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This article is about the word game. For the board game, see Ghosts (board Game) . Ghost is a Word Game in which players take turns adding letters to a growing word fragment, and trying not to be the one to complete a valid word. The one that does loses that round of the game. Each fragment must be the beginning of an actual word. Usually some minimum is set on the length of a word that counts, such as three or four letters. GAME PLAY The player whose turn it is may challenge the previous player to prove that the current fragment is actually the beginning of some word by saying "I challenge you", simply "challenge", or "ghost" (called "ghosting" someone, or "calling ghost"). If the challenged player can name such a word, the challenger loses the round; otherwise the challenged player loses. In various computerized variants, the computer names words instead of the challenged player. Bluffing is not uncommon, though it's rare for it to work in the way planned. It is best to bluff when you are near the end of a word and you pretend to add a suffix to a word that actually doesn't exist or go with that word. Many players will go with it and continue the non-existent word. If any player challenges using a dictionary, that person is liable to receive a letter if they are wrong. Game-play generally passes to the left (clockwise). The player selecting the starting letter for the first round is chosen at random. In subsequent rounds, the player to the immediate left of the previous round's loser selects the starting letter for that round. If any score is kept at all, the traditional method uses the letters of the word "Ghost", in the same fashion as the basketball game Horse . The loser of the first round gets a ''G'', the loser of two rounds gets a ''GH'', and so on. The first person to lose five rounds gets ''GHOST'', and has thereby lost the game. Ghost can be played by two or more players of any age, although the game is less enjoyable if the players don't have a comparable vocabulary. No equipment is required, not even pencil and paper. Use of dictionaries or word lists is considered cheating. Although primarily a game played between people, there have also been computer variants Custom Solutions of Maryland, maker of a Macintosh version of the game. WINNING STRATEGY Since the game tree of Ghost can be derived from the list of combinations of letters that are considered to be words, the game (as played by two players) can be easily "solved" by a computer, or even a patient person scanning through the dictionary, to find a winning strategy for one player. Generally, the player that does not have the first opportunity to lose has a Winning Strategy , though the exact strategy will depend on the dictionary that is used to judge whether something is a word. As an example, if the minimum word length is three letters, the first player has the first opportunity to lose, so (using a typical dictionary) the second player has a winning strategy; no matter what letter the first player begins the word with, the second player can respond in such a way that the first player will eventually lose. In fact, the second player only has to memorize a list of about ninety words to know what letter to add in any situation. See "Ghostbusters" (by ,'' 1987, page 206) for a sample winning strategy based on the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary then in effect. VARIANTS Superghost (also known as Lexicant ) is played by choosing either the beginning or end of the growing word fragment and adding a letter there. For example, given the fragment ERA, a player might offer '''B'''ERA or ERA'''D'''. This version was played by James Thurber and his circle of friends.1 Superduperghost is played by deciding whether to reverse the letters of the word fragment before adding a letter to the fragment's beginning or end. For example, given the fragment ERA, a player might offer '''B'''ERA, ERA'''D''', '''N'''ARE, or ARE'''N'''. This variant was first broadly adopted at the 1978 World Science Fiction Convention in Phoenix, Arizona (IguanaCon) and is credited to Cary Hammer and Mark Malamud . Xghost (sometimes also known as Superduperghost) is played by adding a letter anywhere in the growing word fragment, including between letters. For example, given the fragment ERA, a player might offer '''B'''ERA, ERA'''D''', E'''B'''RA, or ER'''M'''A. This version was invented by Daniel Asimov around 1970. Originally and still often known as '''Superduperghost''', it was played by his circle of mathematics grad student friends at U.C. Berkeley . Spook is played by adding letters to a "pool" in which no fixed order is assumed. In this game, one's objective is to avoid completing a letter pool which can be ordered to form a word. For example, given the pool {A,B,F,L,S,U}, a player would be unwise to add H, which would form the word BASHFUL. However, he or she might add B, and cite the word FLASHBULB if challenged. These variants usually require much more effort and time to play than the conventional game, and as such are lesser-known and less popular. Cheddar Gorge is played by adding a ''word'' to the end of a growing ''sentence'' fragment, and avoiding the completion of a sentence. This variant was popularized on the BBC Radio show ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' BBC Website for ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. REFERENCES Citations |
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