by Star Gal
(USA)
This game is called Leminitions, which comes from the art of lemming, or taking from another.
This game is fun because it's all about being creative, fun, and even silly. It's ideal for quick thinkers and excellent lemmers (in other words, good liars).
The game is usually played individually, but it could just as easily be set up in teams. It's best suited for adults, probably more for a party or social get together. All you need to play is paper or something to write on. There is some minor preparation that one person who acts as host must do, but if they are quick thinkers, they could probably come up with the needed words to play the game within 15 or 20 minutes.
Game play is usually anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, but that is easily modified to fit a person's timetable. The basic play has the host presenting a word to the players. It's best to have the word written out, on a computer monitor, TV, chalk board, large notepad, or whatever. This word isn't a real word.
It should be some made up concoction that looks and sounds funny like thwapnistic or whambastical or cyabolicalopy. The sillier the word, the more fun the game often is. What happens next is in two parts.
First, the players are given a short amount of time to come up with a definition for the word, usually not more than a minute.
Second, all of the definitions are revealed to everyone in the room. That usually brings on chatter and laughter. Then people vote for their favorite definition. They are given less than a minute to review and write down their answers. Then the reveal is ordered.
Each vote is a point. At the end of the game, the person with the most points (votes) is named the biggest lemmer and winner of the game. This could be turned into a team game if there were many people at a party, or it could be played in pairs. It's also ideal for a chat room in which the word is given, an 'enter leminitions' command is given, and then a 'stop'. Time for people to scroll up and review the answers would be provided, and then a 'vote now' command for people to vote for their favorite answer.
Now in reality, that's how I first played the game and part of where the name comes from is that if you couldn't think of your own answer, you could try to copy someone else's (and therefore 'lem' from them), if you could get the answer in before the 'stop' command. That's because if more than one person has the same answer (definition), they'd both (or all) get the points given by the voters.