Super Scrabble

Steve and I are fans of the regular game. At the suggestion of one of his sons, we looked for the Super version. Apparently it wasn't very popular, and was only made for a short time. Too bad. It has a bigger playing board, 200 letters, and features quadruple word and letter options. Among other things, this means the game takes longer. I guess too few people have the patience these days. I finally found an eBay seller offering a reasonable price on a used one that guaranteed all the parts in like new condition and the whole thing shrink wrapped. They were right about its condition.

Today was our second game on this board. One of the advantages of this board is that it has tile lock, meaning little nubs are in the corners and sort of hold your tiles in place. If you turn the board carefully, or have a steady hand setting the tiles in, it works. Bump it hard and things go akimbo. (Nice scrabble word, eh?)

We play a friendly game. This means, at least for the first one, nobody kept score. Steve decided he wanted to this time, and we wound up with very close scores plus a bit of frustration on his part with all the numbers as his hand is getting shakier and the result can be harder to read. I think we both won regardless of scores by sharing the time together having fun.

We also slightly change the rules between us. Foreign words aren't allowed in the formal version. We have agreed that foreign words in common usage like on menus often used in the USA have become de facto English words. Taco, naan, croissant, strudel for example. We also allow Latin words that most people know, particularly ones used in school or TV courtroom dramas and such. Urban dictionary words we both know (rare!) are allowed, whether the latest scrabble dictionary agrees or not. We have ordered one of those - the latest scrabble version - but supply chain issues have struck there as well.

We also played the way I grew up playing it but he didn't, by counting the double/triple/quadruple points each time a square was used in a word, even if it had already been covered. I know Steve's son would never let us get away with that, but if one must keep score, let's make them as large as possible. When we play with him, he can insist on formal rules. He usually wins anyway, to the point where it's hard for him to find opponents. It's just like how none of Steve's kids will play the original Trivial Pursuit game with Steve any more because he's so good at that.

Today's game lasted around two hours - at a guess - and we again bent the rules so it didn't end when one ran out of letters, and the other was penalized, but as we wound down at the same time, I had the last letter and could still play it. So we did it that way.  I now have a picture of a super scrabble board with all 200 letters in play on it.

Sweet!