Consequences

I have been reading the autobiography of the Pullein-Thompson sisters, Fair Girls and Grey Horses. The three sisters, Josephine, Christine, and Diana, wrote a phenomenal number of books between them - somewhere in the order of 170 novels. When I was younger I remember avidly reading everything by the sisters that I could get on my greedy little hands on.

Their writing shaped my 'understanding' that the UK was filled with tweedy Majors on shooting sticks, young, vigorous, blonde haired girls who could ride bareback without fear, and outrageous horse dealers who would swindle the novice new pony owner something wicked.

While reading the Pullein-Thompson autobiography, I ran across a reference to the game of Consequences. I have read the name of this game in the past, but I have never known how it was played. So this time, I Googled it.

Wikipedia rode to the rescue, explaining that "Each person takes a turn writing a word or phrase forming part of a set structure in order to build a story", with each part being written on a printed slip, or each part being written in order on a page, then folded so the next person can't see the answer to the previous part. The parts can apparently vary, but the most common parts construction formula is as follows:

Construction Formula	Example
Adjective for man	Mediocre
Man's name	Joe
Adjective for woman	Transparent
Woman's name	Kim
Where they met	at the Bowling Alley
What they went there for	to plot the overthrow of Stalin
What he wore	a seafoam green leisure suit
What she wore	a sandwich board
What he said to her	“During the last storm, we had a little party in the mud”
What she said to him	“She wasn’t that into me”
The consequence (a description of what happened after)	As a consequence, the band got back together
What the world said	“Somehow, I think I saw this coming”

The story - the 'consequence' is then read aloud as follows:

"Mediocre Joe met transparent Kim at the bowling alley, to plot the overthrow of Stalin.

"Joe wore a seafoam green leisure suit. Kim wore a sandwich board. Joe said to Kim “During the last storm, we had a little party in the mud.” Kim said “She wasn’t that into me.” As a consequence, the band got back together. And the world said “Somehow, I think I saw this coming.”

I think this could be quite fun, although you would need twelve people. I was also thinking that this could work well with cards, or with a phone app where each person entered their answer to each piece, then the interlocutor read the consequence aloud. 

Anyone for a game? 


Sam

References: 

• Pullein-Thompson, C., Pullein-Thompson, D., & Pullein-Thompson, J. (1995). Fair Girls and Grey Horses: Memories of a country childhood. London, UK: Allison & Busby
• Wikipedia (2019). Consequences (game). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequences_(game)