diff --git a/examples/playbooks/prompts.yml b/examples/playbooks/prompts.yml
index bb034d62c9..3175313699 100644
--- a/examples/playbooks/prompts.yml
+++ b/examples/playbooks/prompts.yml
@@ -16,25 +16,22 @@
 #    ansible-playbook foo.yml --extra-vars="foo=100 bar=101"
 # or through external inventory scripts (see online API docs)
 
-# prompted variables are a list of variable names and a description
-# that will be presented to the user, or a list of variable dictionaries
-# with the following accepted keys / value types: 
-#    'name' / text
-#    'prompt' / text (optional)
-#    'private' / boolean (optional)
+# here's basic mode prompting.  Specify a hash of variable names and a prompt for
+# each.
+#
+# vars_prompt:
+#   release_version: "product release version"
+
+# prompts can also be specified like this, allowing for hiding the prompt as 
+# entered.  In the future, this may also be used to support crypted variables
 
-# prompted variables as key/value pairs:
   vars_prompt:
-     release_version: "product release version"
-
-# prompted variables as a list of variable dictionaries:
-#  vars_prompt:
-#    - name: "some_password"
-#      prompt: "Enter password: "
-#      private: True
-#    - name: "release_version"
-#      prompt: "Product release version: "
-#      private: False
+    - name: "some_password"
+      prompt: "Enter password"
+      private: True
+    - name: "release_version"
+      prompt: "Product release version"
+      private: False
 
 # this is just a simple example to show that vars_prompt works, but
 # you might ask for a tag to use with the git module or perhaps
diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py b/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
index 9a640aab52..d063b2a19d 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
@@ -157,24 +157,18 @@ class Play(object):
 
         if type(self.vars_prompt) == list:
             for var in self.vars_prompt:
-                try:
-                    vname = var.get("name")
-                except KeyError:
-                    raise errors.AnsibleError("A variable dictionary in 'vars_prompt' must always have a 'name' key")
-                if not ((vname[0].isalpha() or vname[0] == '_') and vname.replace('_','').isalnum()):
-                    raise errors.AnsibleError("'%s' cannot be used as a variable name. Variable names must consist of"
-                                              " a letter or underscore, followed by a string of letters, numbers, and underscores"
-                                              % vname)
-                prompt = var.get("prompt", None)
+                if not 'name' in var:
+                    raise errors.AnsibleError("'vars_prompt' item is missing 'name:'")
+                vname = var['name']
+                prompt = "%s: " % var.get("prompt", vname)
                 private = var.get("private", True)
-    
                 vars[vname] = self.playbook.callbacks.on_vars_prompt(vname, private, prompt)
         elif type(self.vars_prompt) == dict:
-            for vname in self.vars_prompt:
-                vars[vname] = self.playbook.callbacks.on_vars_prompt(vname)
+            for (vname, prompt) in self.vars_prompt.iteritems():
+                prompt = "%s: " % prompt
+                vars[vname] = self.playbook.callbacks.on_vars_prompt(vname, False, prompt)
         else:
-            raise errors.AnsibleError("'vars_prompt' section must contain either key/value pairs or a list"
-                                      " of variable dictionaries (see docs for accepted dictionary keys)")
+            raise errors.AnsibleError("'vars_prompt' section is malformed, see docs")
 
         results = self.playbook.extra_vars.copy()
         results.update(vars)