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Don’t let the title scare you. There is actually very little in this game that should cause a fright. Actually, I am not sure where it got the name, but it has stuck among those game players that like to trick each other with words.
This game can be played with two or more players in the car. You really don’t need any other instruments to play this game other than possibly a piece of paper to keep track of the winner for each round. However, if you have enough fingers on your hands (five fingers) will then even that would suffice.
The essence of this game is that you go around in a circle starting with one person. That person selects a letter. The next person has to add another letter that begins making a word. The object of the game is to keep it in letters to the word as far as you can. If you are the last one to have a letter to the word — meaning you have completed the word and no one else can add anything else to it to make a word — then you have lost that round.
With each turn, a player has the following options:
- add a letter to the word that keeps the game and play
- add a letter to the word that actually finishes the word and act like he/she is building onto a bigger word
- challenge the previous player by either saying that they finished the word and they cannot think of another one
- challenge the previous player by saying that the letter they added does not contribute to a real word
Let’s say there are two players and the game is in play in the first three letters are B-A-S. Player B is up. They might be thinking of adding S to make the word BASS. However, they know that this would finish the word. Therefore, after some thought, they may add E instead – to create B-A-S-E.
Player A may chellenge and say that the word is completed. However, Player B would say that the word that he was spelling was BASEBALL. This would end the round and Player A would lost the round – thus earning a “G” the first letter in the word, “Ghost”.
The first person that earns all of the letters that spell “Ghost” (or, in other words, loses five rounds), they are out of the game. The last person in the game is the ultimate winner.
A couple of rules to keep in mind is that players cannot use hyphenated words, nor can they use proper nouns.
A popular variations this game gives the players the ability to add letters to the beginning of the Ward as well as to the end. This, of course makes the game a little bit more complicated but can be even more fun to those that pride themselves in their literary abilities.
