Scrambit

Dossier

Scrambit has 96 letter tiles, and a 6-sided die whose 1-side is replaced with a picture of the White Beetle dog mascot. To set up the game, the letter tiles are randomized and laid out on the table face down. (Fewer than 96 tiles can be used, but at least 60 tiles is recommended.) In their turn a player first rolls the die, and then can reveal up to that many tiles. If the dog side of the die is thrown, the player chooses any number from 2 to 7. When they stop revealing tiles, if they can spell a valid word (of 2+ letters) using all their revealed tiles, they may remove them and keep them in a personal scoring pile; otherwise they turn all the revealed tiles face down and end their turn. If the player spells a word using the full number of tiles rolled on the die, they may take another turn. The game ends when all the tiles are claimed or when everyone agrees no more words can be made, and the player with the most tiles claimed wins. The game obviously has a memory component, to spell words with previously revealed letters. It also has a push-your-luck element: if you have revealed letters for a short word, you may reveal another tile to make a higher-scoring word, and possibly get another turn if it makes the maximum tiles you are allowed that turn, with the risk of getting a letter you cannot use to spell a word with and ending your turn with nothing. The rules have several strategy tips, such as: - If you know you cannot spell a word with letters you have revealed so far, you may want to stop revealing, to avoid letting other players know more letter locations. - If you roll the dog side of the die, and you can remember the location of letters that spell a word, you can choose that many letters to spell that word and get another free turn.