So there's this podcast called Doug Loves Movies in which they play a fun party game called Build-a-Title. He uses movies only, but I think that for NL, both movies and video games should be acceptable. Here's how it works: you take a title, then the next players build onto the beginning or end with other titles, and so on. As long as at least one syllable of the titles overlap (the first/last letter can be excluded if necessary — from "The Secret of NIMH" you could add something that ends with "see" or "seek", or that begins with a "nim" or "imm" sound). So, a game might look like this, with each line representing a new turn:
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight RisIs Anybody There?
Don't be Afraid of the Dark Knight RisIs Anybody There?
And so on. Other rules:
- You can't edit the middle portion, only the ends.
- This is pronunciation-based, not spelling-based. Doug Benson plays with this very strictly, but I think that here it would be more appropriate to be loose and forgiving about it, as this international site comprises so many accents. Nothing crazy though — you couldn't add "Anaconda" to the beginning "A Good Day to Die Hard" to make "AnacondA Good Day to Die Hard" because no one pronounces Anaconda as "Anaconday". Similarly, you could add "The Secret of NIMH" to the beginning of "The Importance of Being Earnest" to make "The Secret of NIMHportance of being Earnest" since the "IMH" in "NIMH" and the "Im" in "Importance" sound the same.
- Beginning articles are optional. You can lop off the "The", "A" or "An" at the beginning of a title if necessary, or use it if you like.
- NO OUTSIDE RESEARCH. I can't stress this enough. It's all gotta come from your own head, or from objects in your general vicinity. No looking on the internet, only through your memories, or your DVD shelf. This is a fun party game, not "Looking things up on the internet: the game".
I think that about covers it. Normally a game ends when the next player can't think of a title, names something incorrectly or guesses something that doesn't exist. I think that here, it would be better to just try to keep it going for as long as we can, with everyone allowed to play in any order... you can't take two contiguous turns, though, of course. If someone names something incorrectly or which doesn't exist, the next person can correct them if it still works, or remove the incorrect addition if it doesn't.
Sound fun? I think so. Let's play! I'll start with something that's easy to build from.
Father of the Bride
