I’m sure someone will tell me this has been done, but having come up with a silly meme idea on Twitter, I was thinking of a game that’s a hybrid between Six Degrees of Separation and Mornington Crescent.
Title: Famous Connections
Objective: To be the last player holding all the chips
Players: Four or more
Materials: Ten chips per player, a designated referee, a timer
Setup: Each player starts with ten chips. All players contribute one chip to the kitty
Gameplay: The player deemed oldest/youngest/tallest/shortest begins the game. The starting player states a famous name from any field, real or fictional. The next player must use part of the previous name to suggest another famous name within a given timescale (30 seconds for adults 60 seconds for children, perhaps). Homophones are allowed.
Example of play: Guy Garvey, Guy Ritchie, Lionel Ritchie, Lionel Blair, Tony Blair, Toni Basil, Basil Brush…
Andrea’s example: Phoebe Bridgers, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fats Waller, Fats Domino, Domino Harvey, Harvey Goldsmith, Jemima Goldsmith, Jemima Puddleduck…
Another example: Finger Bobs, Bob the Builder, Build-a-Bear, Rupert the Bear, Prince Rupert of Hohenzollern-Singmaringen
A successful player takes one chip from the kitty. If unsuccessful, the player forfeits one chip to the kitty. If a player repeats a name or gives a name unrecognized by all other players, they forfeit one chip. If a player cannot think of a name, they forfeit one chip.
Play proceeds clockwise until one player accumulates all chips from the kitty and from other players. If the kitty is empty, a successful play allows the player to take a chip from the next player.
Any player with no chips remaining is eliminated from the game. The referee keeps time and has final say on the validity of plays. The referee may introduce “stop names” (names that halt play), “block names” (names causing a player to miss a turn), and “bonus names” (names rewarding the caller with two chips from the kitty). The referee will have made lists of stop, block, and bonus names in advance of play.
In Andrea’s example above, there would be bonus points for coming up with Phoebe Waller-Bridge after Phoebe Bridgers as it has two “overlaps”.
Optional: Unsuccessful plays may result in amusing forfeits determined by the players.