Game Hybrids: One That Actually Works

[imported from 4/15/08]

Though frequently a barrel of titters on their own, some parlor games often seem to lack a crucial element or two that keeps them from being completely awesome. Oftentimes it's easy to correct this; as long as there's enough alcohol in the house, and the game provides enough suitable cues for drinking. However, it's not a cure-all; Monopoly and Life suck no matter what you're sipping on; and you can only spill crappy wine on your friend's Betrayal at House on the Hill board so many times before he bans liquid from the table during play entirely. Besides, there are so many fun games out there that it stands to reason that hybrids of the favorites will be even better than the sum of their parts. Unfortunately, it's actually not that easy to successfully incorporate Taboo's buzzer element into the too-quiet, drawn-out turns of Scrabble; but do not despair! Because as it turns out, there are two old favorites that can be stitched together and shocked into life as the hot monster known as TELEPHONE PICTIONARY!

Now, my idea of a good time is anything involving either misinterpretation or doodling, and Telephone Pictionary brings both of these to the table in a whirl of a good time. For those of you who have never experienced this immaculate hybridization, here are the rules:

Players: Four or more, though things start to get out of hand at around nine players.

Materials: A stack of notecard-ish sized pieces of paper. Every player gets a stack whose number is determined by how many people are playing. i.e., if there are six people playing, each player gets six sheets of paper.

Setup: Number each sheet in your stack. Then on the first one, write a phrase or sentence. Song lyrics, sayings, quotes, or random thoughts are all fine.

Play: After writing the sentence, each player passes their stack of papers clockwise. Upon receiving their new stack, each player reads the phrase on page one, moves page one to the bottom of the stack, and on page two, attempts to draw the phrase or sentence as best as possible.
When finished, that player leaves their drawing on top of the stack, and passes their stack to the right again, and the next player has to interpret the drawing as a sentence on page three. That player then moves the drawing to the bottom of the stack -leaving their sentence on top- and passes it again. Repeat passing the paper, alternating between writing a sentence or drawing, until the paper comes back to its originator. Leaf through your stack and have a hearty HAR at how your sentence changed as it was interpreted and re-interpreted by your fellow players.

Strategy: There is no way to win or lose, but there is a way to maximize hilarity in my opinion. 

1. Some phrases are pretty easy to represent visually, and tend to make it through the filter of players without much change. For instance, things like “Raining cats and dogs” and “Stop in the name of love” are likely to come back to their originator largely unscathed. And that is hardly a laugh at all, so what I prefer to do is-

2. Choose a phrase that you know will be very hard and see what fundamental truth you get about the universe. “Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire!” came back as "A True Catholic Sister Will Burn Your Balls Off". See? Words to live by!
Phrases involving colors are to be avoided, since it's pretty impossible to actually draw a color. And just like in regular Pictionary, the use of letters and numbers is not allowed.
Still not enough for you? Make it a drinking game. After all, it's not Monopoly.