Games
Games and warm-ups
Pick by what your group is failing at, not by what everyone enjoys. Every entry says what it actually trains.
Suggested warm-ups Crowd favorites Great for beginners Listening clinic Scene surgery Harold night
All Warm-ups Agreement and listening Scene work Short-form games Group and opening games
Warm-ups
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Zip Zap Zop
A circle warm-up in which a clap and a word are passed by direct eye contact, accelerating until it collapses.
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Pass the Clap
Two players clap in perfect unison, then the clap travels around the circle. Simultaneity matters more than speed.
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Count to Twenty
The group counts to twenty aloud with no order and no plan. Two voices at once means starting again.
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Mind Meld
Two players say a word simultaneously, then keep saying words suggested by both previous words until they land on the same one.
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Red Ball
Imaginary objects with names, weights and sizes are thrown around a circle, each one confirmed aloud on receipt.
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Sound Ball
An imaginary ball is thrown with a sound attached; the catcher repeats the sound exactly, then throws with a new one.
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What Are You Doing?
One player mimes an activity while naming a completely different one, which the next player must then mime.
Agreement and listening
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Yes, Let's
Anyone proposes an activity, the whole group shouts "yes, let's!" and immediately does it with their whole body.
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One Word Story
A group tells a single coherent story contributing one word each, with no pauses and no ungrammatical sentences.
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Three-Line Scenes
Scenes exactly three lines long, run in rapid succession, to isolate the moment a scene becomes about something.
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Gibberish Translation
One player speaks only gibberish, a second translates, and a third responds normally.
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Mirror
Two players move in perfect unison with neither leading, so an observer cannot tell who initiates.
Scene work
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Status Cards
Players wear an unseen playing card on their forehead and are treated by everyone else according to its value.
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Emotional Replay
The same scene, with identical dialogue, replayed under different dominant emotions.
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Building the Room
A single performer establishes an entire room through object work alone, with no dialogue, and the group afterwards describes what they saw.
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The Ding
A coach rings a bell on any weak, hedged or evasive line, and the player must instantly replace it.
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Tag Run Drill
A pattern is established in a two-person scene, then tagged repeatedly to produce eight or more escalating instances of the same idea.
Short-form games
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Freeze Tag
Anyone may freeze a scene, replace a player in their exact position, and justify that position with an entirely new scene.
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Questions Only
A scene in which every single line must be a question. Anything else eliminates the player.
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Party Quirks
A host must guess the audience-supplied peculiarity of each guest arriving at their party.
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Alphabet Game
A scene in which successive lines begin with successive letters of the alphabet.
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World's Worst
Given a category, players step forward one at a time to deliver the worst conceivable example in a single beat.
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Sit, Stand, Lie Down
Three players perform a scene in which one must always be sitting, one standing and one lying down.
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Story Story Die
A line of players tells one story, each speaking only while pointed at, and eliminated for hesitating or repeating.
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Two-Headed Expert
Two players share a single character, speaking one word each, while a third interviews them about their field of expertise.
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Genre Replay
A scene is played once straight, then replayed in different genres called out by the host or audience.
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Late for Work
A player who left the room must discover, from mimed clues, the three reasons the audience decided they were late.
Group and opening games
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Pattern Game
From one suggestion, the group speaks free associations aloud, building chains of words and images with no scenes.
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Invocation
The group explores a single word in escalating stages, from third-person description through to speaking as the thing itself.
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Group Monologue
The whole group speaks as a single first-person narrator, one sentence at a time, telling one continuous account.