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Super Secret Word

No. of Players: 2
Type of Game: written
What you need: pen and paper

Goal

To guess the secret word chosen by one's opponent.

How to play

This game is a variation of Jotto and more difficult than Secret Word. The two players each choose a five-letter word and then take turns trying to guess the word of their opponent. With each guess the player tells the guesser if there are any perfectly matching letters (i.e., the same letter and in the same position in both words). But only the number of correct letters is communicated to the guesser, not the position. The first player to successfully guess the other player's secret word is the winner. Players should also agree on other rules, such as whether duplicate letters and proper nouns are permissible. Words of different length can be used to vary game difficulty.

Example

Alonzo chooses the word LAUGH. Benedict first guesses PAPER and he is informed that there is one perfectly matching letter between the two words. In subsequent rounds, Benedict slowly narrows down the possible letters in the secret word.

Benedict: How about HOTEL?
Alonzo: No letter perfectly matches.
   
Benedict: POINT?
Alonzo: No letter perfectly matches.
   
Benedict: TAPER?
Alonzo: One perfectly matching letter.
   
Benedict: (correctly believing the 2nd letter is A) HANDY?
Alonzo: One perfectly matching letter.
   
Benedict: LATIN?
Alonzo: Two perfectly matching letters.
   
Benedict: BATCH?
Alonzo: Two perfectly matching letters.
   
Benedict: WATCH?
Alonzo: Two perfectly matching letters.

And so on.

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