TeleFictionary and the Festival of Lights

I had some folks over for a Chanukah celebration last week. As a result, the apartment smells like latkes. But more importantly, I had a new stack of TeleFictionary papers to scan!

We started off as a group of five, but a couple of stragglers joined us later in the evening, bumping us up to seven. Included in the mix were a couple of non-native English speakers, at varying levels, which added an extra, welcome element of interpretation.

A great night with some great results, which you can see after the jump, along with a shout-out to our friend Meli, who wasn't able to join us. Click on the pictures to enlarge them if you find yourself squinting.  (FYI, a couple of the rounds are a little NSFW).

But first, it appears that the War on Christmas continues to rage:

When you're even, it's a draw

A few months ago, I had some people over for a slumber party. Of course, we inevitably sat down for a few rounds of TeleFictionary. There was a complication, however. We were a group of six.

The number of participants impacts how the game is played. If you have an odd number of people, you start with a sentence and you end with a sentence. As customary in the Telephone games of yore, this allows you to compare where you started to where you ended. Input and output. But if you have an even number of people, you start with a sentence and end with a picture. This isn't a disaster; it's just apples and oranges (which, by the way, are comparable...).

One solution is to stop at the last sentence before the paper makes it back to its starting point. Basically, that's playing as though you had an odd number of people. For the mathy types out there, if your group has n people, and n is an even number, you can play as though your group had n-1 participants. Given our group of six, we could have played as though we had five people.

Another solution is to just end with a picture. After all, you still get the same last sentence; you just get a bonus picture! No harm in that! So we decided to end with pictures at the slumber party.  Often, the bonus picture added something nice to the rounds.

More highlights from the slumber party after the jump....

Palindrome or Flatline?

Every so often, whether you're playing telephone or TeleFictionary, something happens.  When you get to the end, you're right where you started!  The input and the output are the same.  Nothing has changed.

In a game of telephone, that's a telephone FAIL.  But in TeleFictionary, it could either be a palindrome or a flatline.

In a palindrome, the interpretations drift away from the original sentence, only to return by the end.  The palindrome can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top without any significant difference.

In a flatline, nothing ever moves.  The interpretations never really change.  The beginning, middle, and end are the same.

Here's an example of a palindrome.  
(note: Colbert is the family cat.  Snaggletooth is a local stray with extra toes.  They're both all black)

I've posted a couple of Telefictionary Flatlines after the jump.

Mother's Day 2010: You had to be there.

The wind howled

The sky was grey

The temperature dropped

on Mother's Day.

So we played games inside. I finally introduced my family to TeleFictionary! There were five of us. Because we only went around once, our games were short and quick.

Convincing my mom to play was a triumph. She inherited atrocious drawing skills from her father; a family round Pictionary was always hilarious for the rest of us but humiliating to her. But TeleFictionary is not about winning. It's not about getting things right. There is no wrong or right.

In the end, the funniest and best results always came from the games in which Mom drew a picture. That's when interpretations would diverge wildly. Take, for example, this round.  Mom drew the first picture.

Other highlights after the jump.