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Just A Minute

stopwatch
No. of Players: 3+
Type of Game: spoken
What you need: a timer

Goal

To continuously speak for one minute on a chosen subject.

How to play

One player is the umpire and chooses subjects for the other players to speak about for one minute under the following conditions: players must not hesitate, repeat or deviate from that subject. Any player can challenge the speaker if he thinks these conditions have been violated. If the umpire dismisses the challenge, the player resumes speaking. But if the umpire upholds the challenge, the challenger continues the speech on the same subject for the rest of the minute. The winner is the player currently speaking when the minute expires. Players can be awarded points for speaking the entire minute and for successful challenges, and penalized points for unsuccessful challenges.

Other variations of this game include Off The Cuff.

Example

Anderson is elected to be the umpire.

Anderson: The subject is MOWERS. I'm setting the timer for one minute. Go!
Ben: Mowers are used to cut grass. Some mowers collect grass...
Felix: Challenge! I heard a repetition of the word GRASS.
Anderson: Challenge upheld. Felix will continue speaking about mowers. 54 seconds left.
Felix: Some mowers do not have an engine. These are old fashioned... um... they were...
Cyrus: I challenge. Felix is hesitating.
Anderson: Challenge accepted. Cyrus, talk about mowers for the next 41 seconds.
Cyrus: My neighbor keeps his mower in his shed. Every time he takes it out, he bangs the mower against the wall of the shed which always gives me a scare. And you know my doctor told me...
Danielle: I challenge, he is talking about himself and his doctor, and deviating from the subject.
Anderson: Accepted. Danielle, you have 23 seconds.

And so on.

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