How to Play MASH
Rules and Instructions for Playing the Mansion Apartment Shack House Game
MASH is a pen-and-paper fortune-telling game. You write down four options each for your future home, your partner, your kids, and your car, draw a spiral to get a random number, then count around the page crossing options off until one is left in every category. Here's how to play it, step by step.
You probably played this one on the bus, or under a desk when you were supposed to be doing long division. MASH, or M.A.S.H. if you like, stands for Mansion Apartment Shack House. Kids play it to predict each other's futures, and half the fun is sneaking in the worst possible option and hoping your friend lands on it.
Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House. One of those four is where you end up living. The game also picks your car, your spouse, your kids, and whatever else you decide to add.
You need a pen, some paper, and a friend. Here's how it works.
Free Printable MASH Game
Before reading this guide, you can download our free MASH Game PDF. It's already set up with the classic MASH categories you need to play. Just print it out and play with your friends!
How to Play MASH on Paper (Step-by-Step)
What you'll need:
- A pen or pencil
- A piece of paper
- A friend to play with (or you can play by yourself if you want to)
No paper handy? You can play MASH online free right in your browser.
Step-by-step instructions for playing MASH:
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Choose the story categories.
First, choose the categories that will make up your final story. The number of categories you put in will change how long the game takes to play and how long your story will be. If you only have a few minutes to play, start with the basics: four categories (you choose these), and four options for each category (your friend chooses these). This part should go in the top half of your paper (leave space at the bottom of the page).
Start at the top and write each of these four categories, moving clockwise on the page.
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M A S H. The letters M A S H go at the top of the page. Write these with some space between each letter.
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Potential partner. This is who you'll marry or end up with someday. Two of these should be someone you'd want to marry, one person you're indifferent about, and the last should be someone you would never, ever want to end up with.
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Number of children you'll have. In the classic game you'll just write numbers like 1 2 3 4, or wilder options like 0, 2, 5, and 17. This column lines up with the M A S H at the top of the page.
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Type of car you'll drive. This last category will go at the left of the page. Choose two cars you'd really want, one you don't care about, and one you'd totally hate.
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Draw a spiral to determine the "magic number".
Tell the other person to close their eyes while you draw a spiral (from inside to outside) on the bottom half of the page. The other person should say "STOP" when they want you to stop drawing (he can open his eyes now). Count from outside to inside the number of lines you drew. It can help to draw a line through the center of the spiral and count how many times that line crosses your spiral, too. The number you come up with is your magic number.
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Count each of the category options until you reach the magic number.
Start at the M at the top and, moving clockwise, count each option (A, S, H, each of the names, each of the numbers, each of the cars) until you reach the magic number. Cross off the option you land on.
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Continue around the page, skipping over the marked off options.
Start the count over with the spot just after the option you crossed off in step 3, then keep moving around the paper, counting each option as you go. Every time your count hits the magic number, cross off the option you landed on.
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Circle the final option in each category.
Each category will end up with all options but one eliminated.
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Use the final options in each category to tell your friend his or her MASH story!
You can add as many or as few embellishments to the story as you like. Your story could go something like: "In your future you're going to marry Niall Horan and live in a Mansion! You'll have two kids and drive a Porsche!"
Want to skip the pen and paper? Play MASH online for free right in your browser, or download the MASH app for iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
The MASH Categories Explained
Categories are what you fill in before any counting starts. Every game needs at least four: the M-A-S-H dwelling category, plus three more that add up to the player’s predicted future. Each category gets four options. The counting knocks them out one at a time until a single option is left standing in each category, and those survivors are the story.
The four classic MASH categories are:
- M-A-S-H. The dwelling: Mansion, Apartment, Shack, or House. This one never changes. It’s in the name.
- Future spouse. Four names: two the player would be happy with, one they don’t care about, one they’d hate. The more specific the names, the better the reveal.
- Number of kids. Classic options are 0, 2, 5, and 17. The absurd high number is half the fun.
- Car. Anything from a dream car to something humiliating, like a shopping cart or a horse. Contrast is everything.
Once you have the basics down, add more categories (job, city, pet, salary) to stretch the story out. Our full guide to MASH game categories has 50+ ideas sorted by age group and theme.
Make your MASH story longer
The classic game of MASH is even more fun when you make the story longer. Add extra categories to tell a more detailed future.
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How your partner will propose
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What your wedding colors will be
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What city or place you'll live in
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What your job will be
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How much you or your partner will make per year
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What type of pet you'll have
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What your pet's name will be
(For older kids and grown-ups waxing nostalgic, you might even put when and how you'll die. Gasp!)
What Does MASH Stand For?
What is the MASH game?
MASH (sometimes written M∗A∗S∗H, or M.A.S.H.) is a pen-and-paper fortune-telling game played by kids and by adults who miss being kids. You fill in categories, draw a spiral to get a random number, then count through your options and cross them off one at a time until a single option is left in each category. Those survivors are your predicted future. A game takes 5–10 minutes and needs nothing but pen and paper, or a web browser.
MASH is an acronym. The letters stand for the four types of homes your fortune might land on:
- M – Mansion: A sprawling estate with more rooms than you know what to do with. The dream outcome.
- A – Apartment: A city flat (for the British, a flat is a small apartment). Could be a downtown loft, could be a cramped studio. MASH doesn’t specify.
