Double the score and double the fun!

Here’s a little craft project that you can use and use, right through your holidays.

All you need are chart or art paper (preferably something with a bit of stiffness to it), a pair of scissors, felt-tipped pens, colour pencils, Fevicol, cello tape and a foot ruler. Now pull out any one of your favourite board games and look at it with a critical eye.

I’ve always felt that games like ‘Snakes and Ladders’ get over too soon. And others like Scrabble, or any word-building game, are no fun if a lot of people play together. So here’s what I’ve done.

I’ve decided to give Scrabble an extended life. I’ve cut out 4 long strips of paper and stuck them together in such a way that they form a sort of window that can be placed over the Scrabble board.

The grid I’ve drawn on my ‘window’ extends the grid of the original game by 5 columns/rows, in all four directions.

And on this grid, I’ve just added more ‘Double word scores’ (dW); ‘Double letter scores (dL); and at the corners and mid-boundary lines, I’ve happily added what I feel is the grand climax.

After a series of ‘Double word scores’ radiate to end in the ‘Triple word score’, you can now extend the same to end in the ‘Quadruple word score’ (what I’ve shortened to ‘Word score x 4’).

Be inventive and add your own spice! Maybe more ‘Triple words’ (tW) and ‘Triple letter’ (tL) boxes on your grid.

You can also make your own letter tiles on stiff paper, as shown and add them into the little bag that players pick their 7 plastic letter tiles from, at each turn. I’d suggest making exactly as many tiles as you originally had.

So you’ll now have double the number of vowels that your original word-building game had, and you’ll also be stuck with two each of those horrors, ‘Z’ and one ‘Q’!

Now, when you play your ‘New! Improved! X’tra-powered’ game, you’ll find that the fun goes on for longer (the grown-ups might not be too happy with that) and you can also tot up mega scores!

And when you put away your game, fold your ‘window’ carefully, twice over, so it fits into the box, along with everything else.

To make sure that your ‘scrabble-extension-window’ lasts longer, run cello-tape on both sides of the paper, where you fold it. That prevents the paper tearing at the fold.
You’ve now got yourself a mega-game that will last you for years.

You could do the same with a ‘Snakes and Ladders’ board, extending it only in one direction — upwards. And have fun drawing funny-looking snakes and twisted ladders.
Once you become a ‘Game Extension Expert’, you’ll probably get many more ideas about how to add masala to other games! Happy Holidays!