The players form a circle, and one player, chosen to start the game, calls out a letter of the alphabet. Each player, in turn, adds a letter to the preceding letter in order to form a word. However, he avoids being the last one who adds the last letter to a word. So, is the first letter is “b,” the second “o” and the third “r,” (forming “bor”), the fourth player should not use “e,” thus completing the word “bore.” Instead, he should call out “i” and force another player to complete the word “boring.” Players must have a specific word in mind; the trick is to think of word variations that can be passed on. If a participant believes that the player preceding him does not have a real word in mind, he may challenge him. The game is then stopped while the leader looks up in a dictionary the word given by the challenged player. If there is no such word, the challenged player is penalized a letter and the game is started again. If the challenged player is upheld, the challenger is penalized and the game continues from that point. The player who completes a word is penalized with the letter “g.” If he is penalized five times, he becomes the Ghost and is eliminated from the game- which continues until only one player remains.
