Associations

Associations gives those mental reflexes a good workout as you rapidly fire words back and forth. Associations is a fast paced game of word connections that can often lead to some funny and often strange links between words.

What You'll Need

Two or more players. 

Playing Associations

The first player starts the game by saying a word. The second player immediately follows, without pause or hesitation, saying the first word that comes to mind.

Let's say the first person said "fish". The second may say something like "bowl", "tank", or "water".

If the second person said "water" the third player may say words like "ski", "drink", or "pool". The game continues on with each player taking turns.

If a player says a word that does not have a logical connection to the previous word that player must explain the connection. If players do not agree on the connection to the previous word a group vote is taken to determine if the word will be accepted. For example if a player said "fish" and the next player says "shoe" they would have to justify their word choice.

If they are unable to make a rational justification for the word they are out of the game.

Play continues with the remaining players.

Winning the Game

The last player remaining is the winner.

Variations

Associations is great for younger children, but may be found a bit simple for the older players. The game can be modified slightly to make it more difficult and more exciting. Rather than having the players just say the first word that comes to mind have them also repeat all the previous words in order that came before their word.

Doing this not only adds the challenge of remembering all the previous associations, but it also can become quite comical as players forget previous associations and fill in with words they think make sense.