Pattern Game
Players stand in a U-formation. They take the suggestion. One at a time, in any order, the players free-associate away from the suggestion and back three times. As they do it, the team tries to develop ideas or themes for scenes.
Example: Audience suggests "ice cube." The team might associate this way:
- ice cube
- scotch
- advertising executive
- 1950s New York
- double-breasted suit
- living in the past
- FDR Halloween costume
- Toy wheelchairs
- grounded
- rinse your mouth out with soap
- ice cube
And repeat twice more.
Some refer to the concept of circuitously exploring the idea of a word and making it back to the original word as "drawing a cloverleaf". In the above example, the journey from "ice cube" through each associated phrase and back to "ice cube" could be visualized as the drawing of a single leaf. Repeating this two or three more times, always using "ice cube" as a center point" could be visualized as a clover with a few different leaves.
Variations
A lot.