The star doubles the total point value of the word placed on it. The player that goes first begins the game by placing a word on the star square at the center of the game board using the tiles the player has drawn at the start of the game. Each player also draws seven tiles from the tile bag, which are used during the game. The player that draws the letter closest to the letter “A” goes first. Letters in Scrabble have different point values, and it’s useful to memorize them so you can avoid low-value words:Īt the start of the game, each player removes one tile out of the tile bag. Your goal in Scrabble is to earn as many points as possible by constructing words using letter tiles and strategically placing them on the game board. Sure enough, the game, whose name means to scratch frantically, quickly became a huge hit, and it was even turned into a daytime game show on NBC. Unlike Lexiko and its later adaptation Criss-Crosswords, Scrabble has simpler rules that make it more approachable. The set was put together by Butts based on a frequency analysis of letters from The New York Times and various other sources. The two word games share the same set of letter tiles. Not many people today know that Scrabble comes from an earlier word game, called Lexiko, which was invented by Alfred Butts in 1931. However, a good strategy alone isn’t enough to win a game of Scrabble because all tiles are placed inside an opaque tile bag, so players also need luck to draw the most useful tiles. Different letters have different point values, and the goal is to form words with the highest possible combined point value.Ĭertain squares on the game board multiply the number of points awarded, so players are encouraged to strategically position their words and plan ahead. Players place tiles, each with a single letter printed on it, onto the game board, trying to form words in crossword fashion. Scrabble is a word game for two to four players played on a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares.