Action Syllables
Each person says their name one syllable at a time, giving every syllable its own gesture, and the group repeats it back. Each new person adds theirs and the group then runs the…
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Improv Encyclopedia
openadjacent IDG relationtradition-based474 games as the A-Z index resolves them · 35 category pages (counted 2026-08-31)
One of the oldest open collections of improvisational theatre material: 474 games and exercises across 35 category pages, from Warm-up (126), Group (45), Icebreakers (33) and Trust (19) to performance formats, each entry a short description of how the game runs, with cross-links between related games and a glossary of improv terms. The categories most useful to this directory are exactly the on-ramp ones — games a cold group can play in minutes that leave it warmer than it was.
improvencyclopedia.org/ — Improv Encyclopedia (maintainer not named on the site)
License: None stated beyond the footer's 'Copyright © 2001-2024 Improv Encyclopedia'; no Creative Commons or reuse wording found on the landing or privacy pages (checked 2026-08-31)
Source link checked 1 Sep 2026 — reachable
Tools from this source (48)
Aerobics
Players line up; the first walks a circuit of the room and the second follows, moving as they move. After a few rounds the leader peels off to the back and the next pair takes o…
Alliteration Introduction
Each person introduces themselves with an alliterating adjective and a gesture — 'I'm Wonderful Wendy' — and each new player repeats everyone before them before adding their own…
Alphabet Letters
In groups of four or five, a letter is called and each group forms it with their bodies. That is the whole game — fast, physical, and requiring a group to negotiate shape withou…
Anyone who...
The group sits in a circle of chairs with one person standing in the middle, who calls out something they might have in common with others — 'anyone who has a dog'. Everyone it…
Back Dancing
In pairs, standing back to back, players dance to changing music without ever losing contact between their backs. Nobody can see their partner, so the whole negotiation happens…
Bandaid Tag
A tag game where each tag has to be held: you cover the spot you were tagged with a hand, and a second tag takes your other hand. A third freezes you, until two other players co…
Blind Lead
One person is blindfolded in a room that has been deliberately strewn with obstacles, and the rest of the group has to talk them across it. The source records a fuller variant i…
Blind Line Up
The group has to sort itself into an order — by height, by birthday — with everyone's eyes closed and nobody allowed to speak. Whatever strategy emerges has to emerge through to…
Blindfolded Scene
Players perform an improvised scene blindfolded, so every offer has to be heard rather than seen. The source also records a variation with mousetraps on the stage and players ba…
Bobsledding Bodies
Teams of four to six sit in a line, legs wrapped around the person in front, and race to a marked line using only their hands to push along the floor. A team that comes apart ha…
Body Hide
Four players try to hide a fifth using nothing but their own bodies while everyone else looks for any visible patch of clothing, shoe or skin. Each round removes a hider, until…
Bumpity Bump
Everyone learns the names of the two people beside them. The person in the middle points at someone and says 'bumpity bump bump bump'; before they finish, the person pointed at…
Circle Sitting
The circle turns a quarter left, closes up until everyone is touching, and sits down at once — each person landing on the knees of the person behind them, so the whole ring hold…
Click Bang you`re dead
A guessing game with a hidden rule: the leader points around the circle saying 'click' or 'bang' in a way that suggests a pattern, then declares someone dead. The secret is that…
Columbian Hypnosis
One player holds an open hand a few inches from their partner's face and moves it slowly; the partner keeps their face at exactly that distance, so the hand leads the whole body…
Create Obstacles
Two players chase each other around the room; the one being chased mimes obstacles into existence and the chaser has to get over, under or through each of them before continuing.
