Family Games – Play Scrabble without a board

Boardless Scrabble is a great family-friendly version of the popular board game. Because it is boardless, and because all players are competing and participating at the same time, the game moves quickly. No more snoozing while you wait for Grandpa to write a seven-letter word!

And you can use Boardless Scrabble as a pre-writing activity disguised as a game, which makes it even more fun to teach or reinforce spelling and vocabulary.

All you need is a bag of Scrabble tiles, a piece of paper and a pencil. Here’s how to play:

1. Place the scrabble squares face down in the middle of the table.
2. Each player selects seven tiles. Someone starts the game by calling, “Go!”
3. By working as fast as they can, players try to use all 7 tiles to create their own mini Scrabble puzzle.
4. The moment a player uses all of their tiles, they shout, “Go!” And everyone must capture another tile.
5. Throughout the game, players keep adding to their Scrabble layouts, rearranging them as often as needed.
6. Once all tiles have been taken, the first person to use all of their tiles and complete their puzzle is the winner.
7. Record the game just like in a regular game of Scrabble. For example, if a player uses “X” for “fox” (vertically) and (“taxi”) horizontally, they will count points for “X” twice. Discount points for any unused tiles.

Tips and differences

• When your tile pile starts to dwindle, try working with smaller pieces of your puzzle rather than trying to rework the entire arrangement. Remember, if the game ends before your puzzle ends, unused tiles will count against your score!
• Decide in advance the rules of the game. Do you allow foreign words? ambiguous words? suitable names?
• With mixed ages, you might allow younger children to use appropriate names.
• Collect tiles from multiple Scrabble stacks to make a bigger pile on the table. You can often find vintage kits at garage sales. If they lose some pieces, it doesn’t matter for Boardless Scrabble.
• Give the younger ones a handicap by doubling their final score.
• Or don’t count unused squares against the final results.
• Or not keep score at all. Simply admire each other’s riddles and best words!