Time Hop is all about exploring different periods throughout each others’ lives. The game is played with coins or possibly even stamps that have a date on them from more recent years. You will use these date to open up topics of discussions and learn what life was like for the other players at that point. The game is played best with a smaller group, so everyone will feel most comfortable. Make sure that the group of people you invite are all on equal terms to make everyone as comfortable as possible when talking about their life.
What You Need To Play Time Hop
This is what you will need to play Time Hop:
- A hat or bag.
- Items with a year marker on them.
- A list of years everyone was born.
- A timer.
How To Set Up The Game
Take a hat or grocery bag and fill it with pennies that you can still see the year on. Make sure that all the dates aren’t too old and everyone will fit in with the years on the pennies. Pick a room where everyone can hear each other clearly, you don’t want anyone being overshadowed by music or appliances. Make sure that everyone in the group is fine with sharing personal details with each other. Collect everyone’s birth years collected together and carefully sort out the pennies to make sure you don’t go too far in the past.
How To Play Time Hop
- Put all the pennies into a bag and shake them around, go counter clockwise around the room allowing everyone to draw a penny. Once a Penny is drawn the player should call out the year and then think of an event that happened to them at that point in their life.
2. When the player is telling their memory pay attention to them and make sure all players are being respectful. When near the end of their memory keep anyone from grabbing a penny from the hat early or trying to expedite the game.
3. Make sure you set a limit as to what type of memories can be shared. If everyone gets into a rut talking about bad past experiences while playing the game it may cause a problem later on. Also, be sure to have a time limit set to keep anyone from taking the stage for too long.
4. Make sure to communicate the environment you want for the game. State that you’d like only positive memories shared or that you’re ok with anything before the start.
Winning The Game
This game really doesn’t have a way to have a winner, as it is all about learning more about a person’s life. Be sure to clearly listen to each person as you play the game to find out what you have in common with them. If you find you don’t have enough pennies for the game you can write down years on a scrap of paper or use another item that is dated by year. If you want to expand the game you could even have a hat of years and seasons to extend the length of the game.