''Scribbage'' (also marketed as ''Ad-Lib Crossword Clues'') is a classic dice

word game Word games (also called word game puzzles or word search games) are spoken, board, or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties. Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can ad ...

published in 1959 by the E.S. Lowe Company. 13 dice are rolled which have various letters on each side. Each letter is given a point value depending on its frequency in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

. A timer is flipped and the player has to put the dice into words either left-to-right or up-and-down. The words must connect with each other as in

crossword puzzles A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the ans ...

or ''

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...

''. The player must stop at the end of the time and points are counted. The player adds up the points of the letters used and subtracts the amount from the unused letters. ''Scribbage'' can be played with two or more players. A nearly identical game called ''Crossword Cubes'' from game maker Selchow and Righter (makers of ''

'') uses 14 cubes instead of 13. Despite its name, Scribbage has nothing in common with the card game

cribbage Cribbage, or crib, is a card game, traditionally for two players, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. It can be adapted for three or four players. Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbag ...

Gameplay

Scribbage is a spelling game similar to Scrabble. The parts are a set of 13 letter dice and a timer. Each face of the dice is stamped with a letter and a number with the exception of two which show Jokers. The number represents the letter's frequency in English. Each player in turn throws the letter dice and turns over the timer. The player must make as many words as possible before the timer runs out. All words must be connected in a crossword style. The two Jokers can be used as any letter. The play is scored by adding the points in all words formed. Any letters used in two words are counted in each word. The player reduces this score by the total of the numbers on any unused letters. It is possible, if unusual, to end the game with a negative score. The game can either be played for a set number of rounds or until a certain score is reached. Scribbage is also available in modern-day on the internet through an app on Google Play, the Apple App Store and through Facebook. The letter distribution for each die is: ABESXY ACEFIZ ADEJNR ADETVW AEHLST AFGILQ BMNOSU CKNOUV DEIRS◇ EGIMP◇ EHNORT EILORT MOPUWY The point values are: A-1 B-4 C-4 D-3 E-1 F-4 G-4 H-3 I-2 J-6 K-5 L-2 M-3 N-2 O-1 P-4 Q-8 R-2 S-2 T-2 U-3 V-4 W-4 X-8 Y-4 Z-10 ◇(wild)-0

In popular culture

A game of Scribbage is played in the film ''

Midnight Cowboy ''Midnight Cowboy'' is a 1969 American drama film, based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. The film was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with notable smaller ...

'' between Joe Buck (

Jon Voight Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award–nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). During the 1970s, h ...

) and his client Shirley (

Brenda Vaccaro Brenda is a feminine given name in the English language. Origin The overall accepted origin for the female name Brenda is the Old Nordic male name ''Brandr'' meaning both ''torch'' and ''sword'': evidently the male name Brandr took root in area ...

) in which Joe tries playing MONY which he remembers seeing on a billboard and believes to be how "money" is spelled. A Scribbage box can be seen in the season 3 finale of '' Stranger Things''.

Reviews

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Games & Puzzles ''Games & Puzzles'' was a magazine about games and puzzles. The magazine was first published in May 1972 by Edu-Games (UK) Ltd. The first editor was Graeme Levin who recruited a variety of games and puzzles experts as writers and consultant edi ...

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'' #31

References

{{Dice games Dice games Products introduced in 1959