MASH (game)

MASH is a game, commonly played by young children, intended to predict one's future. Mash stands for mansion, apartment, shack (variations include street and sewers), or house.

Game play

There are two players: the fortune-teller and the person whose future is to be told.

The game is played by setting out a list of possible outcomes in certain categories: for instance, under the heading automobiles, one would include various automobiles. The first category listed is always MASH (for the dwelling category). Typical categories include place to live,vehicle, husband/wife, the city they live in (like LA or NY),career, pets and number of children. Sometimes for girls, wedding dress color and various other things related to weddings, such as honeymoon, are added. In a typical game, each category contains extraordinary options (for instance, a supermodel for a spouse), a few less extravagant options and one really awful option.

Once the options have been laid out, the fortune-teller begins drawing little tallies or a spiral and asks the other player to tell them when to stop. Once stop is called, the fortune-teller adds up all the tallies/counts up the number of spiral lines they have drawn. The total number of tallies is the magic number.

The fortune is divined by counting through the options consecutively until the magic number has been reached. Once the magic number is reached, that item is crossed out and counting resumes (omitting crossed-out items). When all but one of the options of a category have been exhausted, the remaining option is circled, and that option is no longer counted. Counting continues until all categories have only one option remaining.

The circled items then should correlate to the player's "future", and the items are read to the player by the fortune-teller in the format "You will live in a ...., be married to ...., drive a ...., be a ..., etc."

References

* [http://www.liketotally80s.com/mash-game.html Game description]

External links

* [http://www.mashgame.com/ mashgame.com] , an online version of the game