Jotto
Jotto is a two player game that could be classified either as a word or a logic game. It is sometimes described as "Mastermind with letters" however the need to form real words introduces an extra layer of tactical subtlety for both setter and solver.Jotto was invented by Morton M. Rosenfeld in 1955 and you can buy commercial versions of the game, both physical and as computer software. However all that is really needed to play is pencil and paper.
How To Play
Each player writes down a secret five letter word. Each then takes it in turn to guess the other's word - the first to get it right is the winner. Both target word and guesses must be real words and the players should agree in advance the procedure should any word be challenged (it's common to use Scrabble rules for valid words).After making a guess the player is told how many of the letters of the guess word are in the target word. Unlike Mastermind the position of the letters is irrelevant and the guesser is not told whether or not the letter is in the right position. Thus it is possible to receive a score of "Five" yet now win the game that turn (although see the variations concerning anagrams).
Strategy
When setting a word it is necessary to balance the common versus the unusual. Too common a word will be easy to guess, too unusual a one might allow the guesser to eliminate many letters very early.A word which can be anagrammed obviously provides for extra complexity however these tend to be fairly common and easy to guess words. Some players prefer to eliminate the complexity of anagrams, see variants.
For the solver it is necessary to balance finding corrrect letters with eliminating incorrect ones. An alphabet is usually written on the game sheet and eliminated letters can be crossed off much as with Hangman. A score of "zero" is very useful, especially near the beginning of the game, as it allows the total elimination of all the letters used in the guess word.