A Party Game

My older daughter introduced this game to us recently.  It seems to be a game enjoyed by most ages and skill levels (although it would be difficult for those with vision impairment to play).  You have to be able to read and write to play this game.  I am calling it a party game, although it is not a boisterous or noisy game, because we of The Common Household are fairly quiet people.  Younger Daughter played this with her friends (teens) at her birthday party, and they seemed to enjoy it a lot.

Pictionary Telephone – for groups of 4 or more

As far as I can tell, it works best with 5 to 6 people.  I haven’t yet tried it with more than that.

Supplies needed:  One piece of plain white paper per person.  One pencil per person.

Instructions:

1.  Each person writes one sentence (not a run-on!) at the top of the paper, then draws a line under the sentence.  When everyone has written a sentence, each person passes the paper to the right (or the left; it doesn’t matter, but you should keep going in the same direction for each step of the game).

For instance, you might write:
              When the family of ducks moved to Mars, they started a strawberry farm.

2.  The second person reads the sentence, and under the line, draws a picture to depict that sentence.  Then he draws a line under the picture he drew.  He folds the paper back along the first line, so that the sentence can’t be seen, but the drawing can be seen.  When everyone is ready, pass the paper again.

For instance, given the sentence in #1, you might draw:

One person's illustration of
"When the family of ducks moved to Mars, they started a strawberry farm."

3.  The third person looks at the picture (and cannot see the original sentence) and writes the sentence that best describes that picture.  One sentence only.   She draws a line under the sentence.  Then she folds the paper back so that only the second sentence is visible.   Ready? Pass the paper.

For instance, seeing the above drawing, you might write:
              Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore!"

4.  The fourth person looks at the sentence which is visible, and draws a picture to best depict that sentence, and folds the paper back so only the picture is visible.  When ready, pass to the next person. 

A drawing of "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore!'"

5. if you are playing with only 4 people, this means that the paper will now pass to the person who wrote the original sentence.  If you have a lot of people, you can go one or two more rounds if you like.   My kids liked to keep passing the paper, even though they knew they were looking at their original sentence.

6.  Now it is time to work backwards to reveal the original sentence, as follows.  One player shows the final picture to all, and guesses out loud what the original sentence might be.  (You could write it down, but usually by this point people don’t want to wait any longer for everyone to write things down.) Then the player unfolds to the previous sentence, then the previous picture, and finally the original sentence.

"When the family of ducks moved to Mars,
they started a strawberry farm."
turns into
"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore!"

7.  Strictly speaking, no words, letters, or numbers are allowed, but we were a little lax on this point.

From this description, it may not seem like this is a hilarious game, but we all laughed hearttily.

Here is a reveal of one we did while we were in Canada:

The final drawing.

Which came from this sentence: "The crowd of zombies cheered and
waved their Jamaican flags as Ed Sheeran took the stage."

Which came from this drawing.

Which was a depiction of this, the original sentence:
"Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men?"

When we played this, I noticed that some people liked to start with ridiculous sentences, such as:
                   A cucumber walks down the road delivering newspapers.
                   Grapes and flowers started sprouting leaves, which then grew out of the cornucopia and strangled John Williams.

Other people like to start with classic sentences or aphorisms, such as:
             A fly buzzed when I died.
             The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
             A penny saved is a penny earned.

Either way, I think the outcome is interesting.  Let me know if you try this game, especially if you have improvements to offer.

"Younger Daughter will be happy when
summer camp begins."
turns into
"Pocahontas' bright idea did not work, and John Smith, who had
 travelled across the Great Sea in two boats, was hung by her tribe."

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
becomes
"More people = heavier = good."