Board Game Arena

The mystery word was "magician". One of the players gave the clue "magic" which was excluded as invalid. The three remaining clues were "Houdini", "Merlin", and "illusion". The guesser guessed "magic".

We weren't sure whether to rule it correct or incorrect. Certainly "magic" as a clue is invalid, because it's in the same family as (etymologically related to) "magician". But does that mean that the guesser's guess of "magic" was close enough to the mystery word "magician" to count as correct?

I'd say no. They're related but not sufficiently close. It's like doctor and medicine. Well, maybe more like lawyer and law. I think they're too distinct even if they're in the same family.

Illusionist would have been a better clue to help them get there.

I agree that if the mystery word was "magician", "magic" was not a valid guess.

Some examples of not-exact guesses that can be accepted as valid:
- the mystery word mispelled or from a different variation of English (giving "theather" or "theatre" for "theater")
- a country variation for the exact same concept (giving "chips" for "fries")
- the plural of the mystery word (giving "magicians" for "magician")

There might be some other basic examples. Other than that, the guess would be wrong. Getting to know the 550 word pool is part of the game.