scrabble cheat

Today I was thinking about Scrabble and a comment left after my previous post find a word for scrabble saying that Scrabble is kind of boring game. I was wondering if this game was getting old and needed some fresh new ideas to extend the life of the game (even though I think this board game will never die). So just for the fun of it, I started listing a few new game element they could add to the board game.

The first thing I came up with is kind of a scrabble cheat, that would let you reuse a word a bit like we do with hooks but instead of adding letters a the end or at the beginning of the word, you would add a scrabble letter on top of another one to form a new scrabble word.

The scrabble word cheat

Ok the name is not that hot, but images will show my idea better. So let's say we have the word "MUG". You could transform this scrabble word into "BUG". This

(This word worth 6 points)


(This new word would also worth 6 points)

This example above is only the most basic case of using the scrabble word cheat. You could do something better like the following scrabble word example where we replace two letter of the same word. Replacing scrabble letter "M" by a "B" and letter "G" by a "Y".


(This new word would worth 8 points)

But even better, you would replace a letter to form a new word, but you would put a completly new word on the scrabble board at the same time.





(The total point scored here would be 10 points)

Stay tuned for more ideas, I have more on my list but time is missing a little.

Check out my other post on Scrabble

Scrabble word finder
Nice little tools that are very handy when you need to find word in a very specific context or simply to make sure your opponent is not trying to invent new words.

find a word for scrabble

Find a word and a strategy

The main thing you do when playing a Scrabble is to find a word that will give you the highest amount of point. Well, I don't fully agree with my last sentence. When I play Scrabble, yes I try to find THE word that will empty my tray but most of the time, this is just impossible. So we need a little Scrabble strategy to prevent other players from scoring big. When you look at the Scrabble game board you can see the "special" square that gives more points when used. When it's your turn and you don't have anything good to put on the board, you need to play in a way that you will steal some precious spaces. So when you try to find a word for scrabble, always keep in mind that you might score big, but your opponent might score bigger if you don't think in advance.

Don't let another player put an easy hook on a bonus square. What that means is if you're about to make a word that ends up one bonus square short and that it is easy for another player to add a single letter on that bonus square to form a new word with your, that maybe you shouldn't play that word!

Here's a hook example where the Scrabble strategy would be to not put this word. Your word is "CODE" and the easy hook would be to add "X" to form "CODEX".

You would get 8 points for "CODE" (O is doubled) and the other Scrabble player, just by putting an extra letter would score 31 points. That 23 points more than you!

Word finder

When I play Scrabble with my girlfriend, we always end up arguing about the existence of a word, the spelling of it or what better word we could have made with what we had on our scrabble tray. So, if like me you want to save some time doing all that, I suggest you take a look at this website every time you are trying to find a word for Scrabble. They have a Scrabble word finder that takes the letter in your tray and try to build a word with some other letter from the board (specified by you). They also have a word verification tool that you can use to proof the existence of your exotic word.

My other Scrabble post

Scrabble cheat
Look out my scrabble ideas to help give this classic board game new twists. You will find some illustration of the board and how you can use existing letters to form new words but in a new way.

board games list

Maybe I should have started this blog with this post, but hey, it's never too late to give out my personal board games list containing all my favorite classic games. Before I give out this list, I wanted to share a very cool video about a guy with a pretty big board games list to! Their names are Andrew Zilch (the movie maker) and Rich Sommer (the board game nerd, coming out of the closet).

A video featuring a big board games list



Back to my personal list, which is way smaller than this Rich guy. The games are not in a specific order in the list, the important thing is to put them in.

My personal list of board games

1. Monopoly
   
   
   
   Using strategy to buy the best property, improve them at the right time in the game. Deal with the other player to trade or buy. Stay in jail and wait for other players to land on your Boardwalk, ah, this game is so much fun. I made a couple of post on this one, so don't miss my monopoly strategy and my alternative monopoly rules .
   
   
2. Clue
   
   
   
   Learn how to remember all little details, find the best clue strategy, make the right accusation, play with other clue player's suspect to slow them down, walk the shortest path to access the clue rooms, pretend to hold the true on clue weapon and clue suspect. Put your opponent on false trail in the clue game arena. This game is still a mystery and a lot of fun.
   
   
3. Risk
   
   
   
   I spend so many hours playing this game that it would be the biggest crime not to put it in my list of board games. North America, Australia, Kamchatka, Madagascar, all good risk strategies to try. Don't be to greedy, don't build to big defenses, don't lose Middle East!
   
