Penta Scrabble use pentagram shaped pieces as an alternative to the usual squares.
This means that instead of the predicted right angled grid of letters becoming words, other lines will be generated running at 72 degrees.-- xenzag, Aug 16 2012 Penrose tiles?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 16 2012 So this would exclude 180-degree extensions, where you extend an existing word (either forward or backward). It would also exclude crossing words, because the new word would come out looking sort-of refracted. You wouldn't get a grid emerging - something to do with pentagons not tessellating.
All in all, wouldn't you be better off with 60-degree angles?
The idea is interesting, because it takes a while to work out *why* the implementation would be rather dull (because too hard) - so, not so much an epic fail as a lyric fail. Still, not your best work, [xen]. :-(-- pertinax, Aug 16 2012 I tested the idea with pentagons.... don't really see the problem you identify. Pentagons create more separated lines than hexagons, which would have a tendency to make solid blocks.-- xenzag, Aug 16 2012 Perhaps if you were to draw the geometry of this...?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 16 2012 Is the idea that words sort of meander, building a route as they go?
I quite like that, but it does imply some system of deciding where words start and stop - and it does mean that everything must connect to the seed word(s) or be potentially blocked from connecting.
Did you mean pentagram, or pentagon?
I suppose an alternative is that the tiles arn't supposed to 'abut'. Instead one could lay them all in the same orientation, and in lines leading from the points. The issue with that is deciding what joins are permitted.-- Loris, Aug 16 2012 //Did you mean pentagram, or pentagon?// - pentagram.... pentagon lodged in brain.-- xenzag, Aug 16 2012 //Perhaps if you were to draw the geometry of this...?//have done... works ok... more chaotic than regular scrabble, which is the general idea.-- xenzag, Aug 16 2012 Scan and link?-- RayfordSteele, Aug 16 2012 You can tile pentagons ona hyperbolic surface, so maybe that's it?-- MechE, Aug 16 2012 going to need a lot more 2 letter words since every off angle word (diagonal) is going to force the formation of a 2 letter constriction, which it sure to get a little trite.-- WcW, Aug 16 2012 //Scan and link?//
Yeah, I'm a little curious to see this, too.-- MikeD, Aug 18 2012 All you need do is cut out about twenty petangrams from a piece of paper, write some letters on them and play with them. Works perfectly.-- xenzag, Aug 18 2012 and the issue with the perfusion of two letter words? how does that play out?'-- WcW, Aug 18 2012 There is no issue with a profusion of two letter words, which you will see if you take simple step of trying this out.-- xenzag, Aug 18 2012 maybe if not a custom made diagram a link to a similar pattern ?-- FlyingToaster, Aug 18 2012 Rather than mapping pentagons onto a hyperbola, why not make a tesseract scrabble playing board?
It would have to be CGI, using 3D imaging, but still …-- 8th of 7, Aug 18 2012 Well, why any allegedly rational life-form choses to interact with a Wii is a puzzzle in its own right …-- 8th of 7, Aug 18 2012 Because it is less addictive than an X-Box?-- RayfordSteele, Aug 18 2012 I think the problem with 2 letter words that [WcW] sees would only happen with hexagonal tiles, which would have two points of contact where words intersect. With pentagons, one point of contact is possible (with star-shaped spaces between the tiles).-- tatterdemalion, Aug 18 2012 At last someone begins to understand..... As I keep saying ... Try it!-- xenzag, Aug 18 2012 There are 14 known pentagon that tile the plane (don’t leave gaps, or block one another). None of them are the equilateral (72° external, 102° internal angled) one.
You can play a scrabble-like game (that is, one on a board, with special double/triple etc. letter/word score spaces) with equilateral pentagons, but the board will have to have some non-playable, not-pentagonal spaces (for example, 36° rhombuses, where each pentagon has only 3 pentagon neighbors). You can play a domino-like game (that is, one without a pre-defined board) with equilateral pentagons, but then you’re playing a domino-like, not a scrabble like game.
I’m very curious to see what [xenzag] has in mind – I’m guessing a domino-like game, without double/triple score board spaces.-- CraigD, Aug 19 2012 random, halfbakery