- S – Shack: A drafty, usually wooden dwelling. Traditionally the worst outcome, which is exactly why everyone hopes their friend gets it.
- H – House: The boring one. Nobody has ever been disappointed to land on House, and nobody has ever been thrilled either.
The “S” is the most flexible letter in the game. Depending on who you ask and where you grew up, it might stand for Shack, Street, Shed, Sewers, or even Swamp. The more humiliating the S-word, the better the game. Some players swap the S for any terrible dwelling they can think of: tent, trailer, cardboard box, you name it.
A Brief History of MASH
Kids have been playing MASH on schoolyards since at least the 1970s. Nobody knows who made it up. No one published it and no one owns it, so it spread the way playground games spread, one kid teaching another. Kids in North America, the UK, and Australia all claim it as their own, so it very likely popped up in several places at once.
The 1990s were the peak. MASH turned up at every sleepover and on the back of every math worksheet. Before phones, a scrap of paper and a pen was the entire entertainment budget for a long car ride.
In 2008, Magnate Interactive shipped the first digital MASH app for iPhone. It reached a lot of kids who had never seen the paper version. The app kept the spiral and the counting, added a pile of new categories, and let you save your story. Today you can get MASH on iOS, Mac, Windows, and the web. The paper version is still just as good.
MASH Variations and Rule Variants
Once you have the basic game down, there are plenty of ways to mix things up. Here are the most popular variations:
Fortune swap
In this variant, every option you cross off lands in the other player’s fortune instead. Cross off “Shack” while counting through your game and your friend gets the Shack in their story. Suddenly you’re rooting against each other, in a friendly way.
Group play
MASH works with three or more players. One person is the “subject” and the game is about their future. One person draws the spiral and counts. Everyone else throws in category options. The more people shouting suggestions, the wilder the story gets. You can also go round-robin and let each player take a turn as the subject.
Expanded categories
Four categories is the starting point. Longtime players run eight, ten, or twelve and turn one game into a half-hour. Common additions: job, annual salary, city you’ll live in, type of pet, pet’s name, how you’ll meet your partner, wedding location. More categories means a longer story and stranger combinations.
Classroom and party use
MASH works in a classroom because it needs no technology and every kid can play at once. Use it as an icebreaker, or as a writing prompt where students turn their fortune into a paragraph. At parties, draw the board on a whiteboard and let the room shout out the options.
Timed spiral
Instead of saying “stop,” the player drawing the spiral draws for exactly 10 seconds. Or 5, or 15, your call. Then count the loops. Nobody gets to control when the drawing ends, so the magic number is genuinely random.
Tips for a Better Game of MASH
- Balance your options. Two good options, one you don’t care about, and one disaster per category. Keep the disaster in play and the reveal actually has stakes.
- Count the spiral carefully. Draw a line straight through the center of the spiral and count how many times it crosses. That beats trying to eyeball the rings from the outside.
- Keep the spiral small. A tiny spiral means a small magic number, which means a faster game. Draw a huge spiral and you’ll be counting for a while.
- Make the categories personal. Use people the subject actually knows and the car they keep bringing up. Inside jokes land harder than celebrities.
- Don’t peek. The subject should really close their eyes while the spiral is drawn. Not knowing the magic number is most of the suspense.
How to Play MASH Online
No pen or paper? You can play MASH online free right in your web browser. The browser version draws the spiral, does the counting, and writes up the story for you. It works on phones too.
If you’d rather have an app, MASH runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. The app has more than twice as many categories as the paper version, and it saves your stories so you can send them to people.
Download MASH for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac:
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Find MASH on the App Store for iPhone and iPad:
Apple iOS App Store
Frequently Asked Questions About MASH
What is the MASH game?
MASH (Mansion Apartment Shack House) is a classic pen-and-paper fortune-telling game where players fill in life categories, draw a spiral to generate a random counting number, then eliminate options one by one until a single answer remains in each category. Those survivors are your predicted future. All it takes is a pen, some paper, and a friend. You can also play free online.
What does MASH stand for?
MASH is an acronym that stands for Mansion Apartment Shack House. It’s a classic fortune-telling game played by kids to predict their future.
How do you play MASH?
To play MASH: (1) Choose story categories (M-A-S-H, potential partner, number of children, type of car). (2) Draw a spiral until your friend says “stop” and count the lines to get your magic number. (3) Count clockwise through all options, crossing off the option you land on when you reach the magic number. (4) Continue counting and eliminating options until only one remains in each category. (5) Use the remaining options to tell your MASH story!
What do you need to play MASH?
You only need a pen, some paper, and a friend to play MASH. You can also download a free printable MASH game PDF or play the digital version online or on iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Windows.
What are the basic categories in MASH?
The four basic categories in MASH are: (1) M-A-S-H (the type of dwelling you’ll live in), (2) Potential partner (who you’ll marry), (3) Number of children (typically 1, 2, 3, or 4), and (4) Type of car you’ll drive. You can add more categories to make the story longer.
Can you play MASH without pen and paper?
Yes! You can play MASH online for free right in your web browser, or download the MASH app on iPad, iPhone, Mac, or Windows.
What categories can you add to make your MASH story longer?
You can add extra categories like: where you’ll go to college, what you’ll major in, how your partner will propose, age when you’ll get married, wedding colors, honeymoon destination, what city you’ll live in, your job, your salary, type of pet, and your pet’s name.