Scissors is a party game. Ideally it is played with a group of around 10 people of whom 2 or 3 have played before. Players need to be "reasonably" mature since the game becomes very frustrating and young children will neither understand nor enjoy it. Probably 12 is a sensible minimum age.

Play

The players sit on chairs in a circle (without a table in the way) and have an object (say an empty plastic drinks bottle or even a genuine pair of scissors). In turn, each player passes the object to the player on their left stating whether they are passing the scissors open or passing the scissors closed. As each player does this the others say whether they have got it right - obviously the players who already know the game are the arbiters of rightness. The objective of the game is to work out what is going on!

Players go through various stages:

• Confusion - what is this stupid game about?
• Analysis - Ah, the scissors aren't real, we are pretending that the bottle is a pair of scissors and I must work out when it is open and when closed...
  • Attempt 1: open when passed top first, closed if passed bottom first
  • Attempt 2: open if bottle top removed and passed separately, closed if bottle top fixed to bottle
  • Attempt 3: It has nothing to do with the bottle, open if passed with left hand, closed if passed with right hand
  • Attempt 4: It has nothing to do with the bottle, open if previous player has his eyes open, closed if they are closed
  • Attempt 5: etc etc etc
• Despair - This isn't a game, this is stupid. I'm going to give up soon.
  • At this point the players who know want to start ensuring that the scheme is steadily more and more obvious.
• Success - Suddenly players will start to realise what is happening and then they can join in with the correction of others incorrect passing.
  • It is wise to require "successful" players to prove they understand what is happening by requesting them to pass the scissors open or closed at the whim of those who do know. Often even now their analysis is wrong (or slightly wrong).
• For those really struggling with it, it may be necessary eventually to really exaggerate the scissor passing. When everybody knows, the game ends.
  • Note that once you have played this, you can never play it again except as one in the know.

The solution

If you do not know the scheme, it is a bad idea to cheat and look it up since it spoils all your fun in the satisfaction of solving the game. The key to this game is that scissors are passed closed if your legs (or even ankles) are crossed and open if uncrossed. At the beginning of the game positions and movements should be natural. Towards the end, they will need to be heavily exaggerated.