Scribble at snoot.org : How to Play

How To Play Scribble

Scribble is a cooperative word game based on the Scrabble(R) brand crossword puzzle. It's one of the many toys at snoot.org.

Cooperative? Cooperative means that there is no real winner or loser. Scoring in scribble is just a total for the entire game, so everyone usually tries to help each other to make big-scoring words.

On the main menu is a list of games that are currently running. When someone is playing a game, it will show up as "locked", which means that you can't play until that person is done or until the player's lock times out from inactivity. If you've just played in one of the games, it will be greyed out, since you are not allowed to make two words in a row. Otherwise, you can click on the game number in order to start play. (No matter the status of the game, you can always click on the [see] link to peek at the game without playing.)

Now you'll see a board like this (which will be used in examples below):

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The object in scribble is to make words on the board using tiles you have in your possession. On this board, a number of words have already been played. To the right of the board, among other things, you will see up to 10 tiles:

Since there is a fixed number of tiles in total for each game, there may not be enough left for you to receive 10 tiles. In that case, there may be as few as 1 -- so brush up on your two-letter words!

You may only make words from left to right or top to bottom. Suppose we wanted to make the word "bed" in the following location (F10):

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This is OK, since we have a "B" and "E" available ("D" is already on the board so we do not need that tile). To play this word, we do the following:

First, find the row and column where the word starts. In this case, it begins in row F and column 10. Use the legends at the left and bottom sides to figure this out.

Now, we need to tell it where the word begins. There are drop-down menus like this under your set of tiles:

So simply select the appropriate row, column, and direction ("f", "10", "down" in this case).

Next, there are two text boxes under that:

(word)
(chat)

You must of course type the word "bed" (always type the entire word, not just the tiles you will be placing down) in the word box. If you type something in the chat box, it will be saved with the game so that others can read it. It's nice to make suggestions for future moves, complain about your draw of tiles, or just make friends with the other players. It's not nice to berate other players for making bad words, etc. (though they probably would appreciate your suggestions if made nicely)!

Finally, there are three buttons:

Click the first one to submit the word. If you don't like the letters or just want to try another board instead, click "go back" (this is superior to pressing "back" in your browser since it immediately frees up the game for other players). If you think that no more words are possible (perhaps there is just a single Q tile left), then select "no words possible". After a few different people decide that the game can't proceed, it ends and is replaced with a new one.

Don't worry about submitting words that you aren't sure are legal. the game automatically checks to make sure that your word is valid (it uses the rather extensive Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary version 3, so you might be surprised what's in there!) and you are not penalized for words it does not like.

By the way, legal words are any that are at least 2 letters long, and are not supposed to include proper names (though the dictionary does contain many, so it's worth a try). A word that you place down must touch or use existing tiles, except on the very fist word (the first word must cross tile H8).

When you place down a word, you have to be careful that any secondary words it creates are also legal. A secondary word is one that is created in the opposite direction (across or down) of your word because your word was placed next to other tiles. For instance, if I play "hap" at G10 across on the original board, we get this:

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I created secondary words "he", "am" and "pi". All of these words are valid, so the word is ok. However, if I create any invalid secondary words--no matter how awesome my original word is--the play is illegal. Nonetheless, secondary words are your friend, since tiles that are used in secondary words count twice towards your score.

Scoring

Scoring is mysterious; I will try to give some guidelines here, but in general you will just have to leave it up to the computer.

Each tile has a point value. You can see the point values for the various tiles by clicking on the drop-down box labelled "key", which is repeated here:

Tiles that are harder to use (Q, Z) are typically worth more points. They are also rarer.

The score of a word is the the sum of all of the values of the tiles that are in it (this includes tiles that are already on the board), along with the score of any secondary words that the word creates.

Actually, there is a little more. You probably noticed that the spaces on the board have different colors. Those that aren't brown are bonus spaces:

double letter triple letter

double word triple word

When a tile is placed on a double-letter bonus, for instance, the value of that tile is doubled. (This only applies on the turn where that tile is placed down, not in future words that re-use it.) Similarly, if any tile in your word lands on a double-word bonus, then the entire value of the word is doubled. (If you can manage to hit two double-word scores, the word's score is quadrupled!)

So, "bed" as played above is worth (B*2) + E + D = 3*2 + 1 + 2 = 9 points. "hap" as we played is worth HAP + HE + AM + PI = 8 + 5 + 4 + 4 = 21 points. "alphabetize" across both triple word scores on the bottom, forming a secondary word "touche" (also on a triple word score) is worth a whole load of points:

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There are bonuses for using 7,8,9, or all 10 tiles (25 points for each tile above 6 used). Making really long words is in your best interest!

Tips

Don't reload or use "back" in your browser! Because of the way the game works, this can cause it to think that you are trying to re-play a word you just played, or that you are another player from the same host trying to interfere with the game you're playing. Click on the "refresh" link in the page, and use the buttons and links to navigate around.

Once you've been playing for a while, you'll probably find that it's tedious to select the row and column of your word from the drop-down boxes. Scribble fortunately supports an "expert" word entry to make this quicker. Instead of selecting anything in the drop-down boxes, simply type your word prefixed by the row and column code as follows: Write the column letter, then the row number, then "d" if the word is down (nothing if across) and then a period, and then your word. For example, the following are valid words for the board above:

f10d.bed
g10.hap
o5.alphabetize

If you're really trying to make great words, you may find that you take longer than 3 minutes to make your word. If the game is crowded, this can mean that others sneak in and play while you are thinking (because the game thinks you have left!). In order to preserve your exclusive access to the game, you can submit a bogus or empty word every few minutes -- any activity causes the timer to be reset.

Some people like to be able to test words out quickly to see if they're in the dictionary. You can use the script here to check them out; just change "scribble" in the URL to the word in question.

Some frequent players have developed strategies for high-scoring cooperative games. You can read an extensive guide to this style of play.

OK, that's it! Now you should go play scribble! I appreciate your feeback and suggestions on the message boards.

snoot.org / toys / scribble