The "No" Game

Happy Holidays, everyone!

It's been awhile since I've posted but I've been busy. Spending more time learning about film right now but wanted to post something a bit different here.

A Gamut of Games is a book from board game design legend, Sid Sackson. Sid was perhaps best known for his legendary 1964 Acquire, which is one of the deepest, yet simplest, games that I know. A Gamut of Games has many smaller games that can be played with common components like pencil, paper and coins and that didn't warrant a release elsewhere.

One of the games in there is called The No Game and I've been wanting to play it every since I read it. Last night, I had a holiday party at my house here in LA and it was electric. It got guests talking immediately and got even non-gamers quite into the spirit (ie, competitive).

Now Sid didn't design this game, but he has great taste and curated it for his book.

As promised, here is the NO Game (ed - whom did he promise?).

This is not one that I created myself, though I wish I had. It is a great party game, taking fifteen minutes to prepare, one minute to explain, and as much time to play as the guests wish to devote to it.

THE NO GAME

You will need some red ribbon, cut into pieces about an inch long, one for each guest. Mount each piece on an ordinary straight pin and as the guests arrive decorate them with a ribbon.

When the assemblage is complete give them the following speech.

"You are competing to collect the most ribbons, and the way to get ribbons away from an opponent is get him to say No to you. As soon as he utters the forbidden word you can cheerfully swipe all of his ribbons, even if he has a whole chestful.

"Any other form of negation, such as 'Absolutely not!' Drop dead!' or a slap in the face, is perfectly permissible, but once you say No,' good-bye ribbons.

"At the stroke of (fill in as desired) the sneakiest player, who has collected the most ribbons, will be declared the winner and will be suitably rewarded with a lavish prize."

I wanted to add one extra rule/clarification here, in case you'd like to run it:

Players got a bit confused when someone said "no" while talking in a group. If they just said "no" to no one in particular, whom should get the ribbons?

So we changed the rules to needing to say "No" as the first word, in response to a question from someone. That cleared up the problems, even though it means fewer ribbon exchanges.

We also used bobby pins instead of straight pins as they couldn't poke anyone and didn't have to pierce all that nice LA designer-wear that might show up at a party.

It was amazing to see how much positive emotion, conversation and stories were generated from the simplest components and most basic of rules. May it enliven your holiday parties this year!