Univocalics
| No. of Players: | 1+ |
| Type of Game: | written |
| What you need: | pen and paper |
Goal
To write something using only one vowel.
How to play
A univocalic is a type of constrained writing which deliberately uses just one vowel of the alphabet. This is theoretically easier to do with some vowels than with others, due to the fact that some vowels appear in more words than others. Roughly speaking, here is the frequency ranking of vowels in the English language (note: vowels to the left appear more frequently in words than vowels to the right):
E A O I U
This means it should be harder to write sentences using vowels more to the right than to the left.
Gamemasters challenge themselves and/or others to write a sentence or two using just a single vowel. For added fun, a particular topic can be set, as well as a time limit. The first player to complete this task, or to write something the gamemaster judges is the most coherent, gets to choose the next lone vowel, as well as to set other rules as desired.
For a similar word game, see Lipograms.
Example
Aaron tells the players they have 5 minutes to write a single sentence on a topic of their choosing. But they can only use the vowel O. The player with the longest sentence, by letter count, will become the next gamemaster.
| Benny: | I go for mommy or Bobby to Oslo to look for food. |
| Cecilia: | Good Otto dons cool Oxfords on old snow. |
The final letter count is 37 to 32 in favor of Benny.
