Word Game: Ghost

calendar Dec 21, 2022 · 1 min read · Design

My favourite word-game is Ghost.

  1. You go round in a circle, each person stating a letter, which builds to a word.
  2. If someone completes a word of four or more letters, they lose.
  3. If someone receives a set of letters which cannot complete a word, they can challenge the person before them.
    • If the person before states a legal word, they lose.
    • But if they state a word, then the challenger loses.

Example

Round we go:

  • Player 1: 'a'
  • P2: 'b'

You might be thinking 'abacus', or 'ability', but we can't say where this is going yet. The next person can say any letter at all.

  • P3: 'l'

Player 4 thinks 'fuck, looks like I have to spell "able" and lose', but then thinks again.

  • P4: 'a'
  • P5: I challenge!
  • P4: 'ablative'

At this point, player 4 loses a point.