Fictionary – A Fun and Free Game for Bloggers

When the Turkey has been consumed tomorrow and you feel the grip of a tryptophan induced torpor (yes, I know that’s an urban myth) and you are afraid you might actually have to talk to your relatives then it is time for parlor games. What? You forgot to bring any games. Here is a game you can play with only a dictionary and a group of creative people (Aunt Nell can just watch).

Fictionary – noun

In this game each person takes a turn being the person who finds an obscure word in the dictionary. You know the kind of word I mean. It is the sort of word that leaves you saying “why do we even need a word for that?”

They write the correct definition on a piece of paper. Everyone else is told the word but not the true definition. They write what they think the word means, or ,better yet, they write a definition they think they can convince the other players is the correct definition. Everyone hands in their papers to the player who knows the definition. The “Word Knower Person” (WKP for short) then shuffles all of the pieces of paper, numbers them and then reads the definitions. Each player except the WKP then writes down which definition they think is the real definition. The WKP then reads through the definitions again and tallies the vote.

1) Each player who votes for the correct definition gets a point (whether it was written by the WKP or another player)

2) Each player who writes down the correct definition gets a point

3) Each player who has someone vote for their definition gets one point per player they fool

The role of the WKP then passes to the player to the right of the WKP and the next round commences. Play stops when every player has had a chance to be the WKP. The person with the high score wins.

The fun part of this game in an imaginative group is the wacky definitions that get created. One nice benefit is that you also walk away having learned a few new words. Playing this game I learned:

kakistocracy – noun

Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. Now see if you can avoid using that in your political blog.

remoulade – noun

A type of marmalade made with kumquats. Oops, one of the dangers is that you may remember the word but not the real definition.

For those people who would rather have someone else find obscure words they can either buy the board game Balderdash which is the commercial version of this game or check out the website World Wide Words where I found winning words like: Bloviate, Balductum, Deipnosophist, Ignivomous and Mutoscope.