Posted By: Lex
Scramblings - 08/16/14 10:50 PM
This game is a variation on old schooldays word guessing games such as Hangman to gently tickle your grey cells. Here, the guessers start off by constructing an anagram of the actual 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 (its space being left blank until it is guessed). At some point, there will be enough letters to allow 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 may well be a title or character, adding a flavour of the game of charades.
The objective is to guess the answer, and whoever does so then sets the next puzzle.
Please read the instructions carefully. Hopefully everything is reasonably clear, but please do not hesitate to ask for help or clarification if necessary.
Instructions
(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 one and no more than four letters which he/she thinks might be in the word/expression.
(iii) The setter enters into the outline any correctly guessed letter however many times it occurs, 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) Someone posts another letter guess 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, you should not hesitate to steal a game from under someone else's nose!
(v) The setter also posts a list of wrong guesses to help you keep track.
(vi) Players are allowed to try to guess individual words of an answer consisting of more than one word.
(vii) At any stage anyone can try to guess the whole word/expression.
(viii) 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.
(ix) 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).
Give it a try, why don't you!?
The first one is the name of a TV series in three words 4,2,6:
_ E E E * O _ * _ _ _ _ _ _
Hell on Wheels guessed by Sherlock
Wrong guesses: I A F
