Sunday, March 30, 2008

Ultimate Pictionary

I finally got to play a game with some friends tonight who have raved about playing it before.  They call it "Ultimate Pictionary."  While I have no idea where this idea actually originated, it's brilliant.  In short, each player gets a number of scrap pieces of paper (this number is equal to the number of players; 6 players -> 6 pieces of paper for each player per round).  Each player writes something (anything, really: a name, a movie title, a person, a book title, a phrase, anything) on the first piece of paper in the stack.  Everyone then passes their stack (at this point just the first paper has anything on it) to the left.  Now, each player reads this new card and, on the next paper in the stack, draws a representation of what was written on the first paper.  Next, pass the stacks to the left again.  Now, each player looks at the drawing on the top paper (but not at the first paper!), and writes, on the next paper (which is blank), what he or she thinks the drawing is describing.  Play continues like this, alternating back and forth between writing a word-based description and drawing a visual representation of the words.  Ideally, this game is played with an odd number of players, so that by the end of each round, each player has a stack that begins and ends with a set of words - it just finishes off nicely this way.  Regardless of how many players are playing, each round is over when the players all have their own stacks back in their hands.  Each person then goes through their stacks, showing or reading each paper aloud.  There is no scoring and there is no winner; it's just super-fun to see what happens to the original words or phrases.  It's sorta like Pictionary meets telephone.  Please see the following seven frames for an example of how one hilarious round might transpire.

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3 comments:

CM said...

Fantastic, we must indulge in this game sometime!! Loved how it ended up! Enjoy your break!

hmills96 said...

DEMON PIG!!!!!!! Now you understand why I wanted to play so badly, this is my favorite game ever. It's really great for breaking the ice or awkward moments, for example, when you have some stranger staying in your house, because you do not have to know the person to have a blast!

Angela said...

Does it strike you funny to know who reads your blog? :-) Anyway, wanted to say that this game seems absolutely positively FUN, and I plan to incorporate it into some of our family gatherings in the future. :-) AND..I might even use it as an icebreaker for one of my project teams at work. What fun!