How to Play

How to Play

This is a creativity group game that usually ends with guts hurting from laughing so hard.

It consists of multiple rounds that alternate between each person either making a drawing from a sentence they receive or writing a sentence that interprets a drawing they receive. It’s a cross between Telephone and Pictionary.

Setup

  1. Everyone sits in a circle (or around a table)
  2. Everyone gets a pen
  3. Everyone gets a stack of pieces of paper. The number of pieces equals the number of people playing.
    Example: Ten people = 10 stacks of 10 pieces totaling 100 pieces

Part 1 – Creation

  1. Starting 
    1. Every person writes a simple sentence on the top piece of paper.
      Example: The cat ate my candy
    2. Everyone passes their entire stack to the person to their left, leaving their sentence on top.
  2. Drawing round
    1. Set a timer for 30 seconds
    2. Read the sentence on the top of the stack that was just received.
    3. Put the sentence at the bottom of the stack.
    4. Make a drawing of the sentence on the top of the stack.
      Example: 
    5. Timer goes off, pass entire stack to the left.
  3. Writing round
    1. Set a timer for 20 seconds
    2. Look at the drawing on the top of the stack that was just received
    3. Put the drawing at the bottom of the stack
    4. Write a sentence describing the drawing
      Example: The cat eats a magnifying glass
  4. Repeat
    1. Repeat the drawing and writing rounds until each person is receives their initial stack.

Part 2 – Presentation

By the end, the “story” will probably have veered so far off course that the first sentence and last drawing may have nothing to do with each other.

  1. Each person presents the progression of sentences and drawings in their stack to the group.

 

Tips:

  • Have everyone number their pieces of paper and add their initials. Inevitably, stacks and pieces of paper get mixed up and out of order during the game.
  • You can of course make set your timer with any number you want but I find keeping it short inspires the most creativity and hilarity.
  • I find having at least eight people allows for enough diversion in the story to let the magic of this game bloom.