Paper games
How to play Consequences, fold, pass, and read it out.
Consequences is an old parlour game played with paper and pencils. Everyone builds a short story in fixed steps, folding the paper after each step so the next player cannot see what came before. Then you unfold and read the results.
You need three or more players, a strip of paper each and a pencil each. A round takes about ten minutes.
The rules
- Hand out paper. Give everyone a long strip of paper (an A4 sheet cut lengthways works well) and a pencil.
- Write the first step. Everyone writes the first step of the order below at the top of their paper.
- Fold and pass. Fold the paper over so your words are hidden, then pass it to the person on your left.
- Repeat for each step. Write the next step on the paper you were given, fold, pass. Carry on until the last step.
- Unfold and read. Pass once more, unfold, and take turns reading your story aloud, adding the linking words (“met”, “at”, “said”).
The classic order
| Step | Write… | Read out as… |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A describing word | “The clumsy…” |
| 2 | A character or famous name | “…Captain Drizzle” |
| 3 | Another describing word | “met the very polite…” |
| 4 | A second character | “…troll” |
| 5 | Where they met | “at the bus stop.” |
| 6 | What the first one said | “Captain Drizzle said…” |
| 7 | What the second one said | “The troll said…” |
| 8 | What happened next | “And the consequence was…” |
| 9 | What everyone said about it | “And the world said…” |
Older versions ask for “a man’s name” and “a woman’s name”. Any two characters work: people you all know, animals, storybook characters or famous people.
A worked example
The wobbly dinosaur met the extremely sleepy lollipop lady at the top of a lighthouse. The dinosaur said, “Has anyone seen my other sock?” The lollipop lady said, “Only on Tuesdays.” And the consequence was they opened a pancake shop on the moon. And the world said, “We knew it.”
Consequences for kids
For younger children, cut it to five steps and let a grown-up read the stories out:
- A funny animal or person.
- Where they went.
- Who they met there.
- What they said.
- What happened in the end.
Children who cannot write yet can whisper their answer to a grown-up, who writes it and folds the paper.
Variations
- Picture consequences: draw a head, fold, then a body, fold, then legs. The drawing version is often called exquisite corpse.
- Sentence consequences: instead of fixed steps, each player writes a whole sentence and folds so only that sentence shows. This makes real stories rather than lists. See the exquisite corpse writing game.
- Themed rounds: all characters must be from fairy tales, or every place must be in your town.
- Classroom version: use the steps to practise speech marks in steps 6 and 7, and cause and effect in step 8.
Characters and places if you get stuck
- crown
- dragon
- wand
- castle
- frog
- potion
- unicorn
- beanstalk
- tower
- goblin
- mermaid
- slipper
- spell
- troll
- wish
- knight
- pumpkin
- mirror
Questions
What is the order in Consequences?
The classic order is: describing word, a name, “met”, describing word, a second name, where they met, what the first said, what the second said, the consequence, and what the world said.
How many people do you need to play Consequences?
Three or more. With two, each player keeps two papers going. It is best with four to eight.
Is Consequences suitable for children?
Yes. Use the five-step version for under-eights and agree that answers are kind. Children usually love the reading-out part most.
What is the difference between Consequences and exquisite corpse?
They are close cousins. Consequences uses fixed steps (names, place, speech, consequence). Exquisite corpse is the name the Surrealists gave to the same fold-and-pass idea, for words or drawings, with more freedom in each step.