Playing with words

I don't know if this one counts, but I started to play this version of word chain. It has all the basics, and we've been adding so many different things to make it more dynamic and challenging. It goes like this:

1) Core Loop

• Take turns with chained words: your word must start with the last letter of the previous word.
• Min length: 4 letters.
• Not allowed: proper nouns; words already used.
• Allowed: accents/diacritics and plurals.
• A category (e.g., food, animals) may be active; if so, every word must fit it.

2) Scoring

• +1 for every valid word.
• –1 for breaking a rule (invalid/repeated/out of category, etc.).
• Bonuses: add points from any Power you trigger that turn.

Power Bonus Chart

• Win: first to 10 points (or more if you want a longer match or words flow faster in your group).

3) Powers effects

• Rhyme (your word rhymes with the previous one): You may change the required starting letter for the next player.
• Double (your word has a doubled letter, e.g., rr/ll/ss…): You set a new category for both players. (+1)
• Category notes: The category stays until changed by another Double.
• If any player fails the active category, the category resets to none and that player loses 1 point.
  • Long (8+ letters): Your opponent must reply with a word of the same length. (+1 for the player who triggered Long)
  • The forced reply cannot trigger Long again nor score it.
• Bomb (your word starts and ends with the same letter): You ban one letter for your opponent.
  • Bans stack: A player can have unlimited consonants banned, but only one vowel at a time; banning a new vowel replaces the previous vowel ban. (This is thought for 10 points to score, if you do it indefinitely or higher score goals you'd need a limit for consonants too.)
  • Fair exception: If a banned letter equals the mandatory starting letter, the opponent may use it only as the initial, not elsewhere in the word.

4) First Turn

The first player starts with +1 point and cannot trigger any Power on the first move.

(edit: some minor formatting mistakes)

I do what I call Six Degrees of Stupid Nicknames. I’ll take someone’s name and find a word or nickname from it, then run through a series of six or so associations (sometimes less, sometimes more) and end up with a stupid nickname for you.

Perhaps you’ll like Raddle from Tom Scott’s weekly newsletter. It’s kind of similar though more focused on word association than splitting up words.

I do a similar thing where I absent-mindedly create false etymologies for words to amuse myself. Dumb stuff like, say, the name "Mortimer" comes from "mort" meaning death and "mer" meaning sea, so the first person named Mortimer was so named because he drowned.

I enjoy Spoonerisms, or swapping the first letters or sounds of adjacent words. Here are some favorites:

-Shower part
-Bundt cake
-Smart feller
-Tube bender
-Square of pearls
-Shake a tit
-Sitting on the shitter
-Top kitty
-Button masher
-West Bank
-Starting up a form

I have many more, I keep a list so I don't forget them. It's gotten so bad that most of the time when I hear a pair of words, I automatically generate their Spoonerism to see if it's funny. Like some sort of mind virus.