Negative Points for Blanks

(Originally posted on BoardGameGeek.)

Just tested this with a group across skill levels, and it made the game much faster and more interesting.

The gist of it is that you’re guaranteed a blank every turn, at a cost.

Each turn, you may choose to flip at most one of your letter tiles upside-down (so that the letter is still visible, but the facing is inverted) and play it as a blank. That letter counts for negative points for your turn, but otherwise acts exactly like a normal blank tile.

If you play an inverted “A” on a double-letter space, it’s worth -2.

If your word is worth negative points and is sitting on a double-word space, it doubles the negative score.

We think that this makes the game much more interesting, more strategic, and faster – all good things.