Suppose there are 3 seperate melds on the table.
Blue 6,7,8, Red 5,6,7, Orange 4,5,6.
I made my initial meld and I'm holding tiles in my hand that would allow me to form new melds of 4,4,4, 5,5,5, 6,6,6, and 7,7,7, but I have two loose tiles left over (from the table) that can't form a meld.
Now what happens if the existing melds are rearranged to the point of no return, and I can't place the remaining two loose tiles?
Per the Original Rummikub® rules:
Manipulation:
... Sets can be manipulated in many ways (examples follow) as long as at the end of each round only legitimate sets remain and no loose tiles are left over.
Incomplete Runs:
Players who cannot complete a move within the 1 minute time limit must replace the tiles that were on the table to their previous positions, take back the tiles they played, and draw 3 tiles from the pool as a penalty. This ends the turn.
As for putting things back in their previous positions, the players need to try to remember what those were and come to a consensus about the original state.
