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Creativity Games for Festivals and Gatherings

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written by Lendren Starfall

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Being a collection of fun, festive games you can easily organize and play at guild gatherings, festivals, balls, ceilidhs, parties, and other celebrations. These games are all easy to organize and run, do not require any special skills or equipment, can be played anywhere, and are easy to explain. Some require a small amount of preparation, while others can be done with little or no warning.

They're designed to draw in participation even from those who are timid and shy. Best of all, they evoke creativity without making the participants feel put on the spot to be creative. This is a necessity since most people do not think of themselves as being creative, and balk at the idea of being asked to write or invent, especially publicly. And yet most people are a lot more creative than they give themselves credit for, and once they're given a structure into which they can be creative without feeling any pressure, they invariably enjoy it.

Most of the games have some method for awarding a prize to the winner. This helps to give people an incentive to participate, and also, the promise of prizes at games tends to draw people to the events. In most cases the prizes can be left out and the games will work for the sheer fun of it.

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Captain of the Ship

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Preparation: Little or none.

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Explanation:

I am the captain of a ship, and you will all be my passengers. You may attempt to bring things aboard with you, but note! I have a very particular rule about what may be brought aboard my ship. Call out things you want to bring aboard, and I'll say whether they're allowed. Your challenge is to figure out my rule!

Note that the rule has to do not with what the item is, but what it is named. For instance, I remember one voyage where I only allowed things whose name started with the letter G. And another time, I only permitted things with three-syllable names aboard.

Choose the things you'll try to bring carefully to help figure out what the rule is. And when you think you know, raise your hand, and I'll ask you your guess. If you get it right, you win. But if you get it wrong, you are tossed overboard, out of the game!

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Playing:

Once you've silently chosen a rule, think of something that fits the rule, and then announce it. For instance, "I am the captain of the ship, and I am bringing aboard a sandwich." This begins the game. Let people call out the things they want to bring, and answer them as quickly as you can. Be sure each answer identifies the specific object: for instance, "No, you cannot bring a cantaloupe" rather than just shaking your head, as it'll quickly get confusing which nods go with which item. People tend to call out their ideas quickly.

People also tend to call out their suggested answers without raising their hand. If you want to be scrupulously fair you may have to insist on raised hands and taking turns, so no one feels jilted if they're raising their hands and someone else just blurts out the answer. However, once someone blurts out the answer, raising hands starts seeming purposeless. So it might be best to just go with it, as long as people are making clear that they're actually making a guess. If the game is mostly for fun, not for prizes, don't worry about hand-raising.

You can similarly ignore the rule about people being eliminated on a wrong guess unless people are being very competitive and driven by the prize. In fact, if you happen to have chosen a difficult rule, eliminating people isn't just a burden to keep track of, it can make the game grind to a halt. The main point of the elimination rule is so people don't just toss out a dozen guesses in hopes of happening to get lucky, but making them actually think about the rule. In a friendly competition this is less important to force.

If people seem to be bogged down, particularly if everyone's making guess on the same wrong track, you can always announce, as the Captain, another thing you're bringing which will help redirect them. For instance, if people are stuck thinking it has to do with the spelling, and everyone is making spelling-related guesses, you might choose another thing to bring which has wildly different spelling (thus disproving that theory and all its variants in one fell swoop) and nudge them out of their rut. In theory, the players ought to be choosing their things to bring to do this for you, but in practice, groups sometimes fall into echoing one another, each of them expecting the others are getting close. A little push will get them back to thinking more freely again.

In a more casual group, you can play where whoever wins one round has to become the Captain and run the next round.

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How To Prepare:

If time permits, think up a few rules, and organize them from easiest to hardest. However, you can probably make them up as you go if you need to do this extemporaneously.

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Estarra's Garden Party

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Preparation: Little or none.

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Note that this is almost identical to Captain of the Ship on the previous page, with one key variation that makes all the difference in play. If you've already run one game, you can abbreviate the explanation when switching to the other by simply explaining the difference.

