So-Called “Rules” of the Games

This is an excerpt from a collection of Surrealist Games that I put together. It is titled, “THIS IS NOT A BOOK”, which I think is peachy and clever. Well, sorta clever. At any rate, this is the so-called “glossary”, at the back of the book – under the heading ‘Yes, But What Does It All Mean?’. Also clever! Ah ha!

A, B, C: Each line begins with the sequential letter of the alphabet. It works best if you stick to a theme. Try foreign/nonsense alphabets too!

ADD ONE/CHANGE ONE: Easy-as-pie. Each writer has the option of adding, changing or deleting a word – or even rearranging the entire sentence. Like most of our games, it works best when it stays a complete sentence.

ACRONYMS: Begin with a random word (‘ILL’) and discover what it is an acronym for (i.e., ‘immortal love lasts’). The last word in the line (’lasts’) becomes the next acronym to unravel (i.e., ‘let a stupid tart sing’). Repeat.

CONSPIRACY: Very loose structure here. Take a subject (JFK) and connect them to something/someone else (Cthulhu). The next writer connects the last subject (Cthulhu) to someone/something else. Each writer add to the ever-growing spider-web of connections.

HAIKU: Following the ‘classic’ 5-7-5 syllable structure, each author fills in their line, while only seeing the previous one. Absurd and unpredictable.

LETTERS: The writers compose a letter, where each person may only add three words at a time.

OPPOSITES: The simplest of our games? Each person writes the opposite of the previous line, in any sense they wish. Literally, figuratively, contrarily… whatever works.

Q & A: This is a “full-blind” game. The first person writes a question, then folds the paper back so the next person cannot see it. Each subsequent writer answers the question they did not see, then writes a new question. This is the trickiest game to pull off well, but when it works – wow – it really works.

There are, of course, other games – some with even more bizarre rules. That’s really why I didn’t list them; the work-to-reward ratio was skewed towards suck.