How to play
- The bag. The bag holds 105 wooden tiles: 103 letters and 2 blanks. Each player draws seven. The seed decides who starts; then play goes round the table.
- Lay a word. Put one or more tiles from your rack in one row or one column, with no empty square between them (tiles already on the paper may fill a gap). They make one word along that line, and they must touch the tiles on the paper. The first word covers the centre square, the one with the compass rose, and has two letters or more.
- Every word counts. Your word and every word it makes across it must be in the word list. If one is not, the table names it and your tiles stay yours: change them and try again. There is no penalty.
- Blanks. A blank is any letter you choose when you put it down. It keeps that letter and scores 0.
- Points. A word scores the values of its letters. A letter stamp (2× or 3× letter) under a new tile multiplies that tile. A word stamp (2× or 3× word) under a new tile multiplies the whole word, and two word stamps multiply each other. A stamp counts only in the turn a tile first covers it. Each crossing word scores in the same way. A play that uses all seven tiles adds 50.
- Draw. After a play, draw from the bag back to seven tiles (or as many as are left).
- Exchange or pass. Instead of a play you may put 1 to 7 tiles back and draw as many (only while the bag holds 7 or more), or pass. Both score 0.
- The end. When the bag is empty and a player lays their last tile, that player gains the value of every tile left on the other racks, and each other player loses the value of their own. After six turns in a row with no points (passes and exchanges), each player loses the value of their own rack. The highest score wins; equal scores share the place.
Letter values
Each tile shows its points; under it, how many of that tile are in the bag.
At the online table
- Tap a tile on your rack to lift it, then tap a square to put it there; tap it again to take it back. You can also drag tiles. On a phone, the first tap on the paper brings the board closer; “Fit” shows all of it again.
- The Play button shows the points your tiles will score. The word list is checked when you play.
- On a keyboard: choose a square with the arrow keys, Space turns the direction (across or down), type the letters, ? and a letter for a blank, Backspace takes a tile back, Enter plays. S shuffles your rack and M turns the sound off (outside the board).
- Each turn has a 2-minute timer. If it runs out, the table plays the best-scoring word for you, or passes.
- An empty seat is taken by a bot, always marked as a bot.
Why it is fair
A secret seed shuffles the bag before the game. You see its fingerprint when the game starts and the seed itself when it ends, so you can check every tile that was drawn. The word list is the public-domain ENABLE list. Verify a game.