   
4. Trivial Pursuit
   
   Try me, I know everything! Humm, not really, but who really care about this little prehistoric little insect name...
   
   
5. The game of life
   
   
   
   I was a kid when I first played this game, so it's bringing back so many good memories that just looking at the box makes me feel a little bit better! For a flashback in the 80s, check out this game of life board game video.
   
   
6. Electronic Stratego ( or was it Admiral)
   
   
   
   I'm not sure about this one. I remember playing an electronic game where you needed to protect a flag. You had like 20 unit with a different military (or naval) rank, where the admiral was the strongest. The goal was to bring the flag unit on the other side of the game board. To attack the enemy, you had to move a unit on the same spot has your opponent unit and then each player would place their unit on some kind of electronic judge on the side of the board who would tell who's the winner, the loser or if it was equal. I don't remember using bombs, so maybe it was a Stratego clone.
   
   
7. Pay day
   
   
   
   I loved the big colorful cards!
   
   
   
8. Scrabble
   
   
   
   I'm still playing this board game every month or so. Always good to develop your vocabulary (by watching other player's word!).
   
   
9. Mastermind
   
   
   Always a good game to challenge your brother after a couple glass of red wine. I'll have to write something about this one. There must be a Mastermind strategy to beat this game in three try all the time!
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. Othello
    
    
    
    Black and White.
    
    
11. Simon
    
    
    
    The reason why I can write down 126 number after 3.14...
    
    
12. Mille Bornes
    
    
    
    Pretty simple game that was always with us when we were traveling long distances.
    

Monopoly Strategy

This post is not about odds and probabilities. If you look out for monopoly strategies based on numbers, you will find great analysis on the subject. If I may suggest, you should take a look at How to Win at Monopoky - a Surefire Strategy and at Probabilities in the Game of Monopoly. They both describe how long it will take to get a return on your investment, expected incomes, probability of landing on a square... you get the picture. Both article are based on numbers, so what I would like to do here, is to take a different approach. Instead of using numbers to drive my strategy, I will focus on the element of the game, more precisely the monopoly chance card and use them to my advantages.

Just for the fun of it, the next time you go to the bathroom, bring the monopoly chance card with you to take a deeper look at them. Some cards are more interesting than the other. For example, the "Advance To Illinois Ave." chance card. Imagine if you already had the red set of property in your possession and that the Illinois avenue property is improved with houses or hotel... If you count the amount of chance card in the deck, you will find out that there's 16 of them. So every 16 chance card drawing, a monopoly player will end up on the Illinois Ave! If you're still sitting in the bathroom and looking at the chance card, you will soon find out that there is eight other chance card that will give a little bonus like the Illinois Avenue card. So let's go through the whole deck of card to illustrate my monopoly strategy based on the chance card.

"Advance to Illinois Ave."

Ok, we already saw this one, so the next time you have a chance to buy this property don't miss your chance. Even if "Kentucky" and "Indiana" are in someone else hand, the Illinois avenue will worth a lot more when trading and selling time will come. Keep it like a good old bottle of red wine. With the jail very close to it, the number of time monopoly players will land on it is higher than some other property.

"Advance to St. Charles Place"

Like the Illinois avenue card, St. Charles Place is a sure buy. The price to improve the property on the purple set is cheaper than the red set, so you will make money faster.

"Advance token to the nearest Railroad and pay owner Twice the Rental to which he/she is otherwise entitled. If Railroad is UNOWNED, you may buy it from the bank"

You need to know that there is two chance card like this one, so this card will come up every eight card. The more railroad you have, the more money you'll make.

"Take a ride on the reading, IF YOU PASS GO COLLECT $200"

Railroads are definitely my favorite. They let you make money as soon has you buy one and the rent increase when you have more. This chance card will bring even more traffic if you bought the Reading Railroad. With the previous chance card description (move to the nearest railroad...), the Reading railroad property is even more interesting.

"ADVANCE TOKEN TO NEAREST UTILITY, If UNOWNED, you may buy it from the bank. If OWNED, throw dice and pay owner a total ten times the amount thrown.

The reasons to buy the monopoly "Electric company" and "Water Works" properties is obvious. Like the railroads you start making money right away (no need to improve them) and if you have both, the total paid by other player is increased. Add to that the fact that every 16 chance card draw, someone will pay you ten times the amount!

"Take a walk on the boardwalk ADVANCE TOKEN TO BOARDWALK"

Like the "Illinois avenue" and "St. Charles place" property, the boardwalk square is another property you should keep your eyes on. It is more expensive, but if you already have Park Place in your hand and that you know that this chance card haven't been draw yet, you should consider buying it and improving it as fast has possible. You will have a return on investment real fast (if you don't draw the card yourself of course).

