h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

this is an absolutely wonderful idea!!
and especially useful for family play!
i get so desperate for a scrabble game that i used to play with my 4, 6 and 8 year olds
the scores around the table always wound up about the same... i wonder why

also... i nowadays have somewhat more experience playing
and have trouble getting less experienced friends to play

but this way we can all have tons of fun
which
is what it is all about anyway

thank you so much sprout... great entry!
great pix too!!

I don't get the scoring. If Diana is the brainbox, how can she win?

Thanks for the positive comments.

OK here's how the scoring works.

Round 1
Alan is watching. BCD all score 30 points.
Scoreboard looks like this:

A = 0 he was watching this round
B = 30
C = 30
D = 30

Round 2
Betty watches. ACD all score 50 points.

A = 0 + 50 = 50
B = 30 + 0 = 30 she was watching this round
C = 30 + 50 = 80
D = 30 + 50 = 80

Round 3
Charles watches. ABD all score 40 points.

A = 50 + 40 = 90
B = 30 + 40 = 70
C = 80 + 0 = 80 he was watching this round
D = 80 + 40 = 120

Round 4
Diana watches. ABC all score 15 points (The score would have been higher if Diana had been taking part).

A = 90 + 15 = 105
B = 70 + 15 = 85
C = 80 + 15 = 95
D = 120 + 0 = 120 she was watching this round

So you see that after the first full round Diana already has a significant lead, but nobody has a very poor score.

The overall score will be much higher than in normal scrabble (i.e. when you add everyone's score together) because of the duplication of scoring in each round.

I hope that helps.

ohhhhhh and ...Vestboy!! a thousand apologies !!!

i called you sprout in my first posting
just wasnt thinking

i love scrabble
thank you for this


also.... diana is always on the winning team whereas the others always have one round where she is not on their team...

Absolutely right - so the competitive scrabble players will still be interested in playing even though the overall feel is co-operation.
No problem about the mistaken identity

I get it now. Wasn't thinking far enough. Very clever. Considering I usually win at Scrabble, you'd have thought I would have been clever enough to work that one out for myself!

Yes, if you usually win it wouldn't be an attractive proposition to play the game (if you thought you would only randomly win), but for people who normally lose by miles this gives them a bit of a chance and makes the game more interesting for them. Which lures then in so that you can still thrash them!

typo ... which lures them in...