An improv warm-up tool for mime-and-guess practice — activities, items, locations, and people, all randomized and session-aware.
Live: fivethings.techietable.com
One player mimes an activity — without actually doing it. The other mimes guesses until they perform it.
Five Things generates the prompts: a random activity, two substitutions (items, a location, or a person to weave in), and a difficulty level to keep things fresh. It tracks what's been shown in the session so nothing repeats.
- Three difficulty levels — Easy, Medium, Hard, and Random (pulls across all pools)
- Smart substitutions — activities come paired with items, locations, or persons to mime alongside
- Session-aware — no activity, location, or person repeats until you reload
- Flag for review — mark anything that needs fixing; logged to a flat file for later
- Theater curtain — animated SVG curtain opens on load, pauses on interaction
- Light / dark mode — follows your OS preference
- Mobile-friendly — works on phones at the table
- Keyboard accessible — full keyboard navigation
# Set version and name
export IMAGE_VERSION=0.0.11
export IMAGE_NAME=fivethings
docker compose up --buildThe app will be available at http://localhost.
Data (CSV files and logs) is mounted from ./data — edit the CSVs there to customize your activity pool.
cd app
npm install
NODE_ENV=development npm run devRuns on http://localhost:3000 with live reload.
All data lives in ./data/ and is mounted into the container:
| File | Contents |
|---|---|
easy.csv |
Easy activities |
medium.csv |
Medium activities |
hard.csv |
Hard activities |
replacements.csv |
Item substitutions by difficulty |
locations.csv |
Location substitutions by difficulty |
persons.csv |
Person substitutions by difficulty |
flagged.log |
Flagged entries (appended, plain text) |
Name,With,Against,Item1,Item2,Item3,Item4,Item5,Item6
Juggling,false,false,ball,club,ring,hat,torch,unicycle
Replacement,Difficulty,Category
frying pan,EASY,Kitchen & Cooking
Key defaults (set in the server and front end):
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Suggestions shown | 5 |
| Default difficulty | Easy |
| Location substitution rate | 20% |
| Person substitution rate | 20% |
| Curtain open time | 5s |
| Log file | flagged.log |
Each flagged row appends one line:
# Activity name
[timestamp] difficulty=easy activity[12]=Juggling flagged=name
# Item / replacement
[timestamp] difficulty=easy activity[12]=Juggling item=ball replacement[44]=frying pan
# Location
[timestamp] difficulty=easy activity[12]=Juggling location[18]=Eiffel Tower
# Person
[timestamp] difficulty=easy activity[12]=Juggling person[7]=Mick Jagger
Created by Calvin Moser
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