Hey, Jomama, at least try and sound interested! But anyway, here's John :
How to play John
Players : normally more than one, although I have had fun playing it alone into a typed document. Two works well, more than four would probably get tedious or too competitive.
Points, if you have to :
Points given for words that make others gasp or giggle or guffaw exceptionally.
Points taken away for repetition (except for a purpose), or for spoiling the fun.
The point : fun of it, not points.
Playing faster is better than playing slower, and too much thinking about it may suit some but …..
One player says a word, any word.
Players then take it in turn (or randomly – depends on how rule-bound you want to be) to say another word (or name, exclamation, etc) that has some / any relation to the previous word. This relation can be, for example but not exclusively :
A synonym or antonym
Something with a related meaning – eg flock ->herd
A pun – eg flock -> herd ->listened (as in heard)
Something with a similar sound, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, etc – eg flock ->herd ->gird or ->inferred or ->harried or ->hired or ->er or ->her, etc
Imaginative wandering is encouraged – eg flock ->herd ->pride (lions) ->fall (comes before a …) ->water, etc. When challenged, a player should be able to justify their imaginative leap.
Backtracking is discouraged – eg flock ->herd ->listened ->shoal ->ear – although twin tracks can be fun, especially with more than 2 players, and the challenge can be to get them to converge again.
Note : we called it John because it was a game without a name and thus was seeking one so we could refer to it.
We knew the (previous) Bishop of Hereford, whose name is John Oliver. This gave us multiple tracks to his name 'John’ :
anything religious at all,
any other word or name that related to it – eg hay ->wain ->John (Wayne),
anything to do with Hereford – eg cow ->John (skipping Hereford),
anything that suggests Oliver – eg twist >John (skipping Oliver Twist),
anything that related to or suggested the names of other members of his family that we knew.
Thus 'John' seemed to become a magnet or attractor within the game willy-nilly. Seemed natural to call the game John.
