::i type like i'm trying to create anagrams. ~ kaleidoscope house
shiveringnaked.org

every time i play these games, mostly from a little book called "a book of surrealist games" where all the examples had to be translated from french, the people around me go, "wow! that was really cool! you should put that on a web page!"

i guess i'm eager to please.

there are a few games that we play. they almost always involve writing words down and usually folding the paper so they're hidden.

  1. the exquisite corpse: players write down a word that is an agreed-upon part of speech, fold the paper so it is hidden, pass the papers on in a circle, and write another word that is a different agreed-upon part of speech. this continues until the words form a complete sentence. for instance, the example sentence structure in the book was "the exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine". the chunks that make up this sentence are: article + an adjective, noun, verb (conjugated in any tense for a singular subject. must be able to take an object, and include the required preposition if necessary. for instance, "danced with" or "sits upon" or "will throw"), article + adjective again, then a final noun.
  2. questions and answers: this is our favorite, i think. players write down a question in a certain format, to begin. the formats we used required different beginnings to the question: "what is", "why", "when will", "where", etc. then the paper is folded and passed around the circle, and the next person write an answer appropriate to the question format. for instance, the answer to a "why" question would start with "because". when we played this game, the answers were sometimes eerily right-on or insightful.
  3. conditionals: similar to questions and answers. the first player writes a sentence fragment beginning with "if" or "when". the second player writes a sentence in the conditional or future tense. for example, "if octipi wore bracelets, ships would be towed by flies."
  4. opposites: the first player writes a sentence, question, statement, fragment, whatever. the paper is NOT folded, but passed on. the second player writes the absolute opposite of the sentence, phrase by phrase, according to any definition of opposite. the paper is then folded to conceal the first line but not the second. the third player writes the opposite of this visible sentence, and things continue that way as long as is wished. the result sort of reads like poetry.
  5. word association: this is best played spoken. someone says a word, and play moves in a circle, and the next person says that word and another word that the first word calls to mind. the third player repeats only the last word spoken, and associates it with a new word. play tends to go quickly and sometimes there's a tendency to trance out, so it can be kind of triggering and stuff. example: "tree - tree leaves - leaves fall - fall down - down under - under the table - table chair - chair sit... " etc.
  6. storytelling: this is one where the paper is never folded. someone writes down a chunk of a story on a piece of paper then passes it on. we do it usually with a single word (articles such as "a" or "the" don't count), but you can do it with whole sentences, with sentence fragments, whatever. because the paper is always visible, the format doesn't need to be as strictly agreed-upon. people can always self-correct as to grammar and whatnot.

whew! that said, i want to share with you some of our favorite funny/startling/disturbing/surreal/insightful/wacky examples. in no particular order. you'll just have to wade through them all to find the best gems. font styles are consistent; that is to say, a certain font style is used for a certain person, and that style is always used, and different styles are used for each different person. most of these were done by the paradox collective, us the myriad, kaleidoscope house, and darksouls.