Ghost (game)

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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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 Alan Frank, in Word Ways, 1987, page 206) for a sample winning strategy based on the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary then in effect.

[edit] 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. Xghost (also known as Superduperghost) is played by adding a letter anywhere in the growing word fragment, including between letters. These variants usually require much more effort and time to play than the conventional game, and as such are lesser-known and less popular. Xghost in particular is considered vastly more difficult to play.

Cheddar Gorge is played by adding a word to the end of a growing sentence fragment, and avoiding the completion of a sentence.