Appletters

This game is fun but if you're used to playing scrabble you might take a few turns before you get over
your urge to put words any which way. Each player starts off with nine tiles that they keep secret. The
first person makes a word. The second player must make a word that begins with or ends with either the
first or last letter of the word. So if the first word was [p][l][a][y] that means the [p] and the [y] are
"open" because that's the end of the "snake" or "train". Same idea as Mexican Train Dominoes.

The rules aren't terrible clear about this but in my house we also let people make an open word longer
for their turn as long as they're adding letters to the end of the word and not the beginning. So if the
open word was "play" we would allow somebody to put down "ers" to make "players". Not sure if that's
exactly the rules but it flows well.

If you can't make anything at all then you have to say "pick and pass" and take three more tiles from the
remaining tiles, called the "bunch", and that's the end of your turn.

Apple turnover.

The rules are very similar to Appletters except you start off with 21 tiles per player. Since you get more
tiles at first it's easier to put some big words on the board.

What makes it "turnover" is that if a player puts down a word, the very next player remove that word
make the previous player take back the tiles if and only if that player can put down a longer word in it's
place. So if somebody put down "frog" the next player could yell "turnover" make previous player take
back their "rog" and put down a longer word.

This version of the game is more cut throat and makes the game more competitive and interesting once
you've mastered the mechanics of the game.

Applescore

Applescore is just like playing scrabble but without a board. Like Apple Turner over each player begins
with 21 tiles. The first player draws a letter from the bunch and puts it in the middle of the board and
then must make a word containing that letter. At the end of each turn the player draws one additional
tile from the bunch. Unless you cannot make a word then you must "pick and pass" and draw three tiles
from the bunch.
This game was a real hoot. Each tile is worth 1 point only, so score keeping is easier scrabble because
each tile is the same and there are no double or triples etc. However there are bonuses.

5 point bonus for any word over 8 letters.

5 point bonus for any word that's a palindrome or semi-palindrome which would be a word that's the
same forward and backwards like "dad" or is one word forward and another word backwards like "dog"
which is "god" backwards.

5 point bonus for going out first.

Also like scrabble if you put a letter down that makes one word longer and starts another word you get
points for both words. It's pretty much all the same rules as scrabble except with easier score keeping,
different bonuses, and no board.