Pattern Game

Players stand in a U-formation. They take the suggestion. One at a time, in any order, the players free-associate away from the suggestion and back three times. As they do it, the team tries to develop ideas or themes for scenes.

Example: Audience suggests "ice cube." The team might associate this way:

• ice cube
• scotch
• advertising executive
• 1950s New York
• double-breasted suit
• living in the past
• FDR Halloween costume
• Toy wheelchairs
• grounded
• rinse your mouth out with soap
• ice cube

And repeat twice more.

Some refer to the concept of circuitously exploring the idea of a word and making it back to the original word as "drawing a cloverleaf". In the above example, the journey from "ice cube" through each associated phrase and back to "ice cube" could be visualized as the drawing of a single leaf. Repeating this two or three more times, always using "ice cube" as a center point" could be visualized as a clover with a few different leaves.

Variations

A lot.