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Explanation:

The Creatrix is hosting a garden party, but She has mysterious ideas about what is allowed at the party to set the mood She wants. Call out things you want to bring to the party, and I will inform you whether She permits that item. Choose wisely, so that your guesses help you figure out the rule. If you think you know the rule, raise your hand and make your guess. Get it right and you win, but get it wrong, and She smites you, and you're out of the game!

Note that the rule has to do with what the item is, not what it's named. For instance, at one party, She allowed only things you could eat, and at another, only things with wings.

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Playing:

This plays almost identically to Captain of the Ship. However, the type of thinking required is surprisingly different.

Your choice of a first item can strongly influence the tone and difficulty. As with Captain of the Ship, but much more markedly so, people tend to echo one another and get the whole group into a rut, using their offered items not to find the edges of a rule or break it, but just to fit within it. If your first item you offer happens to have something very distinctive about it, that will often get the crowd stuck.

For instance, suppose you're thinking of a rule, "things made mostly of wood", and you start by bringing a mandolin. People will likely start proposing other musical instruments, because "is a musical instrument" is so sharp and obvious a trait of mandolins that it drives away other thoughts. If they keep guessing about flutes and violins, and no one ventures farther afield and asks about trees or sandwiches, they'll never get the rule.

To avoid this, try to choose a first item where no single trait stands out as the dominant trait about it. Instead of a mandolin, perhaps you might have started with a tree; there are many things you can say about a tree, but no single one is always going to be the first everyone would think of.

If they have gotten into a rut, you can disrupt it by offering another thing that can be brought, which knocks them out of their preconceptions. If they're not venturing far from musical instruments, suggest something that fits the rule that is vastly unlike the mandolin; for instance, the Moonhart Mother Tree, or a canoe.

Estarra's Garden Party can easily end up much more challenging than Captain of the Ship. (Either game can be a stumper, but Estarra's Garden Party is more likely to be so.) Care in choosing a rule can help mitigate this, but throwing out more approved items can always adjust the difficulty on the fly.

The trickiest thing about this game is making a rule that's clear-cut and that you can make absolutely unequivocal rulings on each item with. Ideally, you can make the rulings without examining the item (especially if it's not to hand). Also, think about whether your rule is too situational; if the answer would often be "it depends" that can be problematic. For instance, the rule "can hold water" can get tricky when people start asking about bringing other people, a pumpkin, or their shoes. Even worse, a rule like "is here in the forest right now" is problematic if you can't be sure what is or isn't. The rules most likely not to lead to the group being stumped are those that describe an unequivocal and simple attribute of an object.

But even the most simple rule, like "is made of wood", gets dodgy. How about the Tower of the Moon? It's probably partially made of wood, but is it misleading to say yes? What about a book? (Especially if they just say 'a book' instead of 'this specific book' and you can't examine to tell if it's made with leather and sheepskin or paper.) What about an axe? It's made partially of wood, but is it enough to be 'made of wood'? No matter how carefully you choose your rule, you'll have to make rulings which preserve the spirit of the rule (and guide players to finding the answer) rather than hew to its technicalities. Avoid whenever possible giving answers like 'it depends' or asking leading questions about the specific object which may themselves give away the rule.

Remember that the goal is for the game to be challenging but not to defeat or frustrate the players. Someone should find the answer, ideally before everyone else gets bored. Pursue fun, not precision, here.

Note that people might end up with a rule that's not exactly what you had in mind but close enough. Especially if the game is bogging down, go with it. "Can be burned" is probably not close enough to "is made of wood" to be called a winner, but "is made from trees" certainly is.

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How To Prepare:

As with Captain of the Ship, if time permits, think up a few rules, and organize them from easiest to hardest. However, you can probably make them up as you go if you need to do this extemporaneously.

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Bad Joke Contest

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Preparation: Little or none.

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Explanation:

Share your best bad jokes, your groaners, your puns, your howlers. Then be prepared to vote for the Best Bad Joke and the Worst Bad Joke. I leave it up to you to decide which are which!

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Playing:

You will almost certainly have to warm the audience up with one or two bad jokes of your own. People will stand around silently, too shy to be the first to drop a stinker, even those you know always tend to tell bad jokes in everyday life. Unless you have a shill willing to get things started you should have a few groaners ready to get the party started. And be prepared for a sudden flood to burst once it has started.

Try to discourage anyone from telling jokes that depend on mad and insane visions of some other reality. People will be tempted, but the effort of recasting their joke in a more sane frame of reference not only sets aside concerns of lunacy, but also tends to make old jokes fresh again.

Beware of this devolving into what I call the 'list joke', which is not really a joke at all. The list joke is when the entire substance of the joke is simply finding ways to squeeze words from a list into everything that's said. For instance, someone makes a joke involving a fish. Someone follows with a pun on the dual meaning of the word 'crab', and then people start rotely spewing sentences which have no joke in them save that they've found a way to squeeze the name of a sea creature into the sentence. This can go on for days. Now, some people enjoy this. (I have no idea why, apart from too many blows with blunt instruments to the head.) But even if you are one of those people (and are unable to obtain the assistance of a healer in correcting your obviously badly damaged psyche), take note that, if this trend is allowed to continue, it will displace everything else. You will no longer have a Bad Joke Contest, and possibly the whole rest of your festival. You'll just have this. Cut it off by making a strikingly terrible joke that deviates entirely from the list, and quickly.

When the flood of bad jokes for the contest has diminished to a trickle, make a call for final submissions, then ask for people to send you their votes privately, in whispers, first for the Worst Bad Joke, then for the Best. Ideally people will tell you what joke they're voting for, because when you announce a winner, people will want to know which joke won. But often they'll vote for a person, not a joke. Usually it's obvious which joke they have in mind, though.

There's nothing that says you can't have a Good Joke Contest too! But people are often more willing to speak up when it's called a Bad Joke Contest.

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How To Prepare:

This goes best if people are told in advance there will be a Bad Joke Contest, so at least a few of them will have come prepared. You should definitely come with at least one or two, to set the tone with.

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Word by Word

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Preparation: Moderate (up to a half hour of effort).

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Explanation:

I have here a list of twenty things that might appear in a story. Words, phrases, ideas, people, objects, places, events. I'll be randomly selecting items, one by one, to give to each of you.

Whoever gets the first one has two minutes to create a sentence or two in a story, which must include the story element I gave them. The story can be anything you like, and you can invent anything you want, as long as that element is in there.

Then the next person gets another randomly chosen element, and has two minutes to add a sentence or three to the story so far, carrying on the tale as it's unfolded so far. The new element must be included in this addition to the story. You can introduce story twists, resolve questions raised earlier, pose new ones, or tie up loose ends.

This carries on until the last person contributes what will turn out to be the end of the story. At that point, I'll choose the entry that was the most amusing, the most surprising, the most creative, the most funny, or in general the most pleasing, to be the winner.

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Playing:

Your list should be numbered, and you'll need a method of randomly selecting entries from it, such as ivory dice, a spinning bottle, or other mathematical trickery. As you select and use elements, cross them out, and then if your die selects a used one, reroll.

Since you're choosing randomly, you can allow yourself a turn in the game. If your audience is particularly shy, or nervous about the apparent challenge, you might go first yourself. But if you can avoid that, do; it's better to save your own contribution for a time when the story seems like it's getting challenging to continue, such as because people have added too many plot threads without wrapping any up.

That said, the objective here isn't to make a tight-knit and compelling story that would make a good play. Most likely the story will be scattered, veering, and extremely silly, and that's for the best. The first goal of the game is fun, and the second goal is to trick people into being creative without being too shy about it. A loose, goofy story that meanders hither and yon is actually better suited for that. It helps people feel confident enough to continue in the same tone, it lowers the apparent stakes, and it's just generally fun.

The one way this game can go awry is if the person whose turn it is takes too long. This can happen because they're distracted, but most of the time it's because they're really working hard trying to make a perfectly tuned bit of prose, instead of just making up something silly. This is why the two-minute time limit is mentioned, I don't generally suggest using a stopwatch or being too firm about this time limit. But don't let it slip away too far either. If people are pushing it a little, let it go, but if they start taking longer and longer, begin to urge them back to two minutes. Otherwise, the story loses momentum, and the rest of the crowd gets bored. They might fall to pleasant chit-chat which can be just fine, but it can easily make the whole event feel like it's run aground once the small talk runs thin.

If you're blessed enough to get a chance to play this amongst a group that are all comfortable with writing, and who don't need to be encouraged to go out on a limb, you can extend the time limit to five minutes, and use a list of more serious elements, aiming for an exercise that's more about making a good story than a silly one.

It can be tempting to look at the randomly selected story element, frown, and think that another might be better. Occasionally it might be a good idea to ignore the roll and either roll again or just choose an element. This is more common when you're on the last item in the story. But generally it is a temptation to be resisted. The odd juxtaposition of incongruous story elements can be a challenge, but it also the greatest spur to creativity, as well as to silliness. Let the game find its own rhythm.

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How To Prepare:

Preparing a list of elements in advance can take some time, but usually, you can just dash off a set of ideas. Start with any leftover elements you didn't use the previous time, and then add more until you get to, say, twenty.

Try to have a variety of types of elements in the list. Some should sound like elements in grand and epic stories: magical swords, mighty sorcerors, the crowning of kings, battles between great armies, the fall of a castle, an Elder God. But others should be humble and silly things: a barrel of apples, a playful child, a snatch of an old tune, a hopping rabbit. Also put in story elements that describe plot advancements: a sudden betrayal, a scene change, references to the passage of time.

To help you get an idea for the kind of elements, here is a list I used for the Serenwilde Ceilidh Ball of 448CE:

1. An ever-burning flame

2. A sandwich

3. Something is dropped on the ground

4. A Soulless God

5. Chicken eggs

6. An expected betrayal

7. The silence is broken by a scream

8. A kephera queen

9. The moon rises

10. Several years later…

11. The fragments of a broken sword

12. A disembodied voice

13. A sudden flash of light

14. A fair-haired maiden

15. An aethership

16. A high heeled shoe that Estarra lost long ago

17. A cup full of salt water

18. An unexpected consequence of an oath

19. Too tired to go on

20. A bright-eyed child

Of these, only elements 1, 10, 11, 13, 16, 18, and 20 were used. The rest were carried over for the next game.

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I Have A Cunning Plan

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Preparation: Slight (just a few minutes).

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Explanation:

For this game, you need to form up into teams. Everyone who wishes to play should end up on one of three or four teams. Each team should form a squad or coven to use for private conversation. Please form teams now, and I'll go on with the game's explanation while you do.

Once teams are formed, each team will use its secret communication to choose one object, that will be used later in a plan. It can be anything, serious or silly, large or small, but it has to be a physical object. For instance, it might be a pot of honey, a stone from the top of Avechna's Peak, eleven shaved stoats, Weeky Peedia's toothbrush, a silver klangaxe, or the entire Razine Mountains. Each team does this on its own, then when all teams have theirs ready, the teams take turns announcing the objects.

At this point, I will randomly select an objective from a list I have prepared. The objective is something your team will need to, in private conversation, come up with a plan to accomplish. The plan can, and probably should, be hugely improbable, straining the limits of credulity and plausibility, but it should at least hold together. Imagine one of those tinkered contraptions with a thousand parts, where a gear turns and cuts a string that drops a cage over a mouse causing it to squeak and startle a bird which... and so on. The plan can be as dubious as that, but like that, it has to at least be possible to imagine it could happen.

Also, the plan must incorporate the objects chosen by all the teams earlier. To be clear: each team's plan will use the object they chose as well as the objects the other teams chose. So every team is working towards the same goal and using the same objects. You can use other things too, as long as they're things you could plausibly obtain; but you must use the listed objects, and the use must be innate to the plan, not just thrown in to make sure that you can check them off as used.

You'll be given about ten minutes to think of your plan together, to come to a consensus about how it should work. Then the teams will, one at a time, explain their plans. It is traditional to begin your explanation with the words "I have a cunning plan!" and for others to, when the plan is fully described, acknowledge in some pithy way just how cunning the plan truly is. Whichever plan I think is the most creative, most unexpected, or funniest, will be declared the winner.

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Playing:

The forming of teams can be the most chaotic part of the affair, particularly given the requirements of forming squads, the need to coordinate who isn't on a team yet, etc. You may need to step in and assist a bit, but often, teams will form up on their own. It's best if the teams are about equal in size, but it's not necessary.

However big your crowd is, you should end up with three or four teams, because you should only have three or four objects. Too few makes the plans too simple, and too many makes them take forever to create. If your crowd is too small to form this many teams, you might consider skipping this game. If it's too large, such that teams would have more than six or so people, you could choose another game, or split into two or more groups and play two or more games in parallel, in separate locations.

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How To Prepare:

Prepare a list of a few objectives in advance, to choose randomly from. Unlike Word by Word you don't need a huge number of these, just a few will do, as you'll only use one per game. Objectives can be grand, but they can also be simple, because the hilarious contortions required to get the objects into the plan can be just as funny as a plan to accomplish something superlative. The objectives you don't use can be saved for the next festival.

Here are some examples I had on hand for the Serenwilde Ceilidh Ball of 448CE:

1. Awaken a sleeping Soulless God

2. Make a pie that wins a blue ribbon at the crafting fair

3. Ride a horse across the Inner Sea

4. Fill a kephera hive with soup

5. Make the Skarch Desert bloom again

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Fashion Contest

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Preparation: None.

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Explanation:

Time to show us your fancy outfits! If you have prepared an ensemble for this fashion contest, stand up, strut your stuff, and show us what you've got! Please only show off at most one garment or piece of jewellery; everyone else, remember that you can look at garments on another person. And when choosing who to vote for, don't just consider their clothes, but also, how well they wear them and show them off!

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Playing:

Whenever you announce a fashion contest will be part of an event, be sure to be clear that participation is optional. Many people don't want to mess with such things, and will be put off the whole event if they feel they have to get dressed up at all, let alone in line with some theme.

It's usually a good idea to have at least two themes and two prizes. For instance, at the Serenwilde Ceilidh Ball of 488CE, we had a Fancy Dress prize (for those in ball gowns and suits, mostly), and a Not Fancy Dress prize (for those in anything else that was elaborate). Consider other themes, such as seasonal themes, color schemes, Best Suit of Armour, Funniest Outfit, etc.

When the time comes to show off the outfits, people may wish to simply show off each item in turn. This will quickly make it impossible for anyone to keep up with what's going on. It's generally best to limit each person to showing off not more than one single garment or piece of jewellery. Then just remind everyone that they can look at garments on other people, and how to do so (many people don't even realize they can).

In addition, encourage people to do more than just stand there and be looked at. You might have to set the example, by doing a showy strut, whatever seems appropriate to you and your outfit. Twirl to bell out your skirts, put your hands on your hips, do a catwalk stride in front of everyone else, or flex your muscles and grunt. Encourage others to put on a small show of their own garments as well, and suggest that, when people are voting, they consider not just the outfit but how well it's being worn.

Then let everyone present vote once for each prize. Votes should be for a person, and thus, that person's entire ensemble, not a specific garment. It's probably best to rule out the possibility that one person wins more than one prize, by discounting votes for them for a second prize after winning the first. Alternately, let each person only enter for one prize.

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How To Prepare:

Warn the attendees that there will be a fashion contest, and what theme or themes there will be prizes for, so they can prepare suitable outfits.

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Mad Words

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Preparation: Considerable (up to a half hour).

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Explanation:

For this game I have prepared a passage from a classic text. It might be from the histories of Lusternia, the writings of one of the Elder Gods, or perhaps something out of the Great Library. I've taken selected words out. I'll be asking you to give me replacement words, but without knowing what you're replacing, other than the part of speech. For instance, I might ask for a verb (an action word), an adjective (a word that describes a thing), a person's name, a profession, or a type of food.

Don't think about it too much; certainly don't try to guess what my original text is, or to make your choice fit with what others have answered. Just say the first silly thing that comes into your head. (Although if your first thought is usually crude or scatalogical, you can always go with the second. A little of that sort of thing goes a long way.)

Then I'll read you the passage as it was originally, and as it is after you've rewritten it. Some of the latter will be clumsy but most of it will be silly and some will likely be uproariously funny. It may even make ideas of stories and strange situations come to your mind!

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Playing:

Be prepared to, while you ask people for replacement words, have to explain what the parts of speech are. Many people don't know what an adverb is, and even more don't know a past from a present participle. It's okay to specify a plural noun, but don't bother with verb conjugations; just ask for a verb and conjugate it yourself. When explaining parts of speech, avoid using examples: they too often infiltrate the thoughts and you end up getting some word very close to your example parroted back to you. Here are some explanations you can use:

noun: a person, place, or thing.

verb: a word that describes what someone or something is doing, the action being taken.

adjective: describes something about an object or person.

adverb: a word, often ending in "ly", that describes how an action is being done.

Prepare a sketchpad with the text, with blanks ready with the parts of speech and other substitutions. Call for replacements and then drop them in as quickly as you can. Don't try to get them all in order; in fact, it's best if you jump around the text at random. If you've asked for a verb and you got a noun, just put it in where some other noun is asked for. Conjugate words yourself as you need to, to fit the sentence.

When you have all the substitutions, quiet everyone down, then tell what passage you've used, and read the original. Give people a few moments to absorb the original, then read the altered version. Don't expect every substitution to be side-splittingly funny. Many will just be weird. But a few will be silly, a few will be funny, and some may even be surprisingly evocative.

This game doesn't lend itself well to awarding a prize to a winner. If you feel that this is necessary, give a prize to whoever gave the substitution that seems funniest. This is at least half arbitrary since they don't know where their substitutions will go. But it's not solely random, since people who think of more offbeat and unexpected substitutions are more likely to find theirs funny when put into a new context.

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How To Prepare:

Select a passage of just two or three medium-length paragraphs, or more than that if each paragraph is mostly dialogue. The best passage is one where the language is fairly loose; ornate, heavily structured language, as in the more mythic works, can be quite amusing but is harder to work with. A song or poem can also work quite well. The subject matter doesn't matter; something that started light-hearted will still be light-hearted after substitution, and something more serious will become so. The one exception is that a passage that's deeply tragic, or that has special personal feelings for some in your audience, is best avoided. (For example, the tale of how Bollikin sharded would not work at all.)

Make two copies in your sketchbook or journal, one untouched, then the second one, with substitutions. For instance, scratch out the word "Estarra" and replace with "[name]" or "[Elder God]". Later, while playing, you can replace the substitutions with the provided answers.

You will usually want to replace at least one word or phrase in each sentence or major clause, but not usually more than two. If you substitute every noun and verb, there won't be any of the original context left, and the resulting sentence will be unmitigated randomness.

Most of the time you should err on the side of using a more specific substitution than your first inclination: use "[material]" instead of "[noun]" if the original word were "sandstone". Going too far, though, such as "[type of stone]" will mean the result won't be funny. You want the substitutions to end up fitting at least some of the sense of the sentence, but still having enough room to be wildly incongruous. Changing "He fashioned the hut of sandstone" into "He fashioned the hut of granite" isn't funny; changing it to "He fashioned the hut of underwear" is funny, and "He fashioned the hut of cheese" might be a good middle ground.

For instance, if you were using the Magnagora Chronicles of the preparations for Project Cosmic Hope, you might start with this passage:

"This is a great honour for Magnagora," commented the Most Eminent Rushdam d'Murani, Grand Vizier of Magnagora. Cheers were heard throughout the city as the proclamation was read. When asked about the sudden disappearance of the Fates in Shallamar, High Prophet Ghani n'Rotri stated, "The Three Sisters have been known to leave the higher planes from time-to-time. They are beyond our ken and I would not read too much into their absence. It certainly has nothing to do with Cosmic Hope. I think its been proven often enough that the Light has blessed the Empire in this endeavor."

and put these substitutions in:

"This is a great [noun] for Magnagora," commented the Most Eminent [person's name], Grand Vizier of Magnagora. [sound] were heard throughout the city as the proclamation was [verb past tense]. When asked about the sudden disappearance of [noun] in Shallamar, [title] Ghani n'Rotri stated, "The [adjective] Sisters have been known to [verb] the higher planes from time-to-time. They are beyond our [noun] and I would not read too much into their [noun]. It certainly has nothing to do with [event]. I think its been proven often enough that [noun] has blessed the Empire in this [noun]."

Be prepared to conjugate, capitalise, and otherwise adjust the answers as you get them.

Choosing the right words, and the right number of them, and giving substitutions with the right specificity, is an art that will be refined with a bit of practice. Don't be discouraged if your first attempt isn't as funny as you hoped. And remember, the audience probably finds it funnier than you do, because of their role in the process.

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Majority Rules

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Preparation: Considerable (up to a half hour).

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Explanation:

The trick of this game is not to get the right answer, or the best answer, to the questions I'm going to ask. Most of them will have no right or best answer. The trick is to think of what answer everyone else is going to think of, and give that one, because you only get points if your answer is the one that most other people have given. You get points for being in the majority (or at least the plurality). But remember, when choosing their answers, they're trying to guess what you're going to answer too.

When I ask a question, raise your hand once your answer is ready. Once everyone has raised their hands, I'll give the sign for everyone to call out their answer, then choose whichever answer got the most voices. Everyone who gave that answer earns a point. Keep count of your own points.

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Playing:

Be sure you know who is playing, so you don't end up waiting for someone to raise their hand who isn't ever going to.

You can let the players score themselves, unless this is a very competitive game with a high value prize. Maybe even then, since anyone who cheats their score by more than a few points will stick out like a sore thumb.

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How To Prepare:

You'll need to prepare a list of about ten questions beforehand. The trick of making this game work is selecting questions that have a small number of discrete possible answers, no one of which is the obvious first choice.

For instance, "What is the best kind of food?" is far too broad. Some people might answer with categories, like "supper" or "stews", while others with specific dishes. "Which is the best meal of the day?" is better, though as there are only a few choices, it might be a little too easy for one answer to obviously rise above the others. "What is your favorite kind of pie?" might work, but there are too many kinds of pie, and you can get into quibbling about whether banana pie and banana cream pie are the same thing. But "What is your favorite kind of fruit pie?" is perfect, because everyone is likely to think of the same dozen or so fruits that are often put into pies, and yet no single type is the obvious winner.

If your event has a theme, use it to inspire questions. A fall festival can have questions about your favorite autumn activity, the best colour of autumn leaves, the worst chore during autumn harvest on a farm, and what to wear to keep warm on cold autumn nights. Even within the theme, there's a variety of types of answers, and this is as it should be -- if all your questions can be answered with a type of food or activity, the game will lose its lustre.

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True Quote

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Preparation: Considerable (up to a half hour).

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Explanation:

I have selected a classic text, one with which you are probably familiar if you are well read. [Specify just which text it is at this point.] From this text I have extracted a handful of quotes. I've also made up a handful of things that sound like they could be quotes, but aren't. They might be similar to real quotes, actual quotes from a different book, or just things that might have been written, but weren't. Your job is to identify which is which. I'll read them one by one, and you can cast your vote: true quote or false quote? Once everyone has voted, I'll tell the answer. Score yourself a point if you were right.

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Playing:

After each quote has been recited, the answer revealed, and the scores tallied, you might also say a few words about it. If it's a true quote, what gives that away, or what else was happening before and after it in the story it comes from. If it's a false quote, what gives that away. where it comes from, and how you came up with it. But don't go on too long. Just a few sentences at most.

The exception is if it's obvious that everyone present is fascinated and wants to talk about it. Nothing wrong with setting the game aside for a detour into a discussion about literature or history. But if anyone doesn't seem to want to do that, save the aside for later. These people showed up because they were promised a fast-paced, light-hearted game. It's not fair to make them sit through a book club they never signed on for.

As with Majority Rules it's probably fine to let people keep their own scores.

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How To Prepare:

Choose a text from the same options as in Mad Words: the histories of Lusternia, the texts of the Elder Gods, and prestige winners in the Great Library are good choices. You could even use a well-known play (though avoid using stage directions; stick to dialogue and effects, the things the audience sees).

Don't dig too far for obscure texts. If you do get a little more obscure, try to pick something where the author has a distinctive style. This game is one where you will struggle not to make it too hard.

Making the false quotes is also an area where it's way too easy to make the game way too hard. Starting with a real quote and changing a few words is something you should do at most once per game, unless your changes are really overt -- for instance, in a story about a war, changing a sword to a cheese sandwich. But it's better by far to write your own sentences that seem like the sort of thing that might have been said, but wasn't. Throw in a few really easy ones, and a few that are more slippery. Don't pat yourself on the back too much if you fool everyone -- it's easier to do than you'd think. The best fake quote is one that about half your audience recognizes, and half doesn't.

You can also make a false quote by stealing something from another book or even another author. These can also be too hard, but if you don't use this trick too often, it can be a lot of fun when you reveal the real source.

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Twenty Questions

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Preparation: Little to none.

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Explanation:

I am thinking of a thing, an actual, specific, physical thing that exists, or once existed, somewhere in Lusternia. Your job, as a group, is to figure out what thing it is, by asking me questions about it. The trick is that your questions must either be yes/no questions, or questions with a small, discrete number of possible answers -- for instance, "is it animal, vegetable, or mineral?" And you only have twenty questions: if you run out, no one wins. So be sure to use each question carefully, to help narrow down the possible range of answers.

If you think you know what the object is, tell me you want to guess. The guess will be done privately, in whispers. If you're right, you win, and get to tell everyone else what it was. But if you're wrong, you're out of the game.

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Playing:

The game of twenty questions is traditionally played with a single person asking the questions, which allows a coherent, organized search. A good player can divide the range of possible answers in half with each question, and quickly narrow in on a few possibilities. The trick is choosing each question so it tells you as much as possible about what the object is or is not.

Here, you have a group that isn't even a team -- they're almost certainly not coordinating their questions. Likely one or two people who aren't very good at choosing questions wisely will fire off questions twice as fast as those who are more thoughtful about it. For this reason, you will need to choose less obscure objects, and you may have to play fast and loose with the count of questions. (Most likely no one else will have been counting anyway.)

If your audience includes those who are fairly young and not that traveled in Lusternia yet, avoid going too far afield for your answers. Choosing an obscure item found in a remote niche of an enemy organization's home, or a denizen of a faraway aetherbubble, will make some people feel left out.

Your selected object should be specific. Instead of "an aslaran" it might be a particular aslaran, like "Ciarrus, chieftain in the Grey Moors". Instead of being "an orc", it might be "an orc archer from Shallach".

Unlike the games Captain of the Ship and Estarra's Garden Party, you probably need to enforce the rule where a wrong guess takes you out of the game. It's far too easy to throw out guesses in this game. Also, the act of guessing is a way of sneaking bonus questions. Note especially that if the best answer to their guess is "be more specific" -- like if they answered "an aslaran" -- that's effectively a free question. You could at that point decline to answer by saying something like, "My answer will be something more specific than that, so it wouldn't be 'an aslaran' but a specific aslaran, if it even is an aslaran. Want to make a more specific guess, or withdraw the offer to guess?" This way you're not revealing anything, but not kicking them out of the game.

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How To Prepare:

It's a good idea to have a few objects selected in advance, including one easy one (such as something that will be present at the gathering) to get things started, and a second one in case they do that one too quickly.

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