I was sitting around one day thinking about a party game that I played with my family the night before. Yes, I do mindlessly think about random things sometimes. Anyway, I really enjoyed this game and it got me thinking of how many party games there are out there and which ones I would consider my favorites. I did some research and found that not a lot of information could be found so I decided to share what information I could find.
What is a Party Game? A party game is a game or games that are played at social gatherings. They are best played amongst friends. They also help people to interact and they provide fun entertainment among strangers, which cuts out the awkwardness of meeting people for the first time. Party games are better to be played at social events with a lot of people. They are designed to be easy for new players to grasp the concept without much instruction. They are designed for all people, those who like games and even those who don’t seem to enjoy them.
It’s an easy enough concept to understand, but a more in depth look and examples may help clear up any confusion. Let’s look at a more thorough definition, and some examples to back it up.
Detailed Description
So, I just wanted to explain a little bit more about party games. A party game is great for when a group of people are getting together and they don’t know each other very well. They provide easy entertainment for everyone, and are a fun way to break the ice and awkwardness of meeting people for the first time. They are easily understood and don’t need any real instructions because of how simple they are. The best part of a party game is the fact that even people who don’t like games or even socializing with others can play these games and enjoy them!
How does a party game work?
Depending on the party game, the amount of players is split up accordingly to make the game function properly. Once the group is split up, it would be a good time for everyone to be introduced to each other. Then someone explains the game and the rules to the game. Once the rules are explained, the group needs to figure out what strategy they want to use to try and win. Once the strategy is picked, every player needs to play along for their team to win. Each group is trying to work together to beat the other team and if someone is too embarrassed to participate, then they might lose.
It is best to split the competitive people up into different teams so each group has a couple of competitive players to keep things interesting. Once the group is split and the rules are explained then the game can begin!
Occasions to play party games?
The best occasions to play a party game is at friend parties, family parties, get together at home or even at a company party. Party games can also be played at weddings, bachelorette or bachelor parties, kids parties, baby showers, or any situations where a lot of people will be together. Our family loves to play party games when we have hit a “well, what do we do now” phase.
Party games are so fun once everyone joins in on the idea of the game. Parties aren’t as much fun without games.
Are there categories for Party Games?
The best categories for party games are separated into two groups, Active and Passive.
Active– these are the ones that will require people to get up and move around, be active, and really get involved in the party games. These party games require a lot of interaction and require everyone to “get out of their bubble”. The amazing thing about active party games is the fact that they can be played with large and small groups of people. There are a few active board games that can be played as party games.
Passive– these are games and activities that you have around at the party for guests to do. Things like guess the number of items in a jar, guess the cost of an item and different games like that. These are the types of games to play where the game does not count on the guests playing. Whether the guests choose to play or not the game can still function and be played.
A Few Popular Party Games
Active Party Games
I have written a list of some of the best active party games I’ve played. Again with all of these games it really requires everyone in the group to get involved and participate. No matter how awkward it could get, keep pushing for everyone to do it and it will eventually get really fun once everyone gets out of their bubbles. The games are as follows:
Guess what movie: This is where the group separates into two. Group A goes into another room and waits while the Group B picks a movie for the Group A to re-enact like Toy Story for example. Once Group B decides on a movie, they call one person into the room from Group A. Group B tells the one person from group A what the movie is. So, in this example Group B would say “Toy Story”.
The person from Group A then needs to figure out what scenes from the movie (Toy Story) is most known to the majority of the group and when person 1 from Group A is ready he/she calls in person 2. Person 2 then watches person 1 act out a scene or scenes from the movie, using no words. Person 2 needs to remember what person 1 does in order to act it out for person 3, and so on. Each person from the team acts out the movie until there is no one else in the group. If a person 2 is certain what movie person 1 is re-enacting, then they can add to it! But be careful… if you misunderstand what the person ahead of you is acting out and add to it or change it completely then you could lose this round! So if person 2 thought the first person acted a scene from The Little Mermaid instead of Toy Story and person 2 changes the scene for person 3 then they will lose. If the last person in the Group A guesses right then they win! If the last person from Group A gets it wrong then Group B wins. After the round is over the teams switch so the group that just acted, picks a movie and the group that picked the movies now has to act out the movie.
Spot the signal: This one is a lot of fun as well! Everyone sits in a big circle, and one person is chosen to be in the middle. In the beginning everyone in the group must decide what they want their hand signal to be. The purpose of this game is to not get caught by the person in the middle! The person in the middle needs to close their eyes while everyone decides who will start the game. Once everyone has the signals down and the group decides who is going to be “it” first then the game begins! If you are “it” then you need to make eye contact with someone else who is sitting down and send them their signal. That person then needs to accept being “it” by doing their own signal. That person, then sends it to someone else by doing another person’s signal. If someone doesn’t accept the signal you’re still “it”until someone finally accepts. Meanwhile, the person in the middle is looking around trying to catch someone passing the signal to figure out who is “it”. The game ends when the person in the middle correctly guesses who’s “it”.
