Bet the Bag!

COMPONENTS: A Scrabble brand Crossword Game tile set (or any set of
letter cards with a good distribution of letters), a timer, a deck of
playing cards, and a one-minute timing device.
OPTIONAL: A dictionary, tile racks

At the dawn of man, someone decided that language was important, and
that someone must make some words. Unfortunatly, like most major
decisions, the job was given to the lowest bidder.

I made that up. But here’s a game you can play with Scrabble tiles.

SETUP:
Remove all the cards from the playing card deck except for the Aces
and the numbers 4-7 of all suits. Shuffle those cards.

Shuffle the Scrabble tiles and give each player three random tiles,
which are kept hidden.

Play starts with the person who most recently won a word game.

PLAY:
On your turn, flip over the top card of the playing card deck. If it
is an Ace, set it to the side and flip over the next card. If it is a
number, that is the Contract for the round. The number on the contract
is the minimum number of letters that must be in a word to fill the
contract.

The players then bid on how many tiles they will need to fill the
contract, up to a maximum of 15 tiles. The player whose turn it is
starts, and it goes once around the circle clockwise. Each player must
either bid a different number than anyone else previously bid that
round, or pass. If you pass, take 1 random Scrabble tile and add it to
your hand.

EXAMPLE:
It is Stephen’s turn, and he flips over the top card which is a 4.
He’s not sure about his tiles, so he bids a 6. Kory is next, and
decides that he’s even less sure, so he bids an 8. Dom looks at his
tiles, and decides to pass, drawing a new tile from the bag. Dave is
last in the seating order, and is confidant that he can make a four
letter word, but gives himself a little breathing room by bidding a 5.
Since all players have had a chance to bid, the bidding round stops.

Once everyone has placed their bid, the player who bid lowest gets the
first chance to fill the contract. The timer is started. That player
has one-minute to try to fill the contract by either drawing random
tiles or by playing tiles from his hand in any combination, up to a
maximum of that player’s bid.

EXAMPLE:
If Dave bid 5 and is trying to fill a 4 contract, he may play two
tiles from his hand and draw three random tiles to try to make a four
letter or more word.

You may play the tiles from either place in any order, as long as you
don’t exceed your bid. You may first draw a random tile then decide to
play one from your hand, or draw a couple random tiles first, or use
all random. Regardless, as soon as a tile hits the table from your
hand, it is in play and it may not be taken back to the bag. All of
the tile draws AND formation of a word must happen within the
one-minute time, or else the next highest bidder will have a chance to
steal.

If you complete a word within the time limit using the letters
available, you score. A completed word is worth the number on the
contract, and so takes the card as his score. A player scoring also
draws a new random tile and adds it to his hand. The contract is
discarded, and play passes to the next person as described above.

If the player does NOT complete a word within the time limit, then the
tiles out are passed to the next highest bidder who also gets one
minute to try to complete a word. However, that player will use the
maximum number of tiles equal to his bid, so he will have more tiles
to work with. The tiles are passed around until either the contract is
completed, or until everyone who made a bid has had a chance to make a
word within one minute.

EXAMPLE:
Dave was not able to complete his 4 contract with his 5 tiles within
one minute, but did play R A B L J onto the table. The tiles are
passed to the next highest bidder, which was Stephen. Stephen had bid
a 6, so he plays a C from his hand to add to the tile set. He is able
to form CRAB, and will score 4 points. He also draws a new tile and
adds it to his hand. Kory, the next player, will start the next turn.
If Stephen had failed to complete the contract, he would pass all
tiles to Kory, who would be able to use the tiles on the table and new
tiles up to a maximum of 8. If he did not get a word either, then the
contract would be discarded because the remaining player passed.

GAME END:
When the last Ace in the deck is turned up, the game ends immediatly.
The player with the highest score wins.

CHALLENGE RULE:
After a word is submitted, the rest of the players may decide to
challenge. If the word is in the dictionary, then the word scores
double. If the word is not in the dictionary, then the player
submitting the bogus word loses one of his score cards.