Speed Scrabble

Speed Scrabble (also known as Take Two or Scribble) is Scrabble variant which is played without a board. Tiles are placed face down in the middle of the table. Players draw from these communal letters trying to build words with their personal tiles in front of them. Words can be built by rearranging tiles already there and by playing through pre-existing words as if they were playing Solitaire Scrabble. Play continues rapidly until there are no more tiles left to draw.
Rules
Players & Materials
1 scrabble set per every two players is ideal - multiple sets may be and are often used. 1 set may accommodate up to four players, but each round will be shortened. Other materials needed: 1 dictionary, paper and pencil to keep score, and ample flat table space.
Setup
Take the tiles from a standard Scrabble set (100 tiles in English); the board is not used. Agree on a target score (250, 1000, etc.). Spread the tiles upside down in the center of the table. Make certain that each player has plenty of room to work. Each player chooses 7 tiles and leaves them upside down in front of them.
The Play
When all players have 7 tiles and are ready, a person signals everyone (by shouting "3, 2, 1, Go" or other means) to start. All players turn over their tiles and begin making words, attempting to use all of their letters in a single crossword layout. The players boards do not interact in any way. Rearranging the existing words is allowed. When one player has used all of their letters in complete words that cross each other, with no letters left over, that player calls out "Take Two!".
Take Two
When a player calls "Take Two!", every player takes two tiles and continues working.
This means that at all times, all players should have the same number of tiles. If two people call "Take Two!" simultaneously it is treated as only one "Take Two!".
End of a Round
When the number of remaining tiles is not enough to allow for everyone to take two, the person calling take two instead calls “Take One!”. When all the letters are gone, the next person to call "Take Two!" instead says "I'm Out" or "Done" and play immediately stops. No one may add, change or append words after play stops.
Scoring
Points are scored just as in normal scrabble, normally counting all points of horizontal words then all points of vertical words. Those players with letters left over that are not part of words, subtract these points from their score (letters part of incomplete words are similarly removed from the crossword and counted against the score). Words of 7 letters or more or more worth a bonus of 10 points. The person that was first to go out gets a bonus of 10 points for finishing first.
Usually at this point everyone compares words and looks for style. The players also check to make certain that all of the individual boards/words that each person used are legal. The players record all scores on a piece of paper. First person to reach the agreed upon score wins, or in case of more than one player reaching the score in the same round, the player with the higher score wins.
Creating Words
In normal play, regular Scrabble rules apply: No abbreviations or proper nouns, no slang, no hyphenated words, no apostophized words, and no foreign words (unless they have been fully assimilated into the English language, or are frequently used in English because they have no English equivalent).
Normally, a dictionary is made available to look up and verify words and shared around the table - preferably an official Scrabble dictionary. Using the dictionary usually wastes too much time and is used only if a player is stuck. If there is no dictionary and a word is in question, the player should call it out and the group of players will vote on whether it is allowed. People may ask the group about spellings too.

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See Also

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