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Will you live in a mansion, apartment, shack, or house?
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1Write "MASH" at the top of the page.
2Choose your categories.
3List 4 options for every category.
4Find your magic number.
5Strike out options until you’re left with 1 result for each category.
6Read your results.
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Co-authored byAly Rusciano
Last Updated: December 19, 2023Fact Checked
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Looking for a way to predict your future and have fun with friends? Well, look no further because we have the perfect game for you! M.A.S.H is a future-predicting storytelling game that can be personalized for just about anyone. Not only is it super fun, but it’s also collaborative, so all your friends can get involved. But how do you play this legendary schoolyard game? Worry not because we’ve got the list of game rules right here (along with plenty of examples).
Things You Should Know
- Title your page with “MASH” to get started, as this will predict whether you live in a mansion, apartment, shack, or house.
- Pick your categories based on what you want in your future or story: a spouse, kids, car, pets, etc.
- Then, discover your full fake future by crossing off or circling options under each category using your magic number.
1
Write "MASH" at the top of the page.
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M.A.S.H stands for mansion, apartment, shack, and house. Not only is this the name of the game, but it’s also super important in predicting your future. Put “MASH” in the top-center of the page like you would a title.[1]
- Try organizing your game with a tic-tac-toe grid. Draw a large "#" symbol across your sheet of paper, and write “MASH” in the top-center section.
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2
Choose your categories.
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Decide what you want the game to predict (like your future spouse or job). The objective of M.A.S.H is to discover your “future,” and the categories you choose will be the parts of your life the game will cover. Underneath the word “MASH,” list what details you want in your story or prediction. You can have as many categories as you’d like, but we’d suggest having a minimum of 4.[2] Here are some common M.A.S.H categories to choose from:
- Partner or who you’ll marry
- Job
- Salary
- Number of kids
- Car
- Where you’ll live
- Pet
- If you’re playing with a # grid, label each section with a category, leaving the middle space blank.
- The more categories you have, the longer and more detailed your story or future will be.
3
List 4 options for every category.
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Your "options" are all of your potential results for each category. List at least 4 options or scenarios for each category. These can be silly, practical, or downright horrendous! One of these options will end up as a part of your future, but you won’t have any power over which one. What you write down is up to you (or a friend), but it’s definitely more exciting and unpredictable if you have a variety of good and bad options in each category.[3]
- For example, under “People to Marry,” you may have “Harry, Niall, Zayn, and Liam.” For "Job," you might say "Teacher, Astronaut, Pop Star, and Zookeeper."
- If you're playing with a friend, they can pick your options for you—or, they pick 2, you pick 2. This can create more suspense, especially if your friend chooses funny, bad options, but you choose ideal ones. For example, you might select "dog and bunny" for your pet options, but they may go with "donkey and worm" for your remaining 2.
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4
Find your magic number.
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Your magic number is used to randomly select your final results. How you get this number is entirely up to you. But just make sure you choose a number between 3-10 (because this'll make for a more efficient selection process). Here are some popular ways to choose your magic number:
- Draw a spiral on the page or in the center of the # grid until a friend says stop. Your magic number is how many rings your spiral has.[4]
- Close your eyes and dot the page until a friend tells you to stop. The number of dots is your magic number.
- Make your magic number your favorite or lucky number.
- Ask a friend to pick a number between 3 and 10.
- Roll a die or dice.
5
Strike out options until you’re left with 1 result for each category.
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Count through options using your magic number to discover your future. Start at the “M” in “MASH” and move around the categories clockwise. Each option is 1 number. The option you land on when you reach your magic number is then eliminated, so cross it out. Keep counting and crossing out options until each category only has 1 option left.[5]
- For example, say your magic number is 8. You’d start at “M” and then count “A” as 1, “S” as 2, “H” as 3, keep counting into the next categories, and cross out the option that’s in the 8th slot.
- Be sure to skip over the crossed-out options when you count.
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6
Read your results.
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Circle the final options and there you have it—you've found your future! You’ve done all the hard work, and now it’s time to uncover what your future has in store. Will you live in a mansion on the moon with a pet pig? Will you be married to Harry Styles and live in a shack as a lawyer making $80k a year? Write out your results or simply tell them to your friends.
Community Q&A
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Question
Can I play M.A.S.H. alone?
Smithmar05
Community Answer
Of course! It's very simple to play on your own. Just make sure you are following the rules, and when it comes to the dots, set a stop watch to determine what your number is.
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Question
Can we play using different categories than these?
Community Answer
Yes, you can choose whatever categories you want. These are just the "classic" categories of the game.
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Question
How many players will be needed in this game?
Captain geo
Community Answer
It is better with 2 players -- the person predicting the future and the person listening.
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Hide the options for each category when playing with a friend to give them a super secret fortune that’s sure to be hilarious.
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About This Article
Co-authored by:
Aly Rusciano
wikiHow Staff Writer
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Aly Rusciano. Aly Rusciano is a Creative Writer based outside of Nashville, Tennessee. She has over ten years of experience in creative, academic, and professional writing. Aly’s writing has been nationally recognized in the Sigma Tau Delta Rectangle and featured in Blue Marble Review, The Sunshine Review, PopMatters, and Cathartic Literary Magazine. She graduated from The University of Tennessee at Martin with a BA in English, focusing in Creative Writing and minoring in Theatre. This article has been viewed 1,321,140 times.
71 votes - 68%
Co-authors: 86
Updated: December 19, 2023
Views:1,321,140
Categories: Featured Articles | Games
Article SummaryX
MASH is a fun game that you can use to try to predict what your life will be like when you’re older. All you need to play is a paper and pencil. Start by writing “MASH” at the top of the piece of paper, which stands for mansion, apartment, shack, and house. These are the types of homes you could end up living in. Below that write the names of 4 people you know, celebrities, or a combination of the two. These are the people you could end up marrying. Under that, write “1, 2, 3, 4,” or any other combination of numbers. This is how many children you could end up having. On the next line down, write 4 types of cars, like “sedan, luxury car, SUV, cardboard box on wheels.” These are the cars you could wind up with. You can add additional categories if you’d like, like different jobs, types of pets, and incomes, as long as every category has 4 options. Now choose a random number, and count each option on the page until you get to that number, starting with M, then A, then S, then H, and so on. When you reach the number you chose, cross off the item you landed on. Then choose another random number and start counting from the next available option from where you left off. Keep choosing numbers and crossing off options like this. Skip counting any options that you’ve already crossed off. Once you’ve crossed off 3 options in a category, circle the last option in that category and skip counting it for the rest of the game. When you have 1 option in each category circled, you’re finished! Look at each circled option to predict your future. For example, you might predict that you’ll live in a mansion, get married to James, have 3 kids, live in Asia, and drive a luxury car. If you want to learn how to play a more advanced game of M.A.S.H., keep reading the article!
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