le nikyge'u selkei


The Tall-tale Game <table> <tr> <td>Some time between late Sunday (06/Sept./09} and early Monday a few people were very bored and accidentally created what is probably the best game known to Lojbanistan. The game first started as a play on games similar to shiritori and 'Fortunately, Unfortunately' in an attempt to find an interesting and entertaining way for new and old speakers alike to practice their Lojban. We first started off just by naming gismu that began with the last two or three letters (see rules for details) of the previously named gismu, but found this to be somewhat boring. Another player suggested we make whole bridi out of these selbri to make things more memorable, and so we went along with it, saying rather silly things to accommodate the rules. Eventually somebody had said "lo gerku cu nikle", which we thought was absolutely hilarious, and so the next player went on about "lo nikle gerku", which quickly became "le nikle gerku", and evolved into a full-blown story about the nickel-dog, the gold-dog, their child the copper-dog, and their arch-villains the air-dogs (which, sadly, can't remember that they get flight-sick very easily). Out of the many Bill Braskian things attributed to nickel-dog, a few of them are:

  • Magic.
  • Shapeshifting
  • Excreting metals
  • Sapience</td>
Due to the fact that this was absolutely hilarious and Lojban lacks some of its own culture-words, this spawned the cimjvo nikyge'u. Borrowing from the idea of 'a big fish' and selckiku's previous suggestion of having 'cimjvo', a new term was coined. <td>
Image
le nikle gerku cu jundi
</td> </tr> </table>

RULES

  • The first player must 'play' a bridi, generally about a 'nickel-dog' (le nikle gerku) and its adventures.
  • The second player then must take the main selbri from the first player's play and use the final two or three letters as the first of the main selbri in the next play.
    • Example: The first player plays "le nikle gerku cu zvati". So, the next player must begin with a gismu starting with 'ti'.
      • (In the event that somebody plays a word like 'setca' it is more fun/entertaining to play a word like 'tcaci' than 'catra', but if somebody plays a word that ends in an invalid or unused starting cluster, like 'kelci' or 'citka', then one may use the last two letters instead.
  • Each subsequent play must regard the previous in some way (though this is more for the sake of entertainment) as if continuing the story.
      • (It's good sport and much more fun to follow the namesake of the game. Have a 'big fish' (like le nikle gerku), a fictional or idealised setting, and tell an unrealistic but amusing story. One could tell the story of le nikle gerku as if ad-libbing a child's book, go on about 'Bill Braskey', talk about a big fish, or tell other such tall tales.)
  • Only the final gismu counts in a tanru, but it's generally bad manners when playing with inexperienced speakers. If, for the main selbri, somebody plays a tanru when playing with inexperienced speakers, everyone must verbally assault the offending player and throw a shoe/fish at them.
  • Play continues in this manner until everybody gets sick of playing and goes off to do something else.

Memorable Lines


  • A sizeable quote from the first game:
<table> <tr> <td>
    • pafcribe: ni'o lo nu lo nikle gerku cu makfa cu nibli lo nu ri kakne lo nu steci gasnu .imu'a...
      pafcribe: couldn't remember the word for "textual ...."
      harblcat: {lo nu} is an event?
      pafcribe: yes
      pafcribe: the event of ....
      pafcribe: I think I got that right, selckiku, can you verify that what I was saying made sense?
      harblcat: I see, it modifies the bridi?
      pafcribe: I was shooting for "the event of the nickle dog being magic logically necessitates the event that it can do special things"
      lindar: le nikle gerku ka'e se bliku fi le solji gerku
      selckiku: yes that's what i understood
      lindar: >_> There is only one word in all of the gismu list that starts with "bli".
      selckiku: except i understood "steci gasnu" as more like "do particular things"
      harblcat: special /= particular ?
      pafcribe: mmm, what would the word for "special" be?
      lindar: lo se steci = a thing with a special/specific/particular quality.
      pafcribe: and I was trying to lead into the next person with the {mu'a ...}
      pafcribe: true
      selckiku: le solji gerku cu kubli lo mutce barda
      lindar: Yes, you see I followed the .imu'a.
      pafcribe: yes, very nice
      pafcribe: though I'm still trying to figure out what you said exactly
</td> <td>
Image
Nickel-dog is polygonal and standing at attention!
</td> </tr> </table>
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