"GO BACK 3 SPACES"

Ok, this one is less obvious but still give a chance to land on your property if you buy the right ones. Take a look at the monopoly gameboard and pay attention to the chance squares. Now, go back three spaces from there and check the property. There is three monopoly chance square on the board but only one of them is interesting. The chance spot inside the red set of property. The one beside "Park Place" brings you back on a community chest square and the one inside the light blue set is even worse since it brings you back on the "INCOME TAX" square. The only interesting chance square in my monopoly strategy is the one besides Kentucky avenue. If you draw this chance card when standing there, it will bring you back on the New York Avenue property. This one won't give a lot of extra incomes but buying New York is not a lost case since it's not expensive and player will land there more often because of the jail.

To exploit this strategy, you need to pay attention to these properties

Reading Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad, B&Q railroad and Short Line


Illinois Avenue


St. Charles place


Electric Company and Water Works


Boardwalk


New York Avenue

My other post on Monopoly board game

Monopoly alternative rules part 1
Board changes, railroad tracks to short-circuit some part of the planchette, new monopoly chance cards.

Monopoly alternative rules part 2
New game element like the toll and the taxi, new uses of the monopoly free parking and GO spots.

Monopoly alternative rules final part
Auction revisited, new token to add more strategy, new powers to the owners of the electric company and water works properties.

Monopoly rules

Find out why you should always read the monopoly rules before playing this board game. A list of links to the monopoly rules in various language.

scary ouija board stories

Yesterday I was watching a movie called "Ouija". If you like scary ouija board stories, you will love this one. I spent a lot of time reading very scary ouija stories but to actually see it is way better! Seeing that Ouija movie made me think about other film where ouija scene are present and I was really surprised to find out so many. So for all "scary ouija stories" lovers, here's a list of film showing ouija board scenes.

The most recent ouija board stories in movies

First, my yesterday's movie, "Ouija". It was made in 2007, a Filipino movie directed by Topel Lee. To make it short, a couple of person are playing ouija and before they end questioning the board, it's destroyed by fire, leaving a spirit outside. Those ouija terror stories should remind all user that play the real ouija board of the ouija boards dangers that could happen. An interesting fact about that movie is that it was not using the same title in other countries. They use the name "Sceance"

Watch Ouija movie part 1 and Ouija movie part 2.

Second, another recent ouija board story was developed by Khaled Youssef in 2006. The plot of the story was also around the ouija board even though there was only one scene with it. However this one moment with Ouija changed their life forever. The movie illustrated how fragile the human mind can be. The movie is also named Ouija and is from Egypt. Again, this movie is showing some of the ouija boards dangers.

Older scary ouija board stories in movies

Everybody will remember the first one. This little girl talking about is imaginary friend Captain Howdy, the voice that tells the answers when she question ouija board. She dangerously played with the board and now the evil spirit is out and controlling her. She was unaware of the ouija boards dangers and now an exorcist will be necessary to fight the bad spirit in her. Don't miss The Exorcist!

The next one if full of ouija terror stories and is one of the very best film featuring the ouija board. The horror movie, the Witchboard, made in 1985. You can see this girl getting completely absorbed by the power of contacting spirit of the other world. Unaware of the ouija boards dangers, she's getting controlled by a spirit with bad intentions. If you watch it and like it, then you'll be probably happy to know that there is a Witchboard 2 and 3.

More recent ouija board stories can be seen in this next movie "What lies beneath". The main actress is Michelle Pfeiffer, playing the role of a woman with deep questionning about her life. She will use the ouija board to try answering those question. You can see a weird place to play ouija, the bathroom.

My list of film with scary ouija board stories could go a little bit longer, but while searching the net, I found a very good place where the author made a very good job at listing film where people play the real ouija board. So for more very scary ouija stories check out this list featuring ouija board movies. And if you are more of a reader than a movie watcher, you can still check out these scary ouija board stories.

My other post about OUIJA

Places to play Ouija
Ever wonder where you could play this board game to get maximum chills? Find out a nice list of places where you and your friend could use the Ouija board.

Very scary ouija stories
Read stories from people around the world that shares their best experience with this classic board game.

Alternative Monopoly rules and game elements (final part)

More monopoly rules and game elements!

