Sideline Games (General Category)

Sideline Games are a whole category built around "naive" players — folks deliberately kept in the dark about key parts of the scene. That hidden info gets passed to them through silent mimed clues from assigned "clue-givers." The naive performers have to keep the dialogue flowing, stay in character, and make sense — all while watching, reading, and working in the physical clues coming their way. Often they trade speaking turns in short, timed bursts. It trains you to weave unexpected visual input into your words on the fly, and to justify information that seems to pop up out of nowhere. The clue-givers lean on specific physical signals, usually based on pointing, to communicate without a word.

• Pick the players who'll be "naive" to certain information.
• Assign clue-givers to those naive players.
• Clue-givers offer silent mimed clues.
• Naive players improvise dialogue, working to read and fold in the clues.
• Speaking often passes back and forth between naive players in timed intervals.
• (The specific goals vary by game, often tied to correctly guessing the information.)

• Nothing required, beyond space to perform.

• Foreign Film Dub is a variation of this category.
• Can involve breaking down words into mimed syllables.
• Specific signals are used for pronouns like "I," "you," "he," "she," "them," "us," or "we".