G.
Evening Activities
Page 5
G.
31. Vampire
To start, everyone closes
their eyes (vampires roam only at night) and begins to mill around. The
leader should keep participants from colliding with anything but warm,
living flesh and explain that if they get caught by the vampire they will
be transformed into one, too.
However, participants can’t trust the
leader to protect them from the consequences: the leader will surreptitiously
notify one of them that he/she is the vampire and explain how to play
this role.
Like everyone else, the vampire keeps his/her
eyes closed, but when s/he bumps into someone else, there’s a difference.
S/he snatches the person and lets out a bloodcurdling scream. He or she,
no doubt, does the same… (The vampire would be advised to avoid
leaving telltale marks on the necks of her victims.)
The quality of the vampire's performance depends solely on the authenticity
with which s/he executes his/her "snatch and scream".
Any victim of the vampire, becomes a vampire,
too. Once the victim has regained composure, he or she goes back on the
prowl, seeking new victims.
However, the game will not quickly degenerate
into an all-monster convention - for when two vampires "feast"
on each other, they are transformed back into ordinary mortals. The question
is whether the vampires end up neutralizing each other before all mortals
are tainted by the bloodsucking scourge!!
Why not try a little
experiment and see? There’s always hope even in the midst of a bloodcurdling
crowd.
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G.32.
Murder
This
random game can be used to see how the crystallized group feels in a competitive
environment, to help them assess whether they respect and trust each other
in any situation .
Cut out pieces of paper equal to the number
of people in the group. If there are more than ten, break into several
groups and sit on the floor in circles, explaining the rules of the game.
On one piece of paper in each group, place an X (murderer). Fold all the
papers. Each person picks one piece, without letting on if they received
the X.
The person getting the X is the "murderer" and begins killing
off people by winking at them. The object is for the "murderer"
to eliminate as many people as possible without being identified.
A person who is “murdered” must wait a few seconds and then
fall over “dead.” S/he is then out of the game.
If someone who is “alive” thinks
s/he knows the murderer, s/he can “accuse,” but only if s/he
has actually seen the murderer winking at someone. A false accusation
eliminates the accuser.
Review:
How do you feel playing this game?
Do you trust each other?
Are you a group?
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G.33.
Skin the Snake
You
can play this game as a cooperative exercise, but it’s also a great
game to play competitively, as a race between two teams (boys/girls…).
The more the players discover about the fine points of the game, the faster
they’ll get, and vice versa ad infinitum – or at least ad
Olympium.
Each team should have about 20 to 25 players,
lined up one behind the other. Members then reach between their legs with
their left hands and grab the right hand of the person behind them. Meanwhile,
the person in front of them is reaching back to grab their right hand
(which they should offer). Once the chain is formed, they're set to go.
At the starting signal, the last person in line lies down on his/her back.
The person in front of him/her backs up, straddling his/her body, and
lies down on his/her back right behind him/her. (Everyone is all still
holding hands, of course.) This continues as the whole team waddles backwards
down the growing line of prone bodies and slips into place.
When the last person to lie down has touched his/her head to the ground,
s/he gets up and starts forward again, pulling everyone else up and along.
What just got done gets quickly undone as everyone “Skins the Snake.”
When the last person is back on her/his feet and everyone is in the original
chain, still holding hands, get set to run. The winner is the first team
that gets all its members across the point where the head of the line
started.
If anyone breaks hands during any part of this process, you must stop,
go back to that point, and reconnect before proceeding.
Here are
some initial pointers:
Players will be less likely to trip over their team-mates if they all
take off their shoes.
When the line is backing up to lie down, they should bunch close together
so they’re all touching.
To lie down, they should get as close as they can to the person in front
and put their feet close to his/her side with toes pointed in. (Some people
think it’s better to hook one's feet around and on top of the person
in front - check this out, first.)
In the split-second timing, the players at both ends of the line become
all important. The last person to lie down should touch his/her head to
the ground for just an instant, roll back up, and start pulling, being
careful not to break the chain. The last person to get up has to be fast
and agile and have a really good grip.
Should the lightest players be at the ends, or in the middle? Let the
group to experiment with this…
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G.
34. Centering
Have
group members choose partners. They now sit back to back, legs straight
out in front and interlock their arms.
Pushing against each other’s backs, they now try to stand up together
as one unit. The only way to do this is to find their common center.
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G.35.
Photo Match Up
A
good introductory game for a group at a second or third meeting –
or fun for the evening!
Ask all participants
to bring an old picture of themselves to the session. Mix up the snapshots.
Everybody guesses who is whom.
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G.
36. Questions & Answers
Make a "computer"
from a large box. Cut out a monitor space and a slit in the box on either
side. Decorate with magic markers.
The leader puts his or her head inside the computer.
Half the group makes up questions and the whole group holds on to them
afterwards. At the same time, the other half makes up answers (the sillier
the better) and they place them inside the computer.
In turn, each participant slips a question through the slot to the leader,
who reads the question aloud in a simulator voice. The leader then slips
out an answer from the stack of answers - without reading it and the participant
reads the answer aloud. (Or the participant reads the question and the
computer reads out the answer.)
Laugh a lot!
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