Unplug Play

SUBSTITUTE YOUR SENTENCE FOR SOMEONE ELSE’S AND SEE HOW MANY YOU CAN FOOL!

Each player takes a separate piece of paper, writes his or her name at the top, and makes a numbered list from 1 to however many players there are in the game. (For example, if there are six players, you should have numbers 1 through 6 written vertically down your paper with enough room to write a sentence next to each number.)

Each player should tear or cut another piece of paper into equal-size strips (one strip per player in the game) and place them in the middle for all players to use. This should give you enough paper strips to complete one round per player.

Players try to write something that nobody would think they wrote. The player who comes up with the subject substitutes his or her own sentence for one of the other player’s sentences, and everyone has to figure out which sentence was substituted.

Players, starting with Player 1, take turns coming up with an object or person to write about. Player 1 comes up with a subject. Everyone writes a sentence (five to ten words) on the subject, labeled with their name, and hands it to Player 1. Player 1 then substitutes his own sentence for one of the other players’, removing that sentence from the pile. He then writes the name of the person he substituted his sentence for on the substituted sentence paper.

NOTE: The player coming up with the subject and reading the sentences should try to write a sentence which most people would believe was definitely written by the person he is choosing for the substitution.

Player 1 reads the adjusted set of sentences aloud in a random order, along with the name of the player who wrote each sentence (replacing his own name with that of the player whose sentence he replaced).

NOTE: Player 1 doesn’t associate his name with any sentence because he is pretending one of the other players wrote his sentence. Therefore, if there are seven total players in the game, Player 1 will read only six sentences, each one associated with another one of the other six players in the game.

Once Player 1 is done reading all the sentences, the other players must figure out which of the sentences was substituted. Everyone writes down the name of the person whose sentence they feel was substituted, and when pens are down, the guesses are revealed.

IMPORTANT: Obviously, if Player 1 substituted his sentence for Player 2’s, Player 2 will know and write down her own name, but she won’t earn any points for that. Instead, the substituted player will get credit for all the people who were fooled by Player 1’s substitution. Therefore, the substituted player must not give away that her sentence was substituted until after the guesses are made!

The player who comes up with the subject and is responsible for substituting a sentence earns 5 points for every player who is fooled. The player whose sentence was substituted also earns 5 points for every player who guessed wrong.

Finally, each player who did not have his or her sentence substituted has the opportunity to earn 5 points for guessing the correct answer and another 5 points for every player who chose his or her sentence as the one that was substituted.

Let’s say, in a game with five players, Player 1 substituted his sentence for Player 2’s. All the players write down their guesses and then reveal them. One player guessed correctly that the sentence read did NOT belong to Player 2. Two players think (incorrectly) that Player 3’s sentence was substituted. Player 1 does not guess, and Player 2 already knows the answer, so scoring begins. Player 1 and Player 2 both earn 10 points because they fooled two players. The player who guessed correctly earns 5 points. Player 3 earns 10 points because his sentence fooled two other players.