Are you looking for a specific Scrabble Slam! rule? | Setup | Playing the Game | Winning the Game | Double Slam | FAQ | Components |
Objective
The objective of Scrabble Slam! is to be the first player to get rid of all of the cards from your hand.
Setup
- Choose a player to be the dealer. They will shuffle all of the cards.
- All of the players have to agree on the starting four letter word for the game. The instructions recommend “game”, but you can use any four letter word.
- Find the letters required to create the four letter word and place them on the table.
- Deal out the rest of the cards to the other players as evenly as possible. Place all of the cards in your hand.
How to Play Scrabble Slam!
All of the players play Scrabble Slam! at the same time. There are no turns. Whenever you have a card that you can play, you can play it to the table. When everyone is ready you will count down with “Ready, Set, Slam!.” At this point all of the players can start playing the game.
Look at the four letter word in the middle of the table as well as the cards in your hand. Each card is double-sided. The small letters in the corners of each card say what two letters are on the card. You can play a card for either of the two letters. Each player is trying to find a card from their hand that they can play on top of one of the four letters in the middle of the table in order to create a different word. You can only play one card at a time.
When you have a card that you can play, play it on top of the letter that it will replace. This changes the middle word into a different four letter word. You should say the new word out loud to the rest of the players. For example the middle word is “game”. If you have a “t” in your hand you can play it on top of the “m” in game to turn the word into gate.
Blank cards can act as any letter. Once you play a blank card though, it remains whatever letter you originally played it as.
There are a couple of rules about the words that you can create in Scrabble Slam!.
- You cannot play proper nouns or names.
- Acronyms are not allowed.
- You can repeat words in the game, but the word needs to change at least once between two instances of the same word. You can never play a letter on top of the same letter.
If a player doesn’t think the word you played is allowed, they will say “Time Out!”. The players will then consult a dictionary. If the word is in the dictionary, it is allowed. Should a word not be in a dictionary, the player who created the last word has to take the card they played back.
Winning the Game
The first player to play all of the cards from their hand wins Scrabble Slam!.
Should you get into a situation where no one is able to play a card, the game ends. Each player counts up the number of cards in their hand. Whichever player has the least cards in their hand wins the game.
Double Slam
If you want to play a more challenging game, you can choose to play Double Slam. In this game you will place two words in the middle of the table. The two words will share one letter like in a crossword.
The game is otherwise played the same as the main game. When playing cards though, you need to make sure that both words are still words after you play a card. This especially needs to be verified when you change the letter shared between the two words.
Scrabble Slam! FAQ
If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.
Components
- 55 Letter Cards
- Instructions
Year: 2008 | Publisher: Hasbro, Parker Brothers, Winning Moves | Designer: Joe Wetherell
Genres: Card, Family, Word
Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 15 minutes
Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate
For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.