I hope you're not tired yet of those alternative monopoly rules and game elements because I have some more for you readers! In general what I found is lacking in the monopoly game board is the power you get when you purchase something. Except for making more bucks, buying a property and putting buildings won't give you much more power. Same thing goes when you buy a railroad or a service like the Electric Company or the Water Works. The new monopoly toll token described in a previous post is a good example of an extra power you get when you have all monopoly property of the same color. In that way of thinking, I would give extra power when you buy the Electric Company or the Water Works monopoly properties. My last game design idea is for auction when players are trying to buy a property that a monopoly player didn't want to buy during is turn. I don't really like the way it's suppose to be done and I'm proposing a new one here.

Monopoly Electric Company

Every time the owner of the electric company land on it, he can roll the dice to get the right to shut down the electricity on one, two or three property anywhere on the monopoly board. So if the electric company owner rolls a double-one, double-two or double-three he can shut down one, two or three property. What that means is that the shut down properties won't be able to ask the rent of an improved properties but only the basic rent without improvement. We put the monopoly hotel and houses on the side of the game board until the owner of those properties land on it to repair it or he uses the monopoly chance card that gives immediate electric problem repairs. Instead of putting houses and hotel aside, we could have a nice token looking a big like this (picture on the right).

Monopoly Water Works

In real life, when the water pipe system is broken, the street is closed to make some repair and you need to make some detours. To give a little more power to the owner of water works, I propose that like the Electric Company alternate monopoly rule, when the owner land on the Water Works property, he rolls the dice and if he gets double-1, double-2 or double-3, he can block the route (except for him) to other player on different property of the monopoly game board. He can strategically put road blocks on his improved property to force someone to stop on it and make some extra monopoly cash! There could be three road block on the game board depending on what the player rolled. On the picture you can see that the player put one road block on the boardwalk property. A player cannot cross this block even if the dice score was higher. Once a player bumped into the block, the block is removed. A block could also be removed by a player using is community check card.

Monopoly property auction

If you read the monopoly rules, you can see that when a player land on a property that doesn't belong to any other player and that he refuses to buy it, that other monopoly player can buy it from the bank. The way rules are written, a verbal auction is taking place and the biggest offer wins the property. What I'm proposing has an alternative to this monopoly rule is that every player takes is "monopoly envelope" and put the money he's willing to pay for this property. The monopoly player that puts the biggest amount of money wins the auction.This way of doing the auction creates a bigger suspense in my opinion and his more fun. Imagine buying the boardwalk for 10$ !

So this is where this series of alternative monopoly rules and new game element ends for now. If you missed part 1 and part 2, you can find them here:

My other post on Monopoly board game

Monopoly alternative rules part 1
Board changes, railroad tracks to short-circuit some part of the planchette, new monopoly chance cards.

Monopoly alternative rules part 2
New game element like the toll and the taxi, new uses of the monopoly free parking and GO spots.

Monopoly rules

Find out why you should always read the monopoly rules before playing this board game. A list of links to the monopoly rules in various language.

Monopoly strategies
Forget about the odds, think about how to buy the best monopoly property. An analysis of all monopoly chance and community chest cards to help you choose the best property to buy.

Alternative Monopoly rules and game elements (part 2)

Following my first set of alternative rules and game elements, here's some more...

The Toll (monopoly game element)

A new token called "the toll". This new monopoly token would be another way of financing some project on your property. There would be only one monopoly toll in the game and it would be controlled by only one player at a time. To get control of it you need to stop on the "GO" spot and roll a double at your next turn. You could also get control of it by drawing the monopoly community chest card that gives control of "The toll". The alternative monopoly rules are the following.

• You need a complete set of property (all monopoly property of the same color)
• You can't put a toll if some of those property are already improved.
• Every time a player passes through the toll he needs to pay is right to pass and that even if
  he doesn't stop on it. See the legend on the right to find the price.
• The toll must be set on the last property of a set.
• The player still need to pay the rent when stopping on the property where the toll is placed.

The Taxi (monopoly game element)

Like the toll, the new monopoly token called "the taxi" is unique and can be controlled by only one player at a time. The taxi token is placed on the free parking spot when the game starts. To make use of the taxi, you must land on the same spot as the taxi. When it's your turn to play, instead of rolling the dice, you can "take the cab" anywhere on the monopoly game board. Every spot traveled will cost you ten monopoly dollar (10$). The alternative monopoly rules for the new taxi token are the following.

• The ride will cost 10$ per monopoly spot traveled
• You can't reuse the taxi the next turn
• The starting position of the taxi is the monopoly free parking spot

Parking spot (Alternative monopoly rule)

1. 

