How to Play the Paper Game and Mao

I have no idea who first invented it, but one of the greatest, most entertaining games I've played at a party was entitled The Paper Game (a.k.a. "Eat Poop You Cat," according to Wikipedia), which can't be found in any store.

The game is very simple: gather a group of friends, and give each a blank piece of paper and a pencil. At the beginning, each person has to make up a random sentence and write it at the top of the paper. Once everyone is finished, you pass the paper to your left (or right, depending on how you agree to play.) The next person who receives the paper reads the sentence that was just written, and must draw a picture based on that sentence.

You may ask, "What if I'm not a good artist?" Even better. Like the game "Telephone," the idea of passing sentences around, and drawing pictures, is to distort however the original sentence was written.

After drawing the initial picture, each person in the circle folds over the paper so that the top sentence is hidden. The next person in line then sees only the picture, and must write another sentence based on that. As the game continues, the sentences ideally digress further and further from the original. Finally, when each paper has traveled around the circle once, everyone reads out the initial sentence that they wrote, along with the final result, and (hopefully) hilarity ensues.

I can give you an example. Let's say your first sentence is, "I played baseball at Central Park with my high school classmates." The next person in line would have to try to convey kids playing baseball in Central Park in their picture. Following that, the next person would see only the picture of kids playing baseball, and try to guess what it is. It's entirely possible, however, that the next person might write something like, "Robots are fighting in the park, throwing volleyballs at each other." You can expect the game to go downhill from there.

In one actual game that I played a few years ago, the initial sentence I received read, "The Coalition Against Games Using Pen and Paper objects to this game." Based on that sentence, I attempted to draw a picture of people protesting the game by burning pens and paper. Somehow, after being passed around the circle, the final sentence ended up as, "Marlon Brando was forced to go without booze and pancakes; he was locked in a cage just out of reach of these necessities due to a popular vote."

Among my group of friends, this game reached a level of such popularity that we began saving our favorite rounds of the game, scanning them into our computers, and posting them on Facebook and other social networking sites.

Yet another party game that has lasted through the years, among this specific group of friends, is called Mao. Mao is a card game unlike any other, in that you cannot explain the rules before you play.

Your first question may be, "Wait! How do I play if I don't know the rules?" That's the point of the game. Usually, at least one or two players are familiar with the rules of the game, and all the other players need to work at figuring out the rules and regulations as they go along.

I'll give you the basics, so you won't be completely lost. Players sit in a circle, and the dealer is usually referred to as the "Chairman." The Chairman announces something like, "This is 4-card Mao, dealing to my left." That person then deals four cards to each player, takes the top card off of the deck, and when finished, he says, for example, "If it's Jacks, let it be Spades." The player to his left then has to play the next card, based on the first card dropped.

If anyone breaks one of the rules during play, the Chairman, or someone else familiar with the rules, must penalize them. For example, let's say a player puts down a 5 of Hearts. The Chairman might then say, "Failure to cluck like a chicken," and give the player a penalty card. That player must then figure out why they were supposed to cluck like a chicken.

Any player who manages to get rid of all her cards is declared the winner. For the next round, she is now the Chairman; the new Chairman is allowed to introduce a new rule into the game. In some variations, the Chairman shares her new rule with at least one of the players; other times, the winner does not share the rule with anyone.

Like The Paper Game, this game is definitely not for every crowd. It's recommended that you play with a group who's willing to put in some brainwork and figure out the nuts and bolts of the game. Once you get the hang of it, however, Mao can be great fun.

By the way, it is definitely not recommended that you play this as a drinking game, only because most of the players will be smashed within minutes. On the other hand, alcohol is not necessary for this game to become crazy or funny.

In any case, either of these games will make great activities for a small party, or a casual get-together. I only know because I've played both in numerous different settings, and always enjoyed them.