Fortunately/Unfortunately

Age: 8 to adult

Players: Pairs, threes, or groups

Time: 10 – 20 minutes

Skills: Storytelling, Improvisation, Speaking and Listening

Fortunately/Unfortunately is a useful warm-up for improvisation work or storytelling and requires quick-thinking. To introduce and demonstrate the game, ask two participants to read out the following example:

A: Yesterday we went to the zoo.

B: Unfortunately some animals escaped from their cages.

A: Fortunately we managed to climb a tree.

B: Unfortunately some monkeys followed us up there.

A: Fortunately we made friends with them by giving them some bananas.

Now, everybody divides into pairs or threes and labels themselves ‘A’, ‘B’ (and ‘C’). Announce a starting sentence. The first player says the sentence. The next player continues with any sentence beginning ‘Unfortunately…’ and the next player follows on with a ‘Fortunately…’ sentence. The pairs/groups should try to keep going for a minute or until one of them comes up with a good ending. If playing in pairs, swap around so that ‘B’ starts a new story and they both get a turn at ‘Fortunately’ and ‘Unfortunately’.

Tips and Variations

• Don't let the game go on for too long – ring a bell or clap your hands after 45-60 seconds
• Have a competition to see who can keep a story going for the longest
• Players can act out the story as they tell it
• The game can be played with the whole group, going from person to person around a circle
• See if the group can retell a fairy story or historical event using the game
• Ask groups to re-enact or share their favourite moments.

Useful starting lines

• Once upon a time a ship was sailing through a calm, blue sea…
• Last week I found a diamond ring on the pavement…
• Two explorers were travelling along the Amazon river…
• The cat jumped through the open window…