Anagrams is a board game composed of Scrabble-like letter tiles. Players form words and "steal" them by creating anagrams. It has never truly been standardized and there exist a great many varieties of sets and rules. Anagrams sets are no longer published and now often played with tiles from another word game, such as Scrabble.

History

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Reputed to have originated as a Victorian word game, Anagrams has appeared in many published versions in the last century. The first modern version seems to have been the game "Anagrams" published in 1934 by Selchow & Righter, the manufacturer which would publish Scrabble in 1953. In 1975, Selchow published the "Scrabble Scoring Anagrams" version which featured tiles with point values similar to the familiar Scrabble system. Another version was published in the 1960s by the now defunct Transogram. The Embossing Company also produced a yellow-on-black "Eye-Rest" set. Many other versions have been produced and, although the game has been out of print for quite some time, used sets can still be found on internet auction and specialty sites. Many players use several Scrabble or Upwords sets.

A version of the game seems to be popular among tournament Scrabble players. Writers John Ciardi, James Merrill, John Malcolm Brinnin, and Richard Wilbur reputedly played together regularly, with novelist John Hersey also sometimes sitting in (see the article "Wordplay" by Rust Hills from the March 1996 issue of Esquire; Vol. 125, Issue 3).

Rules and Variations

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There has never been a standardized set of rules and since the game is out of print, players now often play by house rules. A basic set of rules can be approximated and most variations may be found below.

Setup

Before play all tiles are turned face-down.

Turns

During the game, players take turns flipping tiles face up on the table into the pool. (There are many variations of this, for some see the Variations section.)

Creating Words

When a player sees a word of four or more letters (alternatively, some players allow words of three or more letters) among the tiles face-up in the middle, this player says the word and puts the tiles for this word in front of them. Some versions only allow players to make or steal words on their turn (this slows down play).

Stealing Words

A player may steal a word from another player by mixing all the tiles of one opponent's word with one or more in the middle, forming another word. Mere pluralization is never permitted, however, and sometimes players stipulate that the new word has to change the root of the old one. (example: APPEAR to PARAPET is fine, while APPEAR to APPEARED or REAPPEAR is not.) A player may modify his own words, subject to the same rule.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends when all tiles are face-up and no one can create or steal any more words.

There are several distinct variants of scoring:

• Simple letter count. The player in possession of the most tiles wins.
• Simple word count. Whoever has spelled the most words wins.
• Add letter point values. Players with a "Scrabble Scoring Anagrams" set or using a set made from Scrabble tiles may also add up the point values of the letters in their possession.
• Remove one letter from each word and count the remaining tiles. (This rule gives a slight advantage to the creation of longer words.)
• Sum of the squares of the lengths of the words in one's control. (This rule gives even greater reward to the inventive creation of large words more than it does amassing small ones.)

Variations

A host of variations come from both different versions and players' house rules. (There does not seem to be anything close to a comprehensive (or even representative) list of these on the internet.)

= The "Fanagrams" Variation

= The rules from The Embossing Company set refer to variations by players who "have developed an interesting test of mental alerness and a highly exciting form of competition" by eliminating turns. Instead of taking turns, a dealer deals letters in and any player may call out a word. (Players may also choose to form teams.) The result, as the game's official rules note, is that it "very often happens that a quick witted player alone may defeat several others."

• An even faster-paced version of these rules -- known to some as "Alaskan rules" -- has each of the players (or perhaps several, if there are too many) simultaneously turn their tiles into the pool. This results in many more possibilities being available at a time.

=Miscellaneous Variations

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• Players may not create a word by creating a word that is already on the table or steal one resulting in such a word.

• Some versions of the game name the winner as the person who, after the round of turns has finished, first acquires eight words. (Ten words in The Embossing Company version.)If more than one player has done so, then the winner is the player is the one with the most tiles. There may be a tie. (See also Tom Jukic's review of Anagrams on boardgamegeek.com).
  • A similar rule found in The Embossing Company set simply says the "first player to complete ten words, wins."

• Players are permitted to steal two or more existing words on the table by combining their letters with one or more letters from the middle to create a single new word. While this is difficult in practice, it does enable those with Alyssan anagram genius to be recognized.

Letter Distribution

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Though there are many variants, one standard letter distribution of 188 letters (given in the Rust Hills article) is as follows:

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
13	5	6	7	24	6	7	6	12	2	2	8	8	11	15	4	2	12	10	10	6	2	4	2	2	2

The distribution of 180 letters for Scrabble Scoring Anagrams (according to a review on www.funagain.com):

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
16	4	4	8	22	4	6	6	14	2	2	8	4	10	14	4	2	12	8	10	8	2	2	2	4	2

External links

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• www.gtoal.com's "Letter-by-Letter Word Games FAQ"
• www.gtoal.com's large collection images of various Anagrams sets and other wordgames.

Word games

Anagramoj