The game of GHOST

You know how to play GHOST? The word game?

Let's say it's you, me and Tom over there. Tom starts. He says: C

So now it's my turn. I have to think of some word that starts with C. And add a letter. So I say A

Now it's your turn. You better not say T, or, come to think of it, N or R or P or M or B or D... 'cause then you'll have spelled a word. Which you don't want to do. Because then, depending on how you play, you'll be one-third of a ghost. Or something else you don't want to be.

So you say L. Clever. Very clever. There's at least one word that I can think of that starts CAL.

So now it's up to Tom. Tom says I.

My turn.

I. Hmmm. CALI. Oh, I see, like in CALIfornia. Except everybody knows you can't use proper nouns. Hmmm again. Why, I think I just might challenge old Tom there. So I say: "I challenge you, old Tom there." And he says CALIPERS. Calipers. Darn. I shoulda thought. So, OK. I'm one-third of a ghost. Couldn't happen to a nicer Funsmith.

So you start the next round. And on and on we go, letter by letter. Until someone actually spells an actual word. Which can happen. Or someone challenges the player before them. And then another round starts. And so on. Until someone is a whole ghost (having lost three times). And then that person gets to start the next round.

Some people play five rounds instead of three, so instead of being one-third of a ghost, you become a G or a GH or a GHO. You could play as many rounds as you want before anyone has to lose. But it's a good idea to decide how many before you start the game.

Then there are the variations. You need variations, see, because after a while, especially if you're playing with the same people over and over - on a car trip, for example, or right after dinner or something - you start being able to predict what people are going to say. Like, for example, if you start with G and the next player starts with H you can pretty much predict that the word's going to either be GHOST or GHASTLY. So if you just count ahead, you'll know who's going to lose way before the round is over.

So there's SUPERGHOST - at least, that's what we called it. And in SUPERGHOST you can put letters before or after the letters that you already have. You can't change the order of the letters. So if you have, say, LAUG, and it seems pretty clear to you that you're going to have to spell LAUGH, you can say, SLAUG. The only thing you can't do is put a letter in between any of the letters you already have. Unless, of course, you're playing SUPERDUPERGHOST.

And then you could play themes, like THINGS YOU FIND IN A GROCERY STORE or LIVING THINGS. Or you can play that you have to say TWO letters at a time. Or you can say that only proper nouns are allowed. And by that time, you should have arrived at grandmother's house.

- for Chris, Heather, Rachel, and Will - who asked


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith