Greetings fellow addicts! This game is a slight twist on the old schooldays word guessing game to gently tickle your grey cells. Here, the guessers start off by building a nonsense anagram of the answer, because the setter will simply enter each correctly guessed letter (including any duplicates) into the first available space(s) in the outline, except for the first letter of each word which will be correctly placed. At some point, there will be enough letters to create scope for a guess at the answer by unscrambling them, or at least that is the general idea...

Rather than being limited to a single word the puzzle will often be a title or character, adding a flavour of the game of charades.

Please read the instructions carefully as these are not the usual rules of the traditional game. Hopefully everything is reasonably clear, but please do not hesitate to ask for help or clarification.

The rules

(i) The setter puts up the outline of a word or a short reasonably well-known expression in blank (so that all the other players know are the numbers of words and of letters in each word) together with an indication of the nature or category of the word/expression. An expression might be for example a book, play, film or music title or the name of a famous person or character, or perhaps a proverb or saying: it is entirely up to the setter, but please give enough of a hint to narrow the category.

(ii) Someone else posts at least two letters which he/she thinks might be in the word/expression.

(iii) The setter enters into the outline any correctly guessed letter, but only in its correct position if it is the first letter of a word: otherwise the letter and any repetition of it will simply be placed in the first available empty space (which might entirely coincidentally be its correct position). The space for the first letter of each word is therefore left blank until that letter is correctly guessed.

(iv) Meanwhile the setter also starts to add the hanged person to the gallows with one step for each incorrectly guessed letter or position of letter. Seven steps are needed to complete the victim (head, body, right leg, left leg, right arm, left arm, face). [If having to do this deters you from playing, feel free not to bother.]

(v) Someone posts another two (or more) letter guesses and/or a guess at the correct position in the outline of at least one of the already posted letters, and so on. There is nothing to prevent the same person from posting consecutive guesses, or even hogging an entire game; on the other hand, do not hesitate to steal a game from under someone else's nose!

(vi) The setter keeps score by posting a list of wrong guesses and the number of steps remaining.

(vii) Once only two steps remain, single letter guesses are permitted.

(viii) Players are allowed to try to guess individual words of an answer consisting of more than one word. However, such a guess will be treated as separate letter or position guesses for each blank space in the word (which could therefore prove expensive if the guess is wrong).

(ix) At any stage anyone can try to guess the whole word/expression, and a wrong word/expression guess results in two steps towards the completion of the picture, but without any indication of whether any of the individual letters or words guessed are correct.

(x) Any letter appearing in its correct position (whether coincidentally or as a result of a correct position guess, or because it is the first letter of a word) will be shown in bold italic.

(xi) Apostrophes will not be shown, and any letter following an apostrophe will be counted as part of the word which it follows (so that for instance Wayne's World would be two words 6,5).

(xii) The setter wins if the picture of the hanged person is completed: otherwise the person to correctly guess the word/expression is the winner, and hopefully then sets the next word/expression. Don't be afraid to have a go: there is plenty of help available if you have any difficulty, and you can always edit your way out of any errors.

Note for setters on creating the picture of the gallows and hanged person

The picture steps (kindly contributed by Pandora) are in a photobucket album on the internet which are accessed by using one of the urls (web addresses) below, and here's how you do it:

In the full reply screen one of the option buttons across the top is "enter an image" which then offers you a choice of various image positions to insert followed by a dialogue box for a url.

You just copy and paste the url you need, deleting and replacing (using the edit process) as you go through the game and want to change the picture.

[I have been using the position "non-floating image"]

The urls

The gallows, in place at the start of the game
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/PandoraSD/Hangman/G4.gif

Step one, the head of the condemned person
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/PandoraSD/Hangman/H1.gif

Step two, the body
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/PandoraSD/Hangman/H2.gif

Step three, the right leg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/PandoraSD/Hangman/H3.gif

Step four, the left leg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/PandoraSD/Hangman/H4.gif

Step five, the right arm
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/PandoraSD/Hangman/H5.gif

Step six, the left arm
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/PandoraSD/Hangman/H6.gif

Step seven, the head - game over!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/PandoraSD/Hangman/H10.gif

The next puzzle will appear shortly courtesy of shroeder...

Lex... Just goes to show how little I listen to music! (Though I love the "Musicals"")

Anyway, this one is a Movie Title (4,4)

_ A L N / D U U _

Incorrect Guesses: E, R, T

Steps remaining: 4

T, E

Nope and nope

R, A

A is good

L, N

and

D, U

Too obvious eh Manxman?

