Boggle variations?

Question

This summer we have company staying with us, and they greatly enjoy playing Boggle. I'm looking to spice things up a bit, though - any ideas for Boggle variations that we can try? There will be two to four of us playing at any time.

Thanks

Answer 1

A few Boggle variants I've heard of:

• Scrabble-style: Lose the timer - take turns making words, end game when (n) words made (try about 20 to begin with). You cannot repeat a word already made.

• Collapsing Boggle: Use a shorter timer. After it runs out, remove 1 die at random and keep going. Remove another die and have a third (and final) run through.

• Selective Boggle: After the dice are placed, each player may rotate one die to a different side. (For a milder version, have one player rotate one die, changing players each round.)

• Generous Boggle: Allow each die to be used multiple times in one word.

• Scatter Boggle: Only try this with a large size 5x5 Boggle set. Instead of being adjacent, each die in the word must NOT be adjacent horizontally or vertically. (Don't count diagonals with this variant; there won't be enough options.)

  I've just invented one more while typing, so this is completely untested, and may not even make sense:

• Apples to Boggles. Get an Apples to Apples set and play it, except that instead of picking a noun from your hand to match the topic for the round, you have to pick a word from the Boggle board to match, and convince people it's the best candidate as usual. First person to call a word gets it as her "apple" for the round. (Definitely use the "generous" rule above for this one.)