Play With Me!

"The word is... shine! Go!"

"May it be an evening star shines down on you..."

"Your turn!"

"Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on me!"

"I am like a star shining brightly, smiling for the whole world to see."

"Oh! How about... what's the one... I can see the lights in the distance, shining..."

"Um, are those the right words?"

"Yes. Don't question the words. Your turn."

"Um... I got nothing... anyone else?"

"I can't remember the tune..."

"Oh, how does that one go, you know, 'Shine on, shine on..."

"Time! Roll the die."

"Two."

"And your word is... boy!"

"I'm goin' to me school, says the wee boy and still he stood."

"Just remember what your old pal said, boy..."

"Your turn!"

"Um..."

"Though a boy I may appear, yet a man I soon will be..."

"Good job! That was close. Your turn!"

"Oliver, Oliver, never before has a boy wanted more."

This is my most favorite game in the entire world.

Okay, so maybe that was slight exaggeration. But really, I love this game. Whoever invented it has my undying affection, and whatever made my parents buy it must have been nothing less than a benevolent spirit.

It is... Encore! *triumphant fanfare*

Here's the basic rundown: there are two teams. One team rolls the die and moves their piece to one of the colored spots on the board. The color tells them which color word they will have. For example, some of the teal words are 'break,' 'game,' 'valley,' 'midnight,' 'air,' and 'someone.' That team has 30 seconds to come up with eight consecutive words of a song that include the word on the card, as shown above. Once they have their song, the other team has 30 seconds to come up with another song that has that word. It goes back and forth until one team can't think of another song, and then the other team gets to roll.

Skeptical, are you? Well, this is one of those things where you have to try it before passing judgement. I have pressed on about five different gatherings in the past few months, and four of them loved the game so much that they didn't want to stop playing until their brains died. Which, you know, happened, but that's okay. You can only think of so many songs before the brain revolts. Fortunately, brains are usually good for over an hour of play when it comes to this game.

And it is fun. Oh, is it fun. Even those who are thinking, 'but I don't sing...' would have fun. We don't care if you can't sing, we just want to hear eight consecutive words in some semblance of a tune. Many, many good singers can sound bad/mess up the tune with only eight words to sing. Myself included.

So here's the deal. You plan a party, and if you promise to play Encore, I will show up, bringing the game with me. And come on, who wouldn't want to hang out with me?