Hangman

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lighter variant with 15 rate levels

Hangman , hangman , gallows tree or gallows man , hanging man , hanging males or simply gallows (English and hangman ) is a simple word game .

history

Tony Augarde, author of The Oxford Guide to Word Games (Oxford University Press) says in the chapter about this game: "The origins of Galgenmann are obscure, but it seems to have been made in Victorian times ." In 1894 it is in Alice Bertha gommes book Traditional Games under the name of birds, animals and fish (engl. birds, Beasts and fishes ) mentioned. The rules were similar to today's versions.

Game flow

Hangman using the term 'administrator' as an example

Paper and pen are required for this. The number of players is variable, but often there are only two. The beginner now thinks about a longer word, of which, however, he only writes the first letter. All other letters of the invented word are marked with lines. The guessing player now names individual letters of the alphabet one after the other in any order . The opponent must now announce how often and where in the solution word the letter occurs. This gradually results in the word you are looking for. However, if a named letter does not appear in it or if the solver has guessed the wrong word, the first player begins to draw a gallows with a hanged man. This takes place in several stages (a graduation mark is added for each incorrect question), so that the puzzle solver has about 10 to 15 unsuccessful attempts, depending on the level of difficulty played. If he has not yet found the word, he has lost and is symbolically hanging on the gallows.

variants

There are numerous variants of this game, so it is advisable to agree on this before starting the game. For example there is:

  • Umlauts are written ae , oe or ue . Eszet ("sharp S": ß ) is written as ss .
  • The number of questions is limited (the gallows is finished faster ).
  • If there are two players, both write down a word at the same time and the pieces of paper are then exchanged and guesses are alternated.
  • If there are several players, everyone takes turns guessing and the winner is whoever names the word first.
  • Instead of the gallows, other objects are drawn. (For example, in schools, because of the desire not to use a gallows, something else is often used. For example, an apple tree with a certain number of apples, whereby an apple is crossed out or wiped off the board with each failed attempt. But also every other drawing with one suitable number of lines can be used.)
  • The first letter must also be guessed.
  • A topic is given, e.g. B. animals, plants, celebrities, etc.
  • The guessing of vowels can be permitted, prohibited entirely, or the number of guessed vowels can be restricted to a certain number. In addition, one can agree to “buy” vowels, so that each guessed vowel “costs” an additional dash; if it does not appear, there is a second line for the failed attempt.

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