Great game. Don't know where it came from, cause I can't find it online. I think one of the youngins brought it over, Sim or Ginty or A.j. or Alvy. I only remember playing this game once several years ago, though the memory might be a blur of several times if I was always seated on the same super spot of the same cool couch playing with the same particular people at 60 Eggmont St. I been waiting, over the last few months, for a chance to pull it out again, cause we play far too much asshole and kings, but you can't just pull it out anytime, cause you gotta have a bunch of people, and they gotta be in a giggly mood. And Beirut is a hassle in a country with no 30 packs.
I explained the game to Gedas and Juste, Donkus and Egle, and my special lady. The reaction was typical: oh what a simple game, who could ever make a mistake?! And the game play was typical: it took us probably twenty tries or more to count to twenty, which we only managed once. And by the end of the game two people had passed out. And several of the rules had to be explained again and again. Well, all the rules, since there's only like three of them. Here they are:
1. Everybody sits in a circle and counts off to twenty, one persona at a time, starting at one, and continuing on to another person in the direction indicated by the person touching one of his shoulders.
2. On 8 and 16 you say "octopus" instead of the number and touch both shoulders; on 8 the top arm indicates the counting direction, on 16 the bottom arm.
3. Following 10 and 20 count off follows, just once each to 11 or 21, in the opposite direction of that indicated.
4. If/when the group successfully gets to 21, everybody wins, and the person who got to 21 makes a rule to make the game harder.
That's probably clear to anyone who's played octopus, and completely not understandable if you haven't. Well, that's your problem, you should have played it before reading this post. It was a hilarious game; I'm thrilled that I remembered it. Anybody else remember Octopus?
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3 comments:
I"M SO GLAD YOU POSTED THIS!
I WAS TRYING TO EXPLAIN OCTOPUS TO MY FRIENDS AT THE BAR TWO NIGHT AGO, and we COULDNT" FIGURE IT OUT!
First of all, yes i do remember Octopus.
Secondly i believe i remember when we played for the first time. I'm certain the first time i played was when we visited you in Boston, but as i recall it was the first you played as well. It Daina Slekyte who introduced the game, and although you enjoyed it greatly, and were very excited to start over whenever someone messed up, that someone was fairly often you.
Thirdly i remember some of the rules differently from you. First off on number 16 you don't say octopus, you stay silent. the person has to just look at your hands and realize what's going on. I didn't understand what you wrote about 10 and 20, but as i recall on 10 you are supposed to point to someone and say 10, and they continue as normal hitting a shoulder and saying 11. and on 20 you just point to someone and don't say anything. The person you point to is then supposed to make up a rule, if he says or does anything else like saying 21 or hitting a shoulder you lose. Other than that you had the rules as i remembered them.
4rthly that game was funny, but i when i've played i seem to recall feeling like i wasn't drinking enough. If i wanted to really drink during a drinking game, kings would be better for me. If i just wanted to laugh at people's misfortunes, then totally octopus
I think you're right about Daina and 16 and twenty being silent, Loky, but I don't remember pointing. Possibly it starts out as pointing and the first rule changed it to the double shoulder thing, who knows?
Re: drinking, like I said, I waited till everybody had already made some decent headway into drinking before I introduced the game. I wouldn't start playing if I was still terribly thirsty.
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