How to Play the Game - I Never

The next time your boss asks for suggestions for a team building exercise or you are sitting around with a group of friends or relatives trying to think of something to do, introduce the game called I Never. I first played the game at a family holiday party thrown by my older sister many years ago. Everyone was sitting in the kitchen when my sister suggested we entertain ourselves with a game of I Never while we wait for our dinner to cook. After passing out toothpicks to everyone and explaining the rules, we started playing. The first player, my brother, said he had never been divorced. He received 3 toothpicks from those of us who had been divorced. The second player, my cousin, said she had never driven a car. She received 9 toothpicks from everyone with a driver's license. The third player, my 6-year-old daughter whom we all believed understood the rules, said she had never hugged an elephant. Everyone burst out laughing because, obviously, none of us had either. She didn't receive any toothpicks, but was super happy to have made everyone laugh since that was her goal. I don't remember much of the game after that, but my daughter did end up winning the game...she had understood the rules after all. During dinner everyone kept talking about all the "I Nevers" and agreed it was the most intriguing and revealing game they had ever played. So, if you would ever like to get to know a group of people better, suggest a game of I Never and follow the simple rules below.

All you need is a group of people and something to use as markers for each person. The markers could be poker chips, toothpicks, or cards; it doesn't matter as long as they can be easily counted. Each player starts with as many markers as there are players. So, if there are 10 players, each player gets 10 markers.

The game starts with one player announcing something they have never done. All other players that have done that particular thing would have to give the announcing player one of their markers. The game continues with each player taking a turn announcing something they have never done and all the other players who have done that particular thing giving one of their markers to the announcing player. The more players there are and the more experiences they have had, the more challenging it will be to come up with something that you have never done that most everyone else has done. You can play as many rounds as you like. If a player runs out of markers, they are out of the game. The winner of the game is the person with the most markers.

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