||Scary Games||

The Ghost Paper Challenge

A/N: YouTubers do some crazy, stupid things. But that doesn't mean that you should go fooling around with it. Again don't play this game.

♱♱ƃɥosʇ dɐdəɹ♱♱

I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of most of the "3am Challenge" videos circulating YouTube; they're always way too hammed up for my taste, as well as incredibly easy to fake. They're quite popular, though — and what's more, one ritual game that folks seem to be really into right now was actually seen online for the first time on YouTube. It's called the Ghost Paper Challenge, although it might also be referred to as Spirit Of The Door. The rules don't seem to exist in written form anywhere on the internet, so I've cobbled together a set based on what's available via YouTube; I've also incorporated a few safeguards in the event that something goes wrong.

Because something probably WILL go wrong.

YouTuber Stromedy, real name Kyle Godfrey, was — as far as I know — the first person to bring the Ghost Paper Challenge online, although many others have followed suit since then. According to Godfrey, he originally heard about the game from his uncle, who apparently said it was a "big thing when he was a kid, similar to how Bloody Mary was for us."

Godfrey is 18 according to his YouTube bio, so I'm willing to bet that his uncle probably,Gen X is likely a good guess. (I'm also an Gen Z, kids from their teens to early 20s.) This matters because of the reference to Bloody Mary — Godfrey doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that Bloody Mary has been a thing at least since the 1970s, and has roots that go back even further. Personally, I think that's a count against the game's authenticity — it's very, very likely that Godfrey's uncle would have grown up playing Bloody Mary itself, so the remark implying that the Ghost Paper Challenge is an "older" game than Bloody Mary seems... odd to me — but that might just be me.

The ritual bears a few similarities to the Midnight Game; both involve lighting a candle, writing something on a piece of paper, positioning the paper before a door, and then knocking on the door a certain number of times to summon an entity. Where they differ is in the use of blood — the Ghost Paper Challenge doesn't require any, while the Midnight Game does — and, of course, in the results: In one game, a correctly performed ritual enables you to make contact with something, ask questions, and gain information, whereas in the other, you invite something in specifically so it can hunt you down.

Is it possible the game is completely made-up? Absolutely. First, there's that previous point I made about its comparison to Bloody Mary; what's more, I would also argue that its close resemblance to the summoning portions of so many other games might be a clue that it's fictional. It looks an awful lot like the game may simply be an amalgam of already-existing summoning rituals taken out of context and tweaked a tiny bit in order to create something ostensibly "new."

Of course, the Ghost Paper Challenge might still be interesting — and maybe fun, depending on what your definition of "fun" is — try.

As always, play at your own risk.

Players:

* At least one principal.

Requirements:

* Paper.
* A writing implement.
* A candle.
* Matches or a lighter.
* A room with a door. Make sure that the paper and writing implement can slide under the door completely when the door is closed.
* A timekeeping device.
* Three questions — no more, no less.