Punchlines
| No. of Players: | 3+ |
| Type of Game: | spoken |
| What you need: | nothing |
Goal
To end a story with a given punchline.
How to play
One player is elected gamemaster and selects a punchline for each of the other players. These punchlines are then told to the players, either out loud so that all players hear them, or whispered to each player privately. The first player starts to tell a story with the goal of reaching their punchline. But after a short while the gamemaster interrupts and has the second player continue the story. This second player also has the goal of reaching their own punchline. But before that is possible the gamemaster interrupts and passes the story to the next player, and so on. In this way tension is created: while the gamemaster attempts to frustrate the players from reaching their punchlines, each player attempts to steer the story so that they can satisfactorily conclude it with their punchline. The first player to reach their punchline wins that round and becomes the next gamemaster to select punchlines for the other players. The player with the most winning rounds is crowed the champion.
Example
Anthony the gamemaster gives Barbara the punchline "So there I was standing in the middle of the dance floor wearing only a bouquet of balloons" and Carson the punchline "And you thought llamas had just a pretty face." Barbara begins:
| Barbara: | I was in the limo driving towards our high school gym with my date. My prom dress wasn't fitting very well and I worried... |
| Anthony: | Stop. Carson, please continue. |
| Carson: | ...that the zookeeper wouldn't come through for us. "I paid him enough," I thought, "This guy better show up..." |
| Anthony: | Stop. Barbara? |
| Barbara: | ...We got there faster than I expected. Inside I saw all my friends and started to walk over but... |
| Anthony: | Stop. Carson? |
| Carson: | ...I saw the zookeeper across the gym motioning to me to come over. He led me back into the locker room and sure enough he pulled through: there was a llama standing next to the coach's office chewing... |
| Anthony: | Barbara? |
| Barbara: | ...a football jersey. But I guess my prom dress looked more appetizing, so the llama strips it off me, I start running, naked, through an exit door but not before I grab a handful of decorations. So there I was standing in the middle of the dance floor wearing only a bouquet of balloons! |
| Anthony: | Congrats! You're the next gamemaster. |