Cross Circle
Someone calls another player's name and immediately starts walking toward them. Before they arrive, that person must call a third name and set off themselves, freeing their plac…
Death and Retriever
A version of Scorpion in which the dead can be brought back. Everyone moves with eyes closed; a killer kills by touch and victims scream and freeze, while a retriever wearing a…
Emotional Manipulation
A two-player scene opens with a line designed to move the other character's emotional state — a compliment or an insult — and the second player accepts it and lets it land. The…
Fingertips
In pairs, all ten fingertips touching, one player closes their eyes and is led around the room by the other — over and under obstacles — with the connection at the fingers the o…
Flock Dance
The group forms a wedge — one player at the point, two behind, three behind them — and the leader moves while each row copies the row in front. The leader can even turn and face…
Foot Touch Tag
Players stand in pairs with feet touching, and each pair swaps names. A stationary 'it' calls a name; the person who now carries that name has to reach them without being tagged…
Free Falling
One player stands in the middle of a close circle, closes their eyes and lets themselves fall; the others catch them. The source describes a raised variation from a chair or tab…
Greetings
Players mill about and greet whoever they meet, first plainly and then as a named relationship — a long-lost friend, someone you don't trust, an ex, someone with bad breath. Eac…
Heave Ho
Sixteen or more players form two facing lines and link hands into a platform, and one player is passed hand over hand from one end to the other. The source asks for shoes, coins…
House, Creature, Flood
Players build a house around one player who is the creature inside it. On 'house' the house rebuilds itself around the same creature; on 'flood' everybody scatters and finds ano…
Human Knot
The group stands shoulder to shoulder in a circle, everyone reaches in and takes two other hands at random, and the tangle has to be undone without anyone letting go. People can…
Janus Dance
Two players dance slowly with each head resting on the other's shoulder, so neither can see the other's face, and play a two- or three-minute scene while dancing. The source rec…
King Lizard
Everyone picks an animal with a sound and a motion. A player sends the impulse on by performing their own animal and then someone else's; that person does theirs and passes it o…
Knife Baby Angry Cat
An invisible knife is thrown between players, ninja-style, with eye contact established before every throw. Once that is reliable, an imaginary baby is added — thrown carefully,…
Letter Number Name
Names, then letters of the alphabet, then numbers are passed around the circle, each with its own gesture. Once each stream works alone, they are all set going at once and trave…
Loser Ball
A ball is thrown to a named person, who is required to fail to catch it — and the group's job is to find something genuinely praiseworthy in how they failed. 'Good move!', 'Grea…
Massage
The circle turns and everyone gives the person in front of them a shoulder massage, then turns around and returns it. The source adds that judgement is needed about what is appr…
Mirror in Circle
Players find someone across the circle, make eye contact and mirror each other, then walk slowly to the centre still mirroring, arriving at the same moment as everyone else. A v…
Name Volley
Two teams of up to six play mimed volleyball, and every pass is made by calling the name of the player who must receive it. The requirement is that the imaginary ball stays visi…
Reverse Chair Dance
Musical chairs inverted: when the music stops, the player without a chair has to get their feet off the ground some other way. Chairs keep being removed, so by the end everyone…
Scorpion
Players mill about with eyes closed while one of them, tapped on the shoulder beforehand, kills by squeezing a forearm. The victim screams, opens their eyes and is out. Players…
Shootout
Cowboy elimination played on names: a name is called, that person drops, and their two neighbours shoot at each other. Whoever is slower dies, and if the named player does not d…
Smart Fellas
A counting game in which the phrase changes on threes and multiples of three — 'one smart fella he felt smart', '3 smart fellas they all felt smart' — and any error puts you out…
Solitaire
Players line both sides of a run. One person sprints its length with their eyes closed while the others keep them straight and catch them at the far end. The source notes how ha…
Swedish Sculptors
Half the group are clay with their eyes closed; the other half sculpt them into one connected sculpture, moving them not by pushing but by holding an open hand against a body pa…
10 Fingers
Everyone holds up ten fingers and takes turns making a yes/no statement about themselves — 'I have a cat', 'I have never stolen anything'. Anyone who cannot answer yes drops a f…
The Magnet
In pairs, one player holds a still shape while the other, eyes closed, explores it by touch and then tries to become the same shape themselves.
Three Noses
Players wander until a call goes up — 'three noses', '7 left big toes', 'five bellybuttons' — and have to form little clusters touching exactly those parts together. The source…
Tossing
Eight players form two lines, mesh their forearms into a platform, and launch another player into the air and catch them. The source's practical note is that gripping each other…
Who stole the Cookies
A rhythmic call-and-response chant that passes an accusation around the group by name — 'who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?' — with the accused protesting and then namin…
Zombie Name Game
One player moves zombie-slow toward someone, arms out. Before being reached, that person has to call another player's name, which redirects the zombie. Fail to call in time and…
record status: checked · added 2026-08-31