many variants exist, such as covering two or three letters per turn, or starting each player on a different letter. some games permit other players to post comments or expansions of earlier entries. the optional "rule of x" treats x (or any other appropriate letter) as a wild card; entries for the x turn may begin with any letter. "telephone pad" is a shorter variant with 8 turns (corresponding to the letters on a telephone keypad) instead of 26 turns (one per letter of the alphabet).