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While the origins of the Hangman guessing game are not actually known, we do know that people were playing it well over a hundred years ago. The concept is quite simple and only requires two people, paper and a pencil to play. This is a great game to play at a Halloween party!

One player, who we will call the challenger, thinks of a word and draws a row of dashes that represent the same amount of letters that the word has on a piece of paper. The other player, who we will call the guesser, tries to figure out the word by guessing different letters.

Playing the Game
We try to keep the words between four and ten characters long. Choose simple words for children and more difficult words for adults.

Lets say the word is "PUMPKIN", the challenger would draw a row of seven dashes on the tablet of paper representing each letter in the word.

Each person in the group can guess a letter in turn, for instance: Mary guesses "E". If Mary guesses a letter that does appear in the word, the challenger writes it in all its correct positions above the dashes on the paper. Mary can then try to guess what the word is or suggest another letter.

If the letter that does not appear in the word the challenger draws a piece of the hanged man on the gallows in the following order: The noose, head, body, arm, arm, leg and leg.

Now the next person in the group can take a guess at a letter. Who ever yells out the correct word before the hangman is complete wins. But If the players do not guess the word before the hanged man is completed the challenger reveals the word to the group and the game is started over with a new word.

Suggested Halloween Game Words: