Game On

More than one person has commented on the games I play with my kids, so I thought I'd give a list of the different games we play. Most are 'word' games, that we can play while sitting in waiting rooms, driving in the car, or snuggling in my bed before bedtime.

The Color Game
This is one of the earliest games I played with them. They still want to play it sometimes. One person names a color, then the next person says that color, and adds a color, then the next person says those two colors, then adds a new color, et c. This is probably the most basic game we play. Variants can be any sort of object, but we like colors best.* We sometimes do a variation where not only the colors must be repeated in order, but with the same inflections and dialects. What can I say? We're a bunch of hams.

The Character Game
One person thinks of an animal, person, or character (from TV, books, or movies), and lists three attributes, and the others guess in turn. If no one guesses correctly after a few turns, other attributes are given until the animal or character is guessed.

Twenty Questions
Someone thinks of a person, place or thing, and the rest of us have to guess what the person's thinking of by asking 'yes or no' questons.** If the person asking the question gets a 'yes' answer, he or she can continue asking questions until she or he gets a 'no,' guesses correctly, or twenty questions are asked.

The Question Game
A classic improv game. Carry on a conversation by only asking questions: "How are you feeling?" "Did you say how am I feeling or who am I feeling?" "Does it matter?" et c.

Alphabet Conversation
More improv. Each person's contribution to the conversation begins with a word that begins with the next letter in the alphabet. This works best when a topic is chosen beforehand. "Anyone feed the elephants today?" "Big job, feeding the elephants!" "Can't forget their food, you know!" et. c. Variants: Start in the middle of the alphabet, do the alphabet backwards.

Couplet Conversation
We create a poem on a subject by feeding each other lines. The first person says a single line; thereafter each person says two lines, the first one finishing the first couplet, and the second line starts the next:

"I really like that big oak tree..."

"It's what I stand behind to pee.
For guys, the world is one big toilet..."

"But don't get caught, cuz that will spoil it.
Trees are also good for climbing..."

And so on. Avanced: choose an ending word.

Your Wish Is Granted
One person makes a wish, someone else grants it, with a caveat that makes the wish not as pleasant as one would hope. An enjoyable, if NC-17 rated version of this game was played in the comments section of Madame X's blog back in August.

Silly Superpowers
Prettty self-explanitory, no? My all-time favorite: The ability to turn clouds into cows.

Superpower/Superproblem
Sort of a combination of the two above. You can read some of the ones we came up with at the end of the second post below.

We also play some physical games, like Props, Standing/Sitting/Leaning, and Freeze Tag, and some drawing games as well. Plus, we do board and card games, and jigsaw puzzles.

Regardless, I try to keep things low-tech. My philosopy is that if you have at least two minds, you can play a game.

Yeharr

*It starts to get difficult to come up with colors when the list gets into the upper twenties. We may be the only household in North America that uses crayons for reference material.

**There is also a third answer: 'Not applicable,' in which case the question is thrown out and doesn't count towards the total.