Looking for a specific Casper The Friendly Ghost Game (1959) rule? | Set Up | Playing the Game | Taking a Disc Out of Start | Doubles | Moving a Disc to Home | Capturing a Disc | Blockades | Winning the Game | FAQ | Components |
Objective
The objective of Casper The Friendly Ghost Game (1959) is to be the first player to move all four of your ghosts (playing pieces) around the board and to the safety of your haunted house.
Set Up
- Place the gameboard and spinner in the middle of the table.
- Each player chooses a color. For simplicity players should sit in front of the side of the board that matches their color. They will then take the four discs that match their color. They will place them in the circle to their right.
- All of the players will spin the spinner. The player that spins the highest number starts the game. Your number is determined by adding together the small number on the outside ring and the large number on the inside ring.
How to Play Casper The Friendly Ghost Game (1959)
You will begin each of your turns spinning the spinner. You will determine your number as a combination of the number the spinner is pointing towards in the outer and inner ring.
Depending on what you spin you can take a couple different actions.
Most of the times you will use the numbers you spun to move some of your pieces. You can use the numbers you spun individually or as a total. For example say you spin a four and a six. You can move one disc ten spaces. Otherwise you could move one disc four spaces and another six spaces. The instructions don’t specifically say whether you move your pieces clockwise or counter-clockwise around the board. Based on how the board is set up though, I would guess you would have to move them counter-clockwise.
Should you ever not be able to use all of what you spun, you forfeit your turn and don’t move any of your discs.
Taking A Disc Out of Your Start Space
Should you spin a five, you can take discs out of your start space. If you don’t want to take out a piece (usually you want to), you don’t have to as long as you can use what you spun in a different way.
When you take out a piece you will move it to the black star space in front of your start space. To take out the piece you will use up the five and can’t use it for movement. You can create a five in a couple different ways.
First you can spin a five on either the inner or outer ring. In this case you can take out one of your pieces from your start space. You can then use the other number you spun to move one of your discs that have already been moved out of the start space.
Second you can add the two numbers you spun together in order to make five. For example if you roll a three on the inner circle and a two on the outer ring, you can combine them together in order to take out one of your pieces.
Finally you can spin a five on both the inner and outer ring. In this case you can choose to move two of your discs from the start space. You could also choose to use one to take out a piece and the other to move a piece.
Doubles
If you ever spin two of the same number, you can take a special action. You will double the amount you spun on the spinner. For example you spun two fours. Your total number of spaces will be sixteen.
You can use the number you spun in a couple different ways.
- First you can move each of your discs the number you spun. If you rolled double fours, you can move all four of your discs four spaces.
- Next you can choose to move two of your pieces the total number you spun. For example with double fours, you can move two of your pieces eight spaces each.
- Finally you can move one disc the total number of spaces. If you rolled double fours, you can move one disc sixteen spaces.
If you can’t use any of these three options, you forfeit your turn.
Should you ever spin three doubles in a row, your turn immediately ends. Take your disc that is closest to Home and return it to your start space.
Moving a Disc to Home
The goal of the game is to move each of your discs around the entire board until it reaches the star space in front of you that matches your color.
When a disc reaches a star space that matches its color, it can move down the path towards the center of the board. The goal of the game is to have each disc reach the Home space. Each piece has to reach the Home space by exact count.
Capturing Another Player’s Disc
Should you land on another player’s disc, you will capture it if it was on a white space (no star). When you have the opportunity to capture, you are not obligated to. You can choose to make a different move that doesn’t capture another player’s disc.
Discs that are on star spaces are safe and can’t be captured. The one exception to this is if the disc is on the star space next to a player’s start space. If a player uses a five to take out a disc, they can capture your disc that is on their start space.
When you capture a disc, the player whose disc was captured returns the disc to their start space. After capturing a disc you also get 20 extra movement spaces. You must use all 20 spaces on one of your discs.
Blockades
When moving your discs around the board, you may have one of your discs land on a space that already has one of your discs on it. When you have two of your pieces on the same space, you create a blockade. A blockade can be useful because it blocks the path for all players. This includes the player who controls the blockade. No disc may move past the blockade no matter how many spaces that it can move.
This even applies to the start space for a player. If a player places a blockade on another player’s start space, the corresponding player cannot take discs out until the blockade is removed.
If the player that controls the blockade cannot move any of their other discs, they are forced to break up their blockade by moving one of the discs.
Winning the Game
The first player to get all four of their discs to Home wins the game.
Casper The Friendly Ghost Game FAQ
If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.
Components
- Gameboard
- 16 Discs (four of each color)
- Spinner/Insert/Instructions
Year: 1959 | Publisher: Milton Bradley
Genres: Children’s, Spin and Move
Ages: 5+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 20-30 minutes
Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High
For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.