Consequences (game)

Consequences is an old parlour game in a similar vein to the Surrealist game exquisite corpse and Mad Libs.^[1]

Each player is given a sheet of paper, and all are told to write down a word or phrase to fit a description ("an animal"), optionally with some extra words to make the story. Each player then folds the paper over to hide the most recent line, and hands it to the next person. At the end of the game, the stories are read out.^[2]

Example game

The exact sequence varies, but an example sequence given in Everyman's Word Games is:^[2]

1. An adjective
2. A man's name
3. The word met followed by an adjective
4. A woman's name
5. The word at followed by where they met
6. The word to followed by what they went there for
7. The words he wore followed by what he wore
8. The words she wore followed by what she wore
9. What he did
10. What she did
11. The words and the consequence was followed by details of what happened as a result
12. The words and the world said followed by what it said

The same reference book gives the following example of a completed story:^[2]

Mediocre Joe met transparent Kim at the bowling alley, to dig for gold.
He wore a seafoam green leisure suit.
She wore a sandwich board.
He poured a martini.
She looked at her watch.
And the consequence was, the band got back together.
And the world said “Somehow, I think I saw this coming.”

Variations

Consequences can also be played in a drawing version, sometimes known as picture consequences, where the first player draws the head, passes it unseen (by means of folding) to the second player who draws the body, then on to the third player who draws the legs. The composite person or creature is then revealed to all by unfolding the paper.^[3]

Although Consequences originally is an analogue game there are digital versions available, some of which are slightly modified and adjusted to a digital roam. Examples: FoldingStory™,^[4] Unfolding Stories,^[5] etc. The game has also been seen as a precursor to computer-generated literature such as Christopher Strachey's Love letter generator M.U.C.^[6]

References

1. "The Happy History of Mad Libs". Archived from the original on March 10, 2008.
2. Brandreth, Gyles (1986). Everyman's word games. Dent. p. 76. ISBN 0460047116.
3. "Perfectly silly party games". 7 April 2015.
4. "FoldingStory | The Group Storytelling Game". foldingstory.com. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
5. "Unfolding Stories". unfoldingstories.app. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
6. Rettberg, Jill Walker (2021-10-02). "Speculative Interfaces: How Electronic Literature Uses the Interface to Make Us Think about Technology › electronic book review". Electronic book review. doi:10.7273/1xsg-nv26. Retrieved 2023-02-05.