Soundbite

Today, a break from thinking about thinking, and a game...

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What Is This?
Soundbite is a party game for five or more. In this game, one person will be picked as the moderator; their job is to come up with a list of "occurences" - things that politicians might be asked to comment on. All of the other players will be playing as aspiring politicians, and will be asked to make comments on some of those occurences. They will also note who they think did best on each of the rounds of comments that they weren't involved in. Those votes (on who did best) will be tallied to find a winner.

Setting Up

• Players should sit about in something roughly resembling a circle. Or square. Whatever.
• Players should pick a moderator. The moderator will make up occurences that will be asked about - bank collapses, horrible accidents, heroic rescues, and so on. They will need one for each round (see below).
  
• Each player should take a piece of paper. On it, they should list all the names of the other players (except the moderator).

Gameplay

• Play goes in turns. There will be four times as many turns as there are players (not counting the moderator). So, if there are five players, there are twenty rounds.
• The moderator will pick two players, who should be side-by-side, to go first, and ask them to stand up.
  
• Once the players have been picked, the moderator will state the occurence: "A school on the north side of town burnt down; arson is suspected".
• The players then have a minute to make up their comment on the issue; something that will win them votes.
• After the minute is passed, one player will get to speak first, chosen randomly by the moderator (they should use a die or such to make sure they stay random), and then the other. Each player gets to say one sentence; this is the soundbite that will actually get through to voters.
• The other players mark on their page who they think did best.
• The moderator then asks the standing player on the right (from the moderator's viewpoint) to sit, and the player on the left of the one still standing (again from the moderator's viewpoint) to rise.
  
• These are the two players for the next turn (and next occurence). This repeats each turn, shuffling the action around the room.
  
• When all the players have commented on two occurences, which means you've gone around the room once, they should scramble seats, for the next set of turns - this is effectively the "half-time shuffle".
  

Ending up

• At the end, the moderator adds up the scores, and announces the person who gained the most votes - or, if it's a tie, they say who was tied.

For The Moderator: Fast Occurences

• Pick one of the following words and phrases, and then find another that goes well with it, to create an occurence: School, Abortion, Oil Company, Your Daughter (point at one of the two standing politicians), Military, Tax Evasion, Spending, Drug-Fueled Parties, Head Doctor at Mercy Hospital, Shooting, Bomb Threat.