Summary
Two players perform a scene together with a clear relationship and situation. The director can call time jumps at any point: “Five years later!” “Rewind ten minutes!” “Fast forward to next Tuesday!” “Back to childhood!” Players must immediately adjust their physicality, language, and emotional state to match the new time period — while maintaining continuity of the relationship and story. The game teaches narrative continuity and the ability to hold a story’s timeline in mind while playing moment to moment.
Intro for the audience
“We need two actors on stage. This next game is called Time Warp. In this game, I have the power to change time. At any point, I can move time forward or backward. (get suggestion for a relationship and a place) Let’s have a big round of applause for Time Warp.”
Example
Two roommates discussing rent. Director: “Ten years later!” — both players are settled, the rent is long resolved, new problems have emerged. Director: “Rewind to the first day they met!” — they’re strangers, but the dynamic is recognizable.
Variation: Relationship Time Jump
Two players are given a relationship and a starting age by the audience. They play a short scene at that age. The facilitator then calls a new age — jumping them forward (or backward) in time — and they immediately play a new scene from that point in the relationship. The same relationship dynamics, status patterns, and established character traits carry forward into each new time period. The game explores how relationships grow, stagnate, or transform over time and teaches players to track and honor what’s been established.
Example: Two brothers, starting at age 8. Scene: fighting over a toy. Jump to 19: fighting over the car. Jump to 35: fighting over who handles their parents’ move. Jump to 60: one helps the other recover from surgery. The dynamic shifts, but the essential relationship logic remains.
Variation: Move On
Two players perform a scene. At any point, the facilitator yells “Move on!” — both players must immediately jump forward in time and continue the scene from a new moment. How far they jump is up to them — it could be five minutes later, a year later, or decades. They don’t need to explain the gap; they simply play the scene from wherever they’ve landed. The game teaches narrative compression and gives players permission to skip to the interesting parts rather than playing every moment at equal weight.
Example: Scene is two people on a first date. “Move on!” — they’re now in a committed relationship arguing about furniture. “Move on!” — one of them is moving out. “Move on!” — they run into each other at a grocery store twenty years later. Each jump picks up mid-action.