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I'm a big fan of killing time on long drives with friendly word games. One of my favorites is a mix between rhyming and square theory. Here's how it works: one
by kelseyfrog 1y ago
I'm a big fan of killing time on long drives with friendly word games. One of my favorites is a mix between rhyming and square theory. Here's how it works: one player picks two words that rhyme perfectly. Then, for each of those words, they choose a clue word, usually a synonym, but any kind of related word is fair game. They say those two clue words out loud, and the other players have to guess the original rhyming pair.
What makes it fun is trying to reverse-engineer the original rhyme from the clues. It's like solving a little logic puzzle. It's easy to come up with new puzzles, but cracking them can be surprisingly tricky. Still, the structure gives just enough to keep it solvable most of the time.
1. Somewhat described here https://bestlifeonline.com/jeopardy-rhyme-time-opera-version-clue/ https://bestlifeonline.com/jeopardy-rhyme-time-opera-version... It's actually quite difficult to find a description of the category many of us are already familiar with.
- cooperaustinj 1y agoDo you know any unfriendly word games I can try?
- kelseyfrog 1y agoYou could add the additional constraint that the words have to insult the guesser based on their unique psychological vulnerabilities. Hope that helps!
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- stronglikedan 1y agoPerhaps give the Argument Clinic a call.
- hypertexthero 1y agoFYI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_Clinic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_Clinic
- deadbabe 1y agoFreestyle rap battles
- kragen 1y agoYou're right, that's the canonical unfriendly word game!
- kragen 1y agoPosting on HN counts.
- Someone 1y agoReminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang: “The construction of rhyming slang involves replacing a common word with a phrase of two or more words, the last of which rhymes with the original word; then, in almost all cases, omitting, from the end of the phrase, the secondary rhyming word (which is thereafter implied)”
- jamiek88 1y agoYep, ‘that’s pony’ means ‘that’s crap’. From pony and trap. You omit the actual word that rhymes. Nice whistle mate! (I like your suit, from whistle and flute). It’s fun to figure them out.
- finnh 1y agoMy family calls that game "pink mink"!
- jacobolus 1y agoAs far as I know the most common name is "hink pink", if anyone wants to look this up (or sometimes "hinky pinky"). Here's a 1981 book, https://archive.org/details/hinkpinkbookorwh00burn/ https://archive.org/details/hinkpinkbookorwh00burn/ and here's a short description from the 50s, https://archive.org/details/realbookofgames0000unse/page/134/mode/2up?q=%22hink+pink%22 https://archive.org/details/realbookofgames0000unse/page/134... Searching further, apparently Hink Pink was the name of an 18th century pirate ship; I'm not sure if there's a relation to the game. According to this 1941 Life Magazine issue, teenage girls in Atlanta were making up rhyming pairs like this at the time under the name "stinky pinky". https://archive.org/details/Life-1941-01-27-Vol-10-No-4/mode/2up?q=%22stinky+pinky%22 https://archive.org/details/Life-1941-01-27-Vol-10-No-4/mode... Webster's Dictionary from the 60s has the game listed under that name, https://archive.org/details/webstersthirdnew0000phil_l0b1/mode/2up?q=%22stinky+pinky%22 https://archive.org/details/webstersthirdnew0000phil_l0b1/mo... and that name also seems to continue to today, e.g. by the radio show Loveline.
- kelseyfrog 1y agoThank you! What a fantastic find. This is exactly the kind of book I would have checked out at the library as a child. It's possible I found this decades ago and the origin of how I learned this game was lost to time :)
- staffordrj 1y agoI made a daily game version of this https://rystaf.github.io/hinklepinkle/ https://rystaf.github.io/hinklepinkle/
- sings 1y agoLove the idea but today’s was not a good one.
- 1y ago
- gostsamo 1y agoMy personal recommendation is this game1. Not for travel, but a very good in forcing interesting associations and making you mad at your partner, which is a certified sign of a good game. 1 https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/178900/codenames https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/178900/codenames
- gms7777 1y agoIf you like codenames, you might also enjoy decrypto [1], it scratches a very similar part of my brain. There's a set of secret words, and the codemaster needs to give clues that are specific enough that if you know the secret words, you can make the connection, but vague enough that you can't guess the secret words. [1] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/225694/decrypto https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/225694/decrypto
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- vunderba 1y agoOur family plays "Match Three" during long drives where one person comes up with three words and whoever correctly answers with a word that can complete or precede any of them becomes "it" and chooses the next set. Homophones and proper nouns are considered acceptable. So for example: (Fox, Lone, Crossed) The answer would be: Star Star Fox - a well known rail shooter originally on the SNES Lone Starr - the only man who would dare give a raspberry to Dark Helmet Star Crossed - a Shakespearean reference to two people whose relationship is doomed
- kelseyfrog 1y agoLove it! Does the person who comes up with three words have the connecting word in mind from the beginning, or no?
- vunderba 1y agoThanks yeah it's a very fun game! When you're creating a new "match three" on the fly, I find it's easiest to start with a common word and work your way backwards until you've got three that fit. There have been occasions where the answer was not the intended one, but it still fits all three and that's considered fair game!
- kindkid 1y agoFor example: "out fox", "loan out", and "crossed out"?
- bdr 1y agoStinky Pinky! https://www.nosupplies.com/play/stinky-pinky https://www.nosupplies.com/play/stinky-pinky
- Agentlien 1y agoA few years ago I did something similar in a group chat with some friends. No rhyme, but video game titles reworded using rough synonyms. Here are some examples with answers in rot13: Strange, this reunion = Zntvp gur Tngurevat Boat pork refuge = Nexunz Nflyhz Donkeybutt taverns gospel = Nffnffvaf Perrq Caring for the elderly = QBGN Belongs to me create = Zvarpensg Superclock = Birejngpu Top Stories = Ncrk Yrtraqf Skyline no morning = Ubevmba Mreb Qnja
- KolibriFly 1y agoThat game sounds like a total brain teaser in the best way
- ahazred8ta 1y agoPhilip K. Dick's word game had gems like "The male offspring in addition gets out of bed. By serious constricting path." (earnest hemming way)