and see how it feels.-- theGem, Nov 07 2008 random, halfbakery