Scatter

A solitaire word game with Scrabble tiles.

Set up

You will need a set of Scrabble tiles and a surface.

Take about half of the tiles and scatter them over the surface. Spread them around so they aren't too bunched up.

Play

The goal is to pick up all the tiles in the fewest moves.

To pick up a group of tiles:

they must form a convex shape (a shape with no dents in it),

there must not be any other tiles within the shape, and

reading around the shape in either direction must make a valid word.

As an exception, if all tiles left on the surface form a word, you can pick them all up and finish the game, regardless of their arrangement.

Tips

All triangles are convex shapes, so 3 tiles in a line are fine to pick up.

To judge whether a debatable tile is within a word shape, temporarily imagine it being part of the shape. If that shape is still convex, the tile is outside the word shape and you can pick up the word.

See also

Scrungeon, a game with more of a theme that also needs a Scrabble board and a few other bits.