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Darth Hideout 🏳️‍🌈

OK, so perhaps a controversial (and long, sorry) question, regarding ties in polls. It seems lately that the habit has become to reveal everything that wins in a tie. We've even had at least one 3-way tie on my watch.

This is not my own preference, but the more I think about it, the more I think it's at least at odds with other versions of Hangman too. If you're playing Hangman on paper with a friend, you don't get to guess two letters at once. I suppose there it may not matter, if no one else is playing. FWIW Wheel of Fortune has a related format. I don't think anyone ever gets more than one guess on the same spin.

My own approach usually has been to play a role similar to the Vice President in the US Senate. I only get a vote in the event of a tie. So I choose something. There was precedent. Someone else did something similar before I had this situation.

On the plus side, revealing more than one guess speeds the game along.

Ordinarily if there's a wrong guess, you gain information knowing that at least one of the other options was right. If two letters are revealed from one poll, and one is there, but the other isn't, then you lose the benefit of the wrong guess. I don't suppose this really breaks the game logic or anything, but it's a small consequence.

Of course, the question is if it's dealer's choice, what should I choose? Am I trying to win, by the definition in the rules, to accrue 10 wrong guesses? So I'd always choose a wrong answer if possible.

There could be rules for how to handle this, eg always reveal something if any guess is correct. But then you could end up revealing 3 wrong answers at once and also that the 4th option is definitely present, if there's a 3-way tie when none is present. You only have to have 1 right answer per poll.

I also have said before I'm not entirely in favor of a ton of rules in a game for fun. After all, what's at stake? If you win, you get to run the next one! 🎉

So maybe it can still just be up to you how you do it when it's your go. Just throwing it out. And trying to choose my polls wisely to avoid ties. 😁