so the long drive from cincy back to pensacola drove us to playing the ABC game, much as we used to do with youth groups on the way to camps, retreats, concerts, etc.
“yes, yes, but how does one play?” you may be wondering.
it’s simple.
each individual starts with the letter A and, using anything OUTSIDE of the car, van, or bus you’re riding in, finds a word that begins with that letter before moving on to the next letter in the alphabet. each word can only be used once, so the trick is to be the first to say the word and the letter. the person that gets through the entire alphabet first wins!
so, for example: lise and i are driving down the road and she sees a car with an Alabama license plate. she says, “Alabama, A.” and then moves on to B. because i didn’t say it first, she gets the A. i might see a street name “Anandale St.” and a Buick with California plates and if i can say them all fast enough, “Anandale, A; Buick, B; California, C” then i get the three of them. but if lise needs the C and she calls california first, she gets it and i’m still stuck on C.
other rules:
- INFERRED words don’t count. if i see an Audi and know it’s an Audi but don’t see the word “Audi” on the car? can’t use it.
- Initials don’t count (unless you agree to it at the beginning – CDL Trucking can’t be used for C).
- Distracting an opponent in the hopes that they won’t see a letter / word they are looking for is perfectly acceptable.
- X is a somewhat difficult word – in the past we have allowed that as long as the letter X is IN the word somewhere, it counts. Z can also be included in this rule.
- Petty bickering over who said it first is counterproductive, as the point of the game is to a) have fun and b) kill time. the bigger the group, the more difficult it is to avoid petty bickering, but appoint a referree just in case.
- Restroom breaks generally bring a time-out in the game.
- Writing a word on a piece of paper and sticking the paper out the window probably warrants a penalty of some sort. it’s not acceptable, at any rate.
because we didn’t make the X or Z exception, our game went on for hours, with my winning at approximately 11:30pm in Century, FL as we drove through a School Zone. lise was napping.
Thanks for clearing that up. I was wondering since yesterday.
There should definitely be a rule against snagging words while your opponent is napping. The word out the window thing is brilliant!
Question regarding “Other rules”:
Where do you stand on playing defense? Example: Two players are playing by the standard rules, when Player 2 starts taking the lead and gets hung up on the letter U. Player 1 is patiently waiting to spot a Q when P2 shouts, “Q- quality!†and claims that P1 can’t use that word because it has already been used, when in fact, it really was not used for anything.
What is your take on “blocking†words?
JP, i have two answers for you:
first, i think that blocking / playing “defense” is unnecessary, as the Q, X, and Z words, among others, are naturally hard to come by, making blocking simply punitive and possibly inflaming what should be a relatively fun game.
second, the beauty of this game is: you can make up your own rules. if blocking sounds like fun and can be done without making the game unpleasant, by all means, do it.
none of the games i’ve played in years of youth ministry come with hard and fast rules – there are some that SEEM like they should, but students are quite creative when it comes to making up new / better rules. :-) go with it!
Hi Rusty,
As person #2 mentioned in JP’s comment below, I want to clarify that we are both in our late twenties, and college educated. Also Person #2 in the scenario was also the driver and eating a blizzard from Dairy Queen. I think in a normal game (you know, ages 18 and under) defense may not have its place but we were well into our second round and there were plenty of signs.
Later in the same game I was also called for a violation on a sign i could see but couldn’t necessarily read. It was a work zone sign and I knew what it said but couldn’t necessarily make it out.
Thanks for the great story, it was hilarious to find it the next day after playing two competitive rounds.
Oh and let the record show, Person #2 won both games.
hah – this is excellent!
is JP trying to get me to say that the defense play is illegal so he can nullify your wins, JY? don’t let him do it (although i will state for the record that you should have called this as part of your rules before playing – the ABC game isn’t like Quarters where you add rules as you go along…)
Hello Rusty,
I agree that the rules should be laid out prior to playing. excellent point. I did this when I suggested we play the game and by game 2 JY was cheating which is interesting since he had never played before. This IS NOT quarters, JY!
Thanks Rusty!
JP (is a she btw)