Yes and yes. :thumbs up:

Zulu Dawn

Way to go

I think we need a trophy to hand around...

Thank you shroeder Another movie title.....

A E N _* _ _ _ _ (4,4)

Aeon Flux solved by shroeder

incorrect guesses: S
steps remaining: 6

E, S

E is good

N, A

Very good

Early guess with those first two letters

Aeon Flux

Yes!

OK - This time it's a TV series (8)

S R E O L _ _ _

Incorrect guesses: A, T, I

Steps remaining: 4

SHERLOCK - solved by Manxman

A and R.

No to both

T, E

E is good

Oops, sorry. Was working on phone and mucked up. Lex... R is good too.

I and S.

O, L

S, O & L good

I, not so!

Sherlock

Too quick!

Well done. Your turn

Thanks shroeder
A 20th century writer this time

I E N * _ N A I _ _ _ (3,7)

Ian Fleming solved by shroeder

incorrect guesses: Y, O, R, S
steps remaining: 3

E, N

A, Y

E, N, A are all good

O, R

Two misses

I, S

I is good

Manxman - You've stated 3,8 but the dashes signify 3,7

Also... If there is a letter that appears more than once, have you indicated that?

Apologies schroeder. It appears that you know the answer better than I do

I might go with Ian Fleming then

Well done shroeder especially with the roadblocks

Actually it was the 20th Century clue that threw me - I immediately thought too far back!

This one is a Character in a Childrens' Movie (5,6)

N E E N N / M A _ _ _ _

Incorrect guesses: T, R

Steps remaining: 5

NANNY MCPHEE - Solved by Lex

Well it isn't Shrek so I'll start with the usual T, E

E it's good

N, R

N works

A and M.

Both good

Nanny McPhee.

Assuming this is correct (and for future reference), the second N also needed to be shown in bold italics.

It oops, sorry about that. Yep, absolutely correct.

A current fiction book title, one word of 8 letters:


_ E A R S L _ _

Personal solved by shroeder.

Wrong guesses: TID

Steps remaining: 4

E, T

E but no T.

A, R

Both good.

I, D

Neither.

S, L

Both good.

Personal

Correct: over to you.

This time it's a lesser known character from the Harry Potter books (not movies) (8,4)

T E E R T T O O / _ O _ _

Incorrect guesses:
Steps left: 7

E, R

Both good

T, O

Both good again

Theodore Nott

I didn't even get a head in the noose!

Thanks shroeder A musician (5,7)

_ E E A A * _ L D R R _ _

Merle Haggard solved by Lex

incorrect guesses: T, J, Y, N, S
steps remaining: 2

E, T

E is good

A and L.

Both good

D and R.

Two more good ones. Close to the solution

I'm still quite a long way from the solution!

J and Y.

Sorry Lex. That ends a good run at it

N and S.

two misses
think country

I'm being slow (and I was already thinking country) - Merle Haggard.

Well done Lex
Next time it won't be country singers.

Another musician 4,7:

R A A A * S I N R H K _

Ravi Shankar neatly stolen by shroeder from MxM!

Wrong guesses: TEOLM
Steps remaining: 2

T, E

O, S

No T, E or O, but there is an S.

A, I

Both good.

L, N

N is good, but not L.

M, R

R is good but not M.

H, K

Both on the money!

Manxman's done all the real work, but I'll slide in here with


Ravi Shankar

Way to go!

Thanks Lex

Another musician (5,9)

Louis Armstrong, solved by Manxman without an incorrect guess

L _ _ _ _ / A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Incorrect guesses:
Steps left:

A and L.

Both good. (I suspect you have already guessed it!)

Louis Armstrong

Too good for me

A TV series this time

_ E A A T U U * _ _ _ _ (7,4)

Quantum Leap solved by shroeder

incorrect guesses: S, O, R, I
steps remaining: 3

E and S.

(The A and L on the last one were just lucky: I had no idea what the answer was!)

E is good

A, T

both good

O,R

two misses

Ouch!



I,U

U is good

Quantum Leap

over to you shroeder

A Film (3)

_ K _

Answer JFK correctly answered by Manxman

Incorrect guesses: A, E, I, O, U
Steps left: 2

E, A

Both wrong

O and U.