Comments on: Ghost

By: JoeBoB

JoeBoB — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:11:48 +0000

Here’s one game I was taught a couple years ago. I was never told the name so we just call it the “build a word game”. It can be played with as many players as you want, but two is generally optimal and will be used in the explanation.

Player 1 thinks of a word (DOLPHIN) and gives the first letter of the word the Player 2.
Player 2 then thinks of a word starting with D (Dead) and gives a hint to his/her word (Not Alive)
Player 1 tries to guess Player 2’s word.
If Player 1 is successful, then he/she waits for Player 2 to give a hint to a different word starting with D.
If Player 1 is unsuccessful, then he/she gives Player 2 the next letter in the word (O).
Player 2 continues in the same fashion except choosing a word starting with the letters DO.

Player 1 wins if Player 2 cannot come up with any guess words and/or cannot guess the winning word.

Player 2 wins if Player 1 reveals the entire word through failing to guess Player 2’s words and/or Player 2 guesses the winning word.

Enjoy!

By: Neli42

Neli42 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:56:58 +0000

Re: license plate games: Where we live the most common license plate configuration is 3 alpha + 3 numeric. We play a non-competitive game wherein we make up phrases beginning with the letters, and disregard the numbers. EX:This morning we passed a car with “FPA” which led to things like “fight polluted alligators,” “foreign plagiarists attack,” “fat prestigious arsonists,” and “fuzzy purple aardvarks.” The turns end loosely, when someone starts on a new set of letters or everyone dissolves into giggles.

By: Toad

Toad — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:00:14 +0000

Another game to play on car trips, long or short, is the licence plate game.
As you drive past different cars you read the three letters on their plate out loud. Each player tries to create a word by adding letters before, in between and after the three letters while keeping them in order.

The longer the word, the more points. Spacing the letters out and adding to the front gives extra points.

ex. if the letters on the plate are ‘DAT’ one player might say ‘date’ then another player would top ‘date’ with ‘debate’, then ‘educate’. Adding ‘tion’ to make ‘education’ would not give any extra points because the word has already been used in a different form.

I’ve never actually played with set points and a specific winner, but i’m sure you could.

By: Ais

Ais — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:59:17 +0000

My family usually plays one of 3 games on long car journeys, etc.

The Animal Game is like twenty questions but has an unlimited number of questions and involves only animals. A good knowledge of zoology is essential. Once we played a single round for fifteen minutes, gave up and spent a further fifteen minutes explaining to my little brother that rhinos don’t lay eggs.

The Animal Game With The Alphabet usually involves two players who take it in turn to think of an animal name beginning with a specific letter of the alphabet. Theoretically, player 1 gets a point if player 2 can’t think of another animal. In practice it usually descends into a fight over whether arctic seals count.

The Minister’s Cat is similar to The Animal Game With the Alphabet but uses adjectives instead of words. After a while it becomes a game of bluff, when one tries to make up adjective without the other player noticing. You play by saying, “The Minister’s Cat was a … cat”. P is a fun letter.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:27:09 +0000

Mnemonist is a word, isn’t it?

By: gögüs esteti?i

gögüs esteti?i — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:40:02 +0000

It starts with someone saying “ummmm-brella”. and the next person saying a word but they have to pretend to think by saying “ummm” before the word. The fun comes in others not knowing how to play and failing to when their turn comes up.

By: Baltirow

Baltirow — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:34:08 +0000

@TJS
Somehow read past the proper noun invalidity in the main post.

Proper noun has always been a bit of an confusing term to me, as if all other nouns are not “proper” i.e. decent. Wish they would have coined “property” or some other more suitable prefix term instead.

By: medyum

medyum — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:56:16 +0000

I just tried using this list in a match against my brother!

…He came with “heterosymbiosis”. Update?

By: Kim

Kim — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:52:55 +0000

Just to necro-bump one last time…

Methinks “Huck” is a word and therefore rules out “H” as a winning strategy for player 1.

By: TJS

TJS — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:10:59 +0000

Regarding “zen”:
It turns out that the names of religions are proper nouns. So “Zen” is not a losing position to be in when playing Ghost.