Quiddler: Does this happen to you?

[elfs]

So, here's the question for those of you who've played Quiddler: Is it normal that for a foursome, you never make it to the last person in any given round? Omaha, Lisakit, Kouryou-chan, Yamaraashi-chan and I have all routinely gone out with the hands we were dealt. The game isn't really that much fun when, if you're the third person in a round, you know the odds of the game getting to you are damnably slim, and when it's your turn to go first you know the pressure is on to find the words in your hand because, if you don't, someone else will go out before it gets back to you.

I mean, in the last round we had opening hand go-outs with words like "jilt," "aloe," "tithe," "quoth," "ogle," "aerie," "xi" and "re", and I almost found a use for "qat".

Comments

Here's something we do

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

It's not in the rulebook, but we like it. You can't go out on the first hand. You have to wait for the second. That somewhat improves the odds that it'll get to you. Not much, but a little. All the same, I'm finding that going out on my turn doesn't always garner me the most points.

Sometimes I go out and discover that the folks I'm playing with have higher points in their hands.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

Yup.

We change the rules a lot (requiring one word only, starting with six letters, etc.)

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Yes, when I've played it, that's exactly what happened.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

Unmodified Quiddler is not for people who would do well at Scrabble.

[seraphs-folly.livejournal.com]

>>It's not in the rulebook, but we like it. You can't go out on the first hand.

That is in our local rulebook! So everyone gets at least one turn.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

It's one of the reasons we end up doing rotating teams or involving silliness.

Another thing you can do is change your reference book. Instead of using a dictionary, use something else. You can use *any* word found in that book, but *only* words found in that book. If you pick something like Dr. Seuss, you leave out the vast majority of "Acceptable Words" altogether and get to use some very silly letter combinations. If you pick a technical book on plants or animals, you get to use a ton of latin and scientific jargon, but not necessarily some other "good scrabble words". I don't know how the kids would deal with it, but it might be a fun option some night for the adults.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

That actually might be a good idea with the kids though. If we pick the right book it would handicap the adults' larger vocabulary, giving the kids a better chance.

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

As others have already said: it ends quickly, if unmodified.

I've been meaning to try a "real time Quiddler" variant, wherein you have a sand timer and can take a turn whenever your timer runs all the way down, flipping it to run again when you decide your turn is done. When someone goes out, everyone else gets one more turn.