You just found some money on the ground! To get this money, you need to roll a double. The money you win is the money paid by monopoly player when drawing community chest card or chance card that says something like: "You need to pay the bank...". So all the money paid normaly to the bank is put on the parking lot space instead of the bank chest. Every player landing on the monopoly parking spot will have a chance to make some extra money. See the images to find out examples of what monopoly cards will have you put some money there.

GO spot (alternative monopoly rule)

When a player stop exactly on the monopoly GO spot he have the choice to send the traffic counter-clockwise (or clockwise) if he wants. To do so, he must roll the dice and get a double. If he succeed, the monopoly game board will now be a one way in the direction indicated by this player. We could probably add a new monopoly token in the shape of an arrow to indicate the current traffic direction to make sure no one goes in the wrong direction.

My other post on Monopoly board game

Monopoly alternative rules part 1
Board changes, railroad tracks to short-circuit some part of the planchette, new monopoly chance cards.

Monopoly alternative rules final part
Auction revisited, new token to add more strategy, new powers to the owners of the electric company and water works properties.

Monopoly rules

Find out why you should always read the monopoly rules before playing this board game. A list of links to the monopoly rules in various language.

Monopoly strategies
Forget about the odds, think about how to buy the best monopoly property. An analysis of all monopoly chance and community chest cards to help you choose the best property to buy.

Alternative Monopoly rules and game elements

Greatest classic board game of all time, Monopoly is on the top of my favorite game list. I like this game so much, that sometimes I'm dreaming of a Monopoly sequel. I would love to see something like "Monopoly 2 coming this summer" somewhere on the net. While waiting for this (if it ever happens) I have come up with a list of alternative monopoly rules and game element just for the fun of it.

Changes to the monopoly game board

1- Railroad routes from one railroad to all the other. The player owning more than one railroad, can go freely from one station to the other if he owns both ends of it. Otherwise, if he owns only one, he'll have to pay the destination railroad's owner a fee to stand there. If you don't own any railroad, you can still use the railroad routes but you'll have to pay the rent for both of them. Note that you cannot use a railroad route if one of the two ends are not own by a monopoly player. Sorry about the art in this picture, I definitely need some drawing skills.

Alternative Monopoly chance card


Forest Fire destroyed houses and hotels on some properties, roll the dice to find out where. The player with the highest score decide what property color got the fire disaster. The owner must remove 1 hotel or 3 houses from any of the property of that color.


Property has too much pollution on it. You lose possession of it and need to return houses and hotel to the bank.



A bank goes bankrupt and loses track of one of your mortgage. You can chose the mortgaged property of your choice.


Alternative Monopoly Community Chest card


Train collision on one of your railroad track, accident will be repaired the next time you step on it. If you don't have a railroad property you choose the one of another player.




Some land are getting values, price of rent is doubled the next time someone step on it. Place the card in front of one of your monopoly in until someone step on it.

My other post on Monopoly board game

Monopoly alternative rules part 2
New game element like the toll and the taxi, new uses of the monopoly free parking and GO spots.

Monopoly alternative rules final part
Auction revisited, new token to add more strategy, new powers to the owners of the electric company and water works properties.

Monopoly rules

Find out why you should always read the monopoly rules before playing this board game. A list of links to the monopoly rules in various language.

Monopoly strategies
Forget about the odds, think about how to buy the best monopoly property. An analysis of all monopoly chance and community chest cards to help you choose the best property to buy.

ticket to ride strategy

When playing the Ticket To Ride board game you sure need some luck to get an edge on the other TTR player. But apart from luck, you'll need a strategy to be able to ride on all those routes without making to much detours. A good ticket to ride strategy will always be to try reading other player's mind. What I mean by that is trying to figure out the ticket to ride destination card that are on their hands. An image worth thousand words, so here's an explanation of what I'm writing about.

Ticket to ride strategy 1 - Route stealing

If you click the ticket to ride map on the right, you will see that the green player first took the route between "Seattle" and "Helena". the second ticket to ride route he took was "Duluth - Chicago". It's fairly easy to assume that this ticket to ride player will later try to connect those two route by taking the route connecting the city "Helena" and "Duluth". So what you should do at this point is try to take possession of this route for yourself, but not at all costs. Take a good look at your TTR destination cards and try to find one that need that route. If none of your destination card needs it, then you should forget about taking it unless only a few train card are needed. That last ticket to ride tip lead me to my next strategy.

Ticket to ride strategy 2 - Cheap route buying