BananagramsAgainst Scrabble
Updated September 4, 2026 · 2 min read
This game shares the idea of interlocking words in a grid, but it has no board, no letter scores and no turns. You race on your own private grid to use every tile you hold, rebuilding whenever your layout gets stuck.
The short version
- Build on your own private patch of table, without crossing into anyone else's grid.
- Ignore letter values, since this game tracks no score and uses no blank tiles.
- Tear down and rebuild your words at any time to accommodate new letters.
- Exchange one unplayable tile for three fresh ones by calling Dump.
Scrabble runs on a shared board where players take turns placing words onto premium squares to build a point total. Here, there is no board and no score. You place tiles directly on the table in your own separate grid, racing to arrange every letter into valid words.
Shared ground
Words interlock in a crossword grid, and the letter set is the same idea.
Where they part
No board, no letter scores, no turns. The goal is to place every tile you hold, so a grid that stops accepting letters has to be pulled apart and rebuilt.
| Players at the table | Tiles each on Split |
|---|---|
| 1–4 | 21 |
| 5–6 | 15 |
| 7–8 | 11 |
The 144 tiles carry no point values and no blanks. Every letter from A to Z is present, with strictly more of every single letter than a standard 98 letter set. Vowels account for 60 tiles, or 41.7 percent of the set. High count letters like E appear 18 times, while letters like Q, X and Z appear 2 times each.
Because there are no turns, you never wait for someone else to play. When you use your last tile, you call Peel, and every person at the table draws one tile from the bunch. If an awkward letter stalls your layout, you can call Dump to trade it for three new tiles, or pull your grid apart and rebuild it from scratch.
The race ends when the bunch holds fewer tiles than there are players, which is the point where no further Peel is possible. The first person to place their remaining tiles calls Bananas and wins, provided every word in their grid is checked and valid.
The mistake to avoid
The mistake is to wait for your turn or preserve a finished word. There is no turn order, and no points exist for long or difficult words. If an incoming tile does not fit, dismantle your grid and rebuild your letters into entirely new words immediately.
Questions that keep coming up
Are there blank tiles in the bunch?
No, the bunch contains zero blank tiles. All 144 tiles are standard letters from A to Z.
Do two players ever share the same grid?
No. Every player builds their own separate grid on the table, and nothing crosses between players.
What happens when you call Dump?
You place one unwanted tile face down back into the bunch and draw three new tiles in return.