Words with Friends Rules

Reinvented classic, “Words with Friends” is an easy game to play and only requires a dash of rules drawn from its precursor, Scrabble.  Introduced in 2009, Zynga’s social media game has captivated everyone’s sense of competition and need to ‘connect’.  

Here’s a quick review of the rules:  The object is to place lettered tiles on the board, positioning these either horizontally or vertically. The app takes care of dealing the tiles.   

Placement

Words with Friends rules are simple enough: The game kicks off with Player 1 forming a word on a center spot with a star.  The next word is connected to letters to earlier ones laid out.  In forming the second word, one can only ‘share’ one letter earlier formed.  However, as the grid starts filling with more words, seasoned players may easily intersect other words --- as if on a crossword puzzle.

No-No’s

Words that don’t make sense won’t cut it.  Same goes with proper nouns, abbreviations, contractions, hyphenated words, as well as prefixes & suffixes.  Debates may ensue from slang words or new entries in urban dictionaries --- but these may be resolved between the players.

Scoring

With certain places on board offering added value to a letter or a word, strategic placement is a key to maximizing scores per turn.  A letter’s value may double (DL) or triple (TL) while A word may earn more points when they fall onto a DW (double word) or TW (triple word) spot. Both ‘extra’ scoring opportunities are just a one-shot deal.  So for that the bonus of 35 points by using all seven tiles in one turn!

Winning

The game ends when all tiles have been drawn or when no one scores after three successive turns.  Remaining tiles’ letter values are deducted from the player who is unable to make a placement. The value of remaining tiles is given to the last player who makes a move. Highest scorer at the end of the game wins!