Players
2 or more players.
Goal
To add letters to a chain and form good English words.
Setup
Choose the first player.
Gameplay
The first player says a letter. Play then proceeds clockwise.
In turn, each player adds a letter to those already said, either at the start or the end. If a good English word of four or more letters has been formed, the next player starts a new word.
On her turn, any player may challenge the previous player to announce a good English word which includes the sequence of letters that has been built. The loser of the challenge is given a letter in the word GHOSTS.
What is a "good English word"? It's best if the group decides on that before starting to play, but generally proper names and hyphenated words are not permitted. (Of course, Ghosts can be played in any language.)
After a challenge, the player to the left of the one who made the challenge starts a new word.
Example Round 1
Anna: "J."
Brad: "J-A."
Chris: "I-J-A."
Dana: "I-J-A-C."
Erik: "I challenge that."
Dana: "H-I-J-A-C-K."
In this example, Erik would be given a letter for incorrectly challenging Dana. (If Dana could not spell a good English word which included "IJAC," she would have been given a letter.)
Example Round 2
Fred: "F."
Anna: "F-F."
Brad: "F-F-A."
Chris: "F-F-A-L."
Dana: "U-F-F-A-L."
Erik: "U-F-F-A-L-O."
Fred: "B-U-F-F-A-L-O."
Anna would now start a new word, because "BUFFALO" is a good English word and it's at least four letters long.
Scoring
When a player loses a challenge, he is given a letter in the word GHOSTS. When a player has been given all six letters, he's out of the game. (The game can be made shorter or longer by using a different word for this purpose.)
Winning
The last player remaining in the game wins.