For example:
Each person in the group decides on a signal to use. One person might touch their ear, another might scratch their nose, and so forth. Person A(Person in the middle) leaves the room or closes their eyes. Someone is chosen to start the game, we will say it is person B. Then person A comes back into the room or opens their eyes and person B begins the game. Person B does this by looking at person C and person B does person C’s signal. Now to accept being “it” person C must do their own signal and then send it off to person D by doing person D’s signal and person D must do their own signal to accept and now person D must send it off to another. The signal travels around the group from person to person until someone is caught and goes in the middle.
Ninja: This party game is so much fun! The purpose of this game is to be the last person standing. In the beginning of this game everyone stands in the middle with their hands out in front of themselves. Everyone must decide who will start the game and once that is decided that person counts down and when the number gets to zero, everyone does a ninja pose! Once everyone is in a ninja pose the person who starts will try to hit someone’s hand from wrist to fingers all in one motion or move. This person can attack anyone left or right. If someone successfully hits another person’s hand from wrist to finger then the person who got hit cannot use that hand anymore for attacking. The person must put their hand behind their back to indicate that the hand is destroyed. A person is out when both hands have been destroyed. The game ends when there is only one person left.
Board Game Party Games
Concept– In this game one person grabs a card and tries to get the other players to guess what is written on the card by using pictures on the board. The board has a lot of pictures on it like a boy and a girl, love and death, books, movies, and other descriptive icons. For example, a person grabs a card that might say Romeo and Juliet. The person then has to pick pictures on the board that will help the other players figure out what the card says. Whoever guesses the right concept wins that round.
Codenames– This is a really fun game! The group is split up into two groups a red team and blue team. The concept of this game is to beat the other team by having your team guess your codewords before they guess theirs. The game is laid out in a 5X5 grid so a total of 25 cards are on the table. The key card tells which of the code name cards are for the red team and which are for the blue team and which are the normal cards and which is the assassin, or bomb card. The teams both pick someone to be the spymaster, which is the person dedicated to giving one word clues to their teammates. Their teammates try to guess words of the right color while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team. And you have to be careful because there is an assassin in the mix, or a bomb card which if chosen will cause your team to automatically lose.
Wits and Wagers– This game is a lot of fun and pretty simple. In this game the concept is to have the most money by betting your money on the correct answers. The reason I like this game is because whoever is playing doesn’t need to know the correct answers or be a trivia master. All they need is an educated guess. This game is set up by a person placing down the betting mat. The betting mat has different betting scenarios on it like 3:1. Then a person grabs a card with different questions on it like “How far away is the sun”? After someone asks the question on the card, everyone will write whatever they think the answer is on a mini white board. The plays put it on the mat face down so no one can read the answers on the mini white boards. Once everyone’s answers are turned in, they are flipped over and put in order from smallest to largest number which coordinate to different betting scenarios. If you don’t know the answer, then go with a small bet on an answer that everyone else is betting. If you do know an answer then bet all your money and watch the money roll in!
Just one- In this game one must reach 13 points. The way you score points is everyone needs to work together to get one person at a time to guess a certain word without everyone using that specific word. For example, if the word was bird, everyone could put anything describing that word without actually using it. So if the word was bird, the others could use words like “feathers, or wings, or eggs, or fly” and with those words the one person who is shown the words have to think about what the words could represent and guess “bird” and then that person gets a point. But if they guess wrong they would lose two points. Another rule is if two people write the same clue word like “feathers” then both those clues are taken out so now there are fewer clues for the person guessing to use to get their points. So the easier the clue is, the more likely it is to be used, so be careful and don’t make the clue too easy or too hard.
Charades– My son loves this game so much. In this game one person grabs a card and reads what’s on the card. The card can have anything on it such as a person, a book, a movie or a phrase. The person then needs to figure out a way to silently act out what’s on the card to have the group guess what is written on the card. The person who guessed the answer on the card is then it and chooses a card to act out what is written on it.
Mafia– This game is fun and very easy to understand! It’s all about deception. It’s a game that makes you feel like a spy or a secret agent. There are a few rules that makes the game easy to understand. It definitely helps if a person has played this game before, but if no one has then this section will be helpful. Start by selecting a narrator. This person should be good at following the rules while keeping the game moving and they must be good at making up stories. Then the narrator must divide up a deck of cards in the order that follows:
The King- The Detective or the Inspector
The Queen- The Doctor
One Suit (like clubs)- Mafia members. There needs to be one Mafia card for every three innocent cards
The Other Suits (like hearts, diamonds, and spades)- For the Innocent people or non Mafia members
The narrator can assign more roles if they would like such as a magician. The narrator then needs to shuffle the deck of cards and hand them out randomly to each person in the group. The cards determine what each player is. The deck needs to be altered to have one card per person playing. This is done in order to ensure a detective, mafia members, and a doctor are playing the game. If the deck is not altered the imperative roles may remain in the deck.
Once the cards are distributed to everyone the narrator begins. There are 3 rounds to this game. The first round is called the Night Cycle. There are certain steps in each cycle. Step one in The first cycle is time to sleep. In this step everyone needs to close their eyes. The narrator needs to tell the mafia to wake up. This is a good time for all the mafia members to know who’s on the mafia team. The mafia need to decide who they want to “kill”. After a person has been chosen to kill the mafia goes to sleep.
The next step in round 1 is when the narrator tells the detective or inspector to wake up. In this step the role of the detective or inspector is to try and figure out who the mafia is. The detective points to someone and the narrator will tell the detective if the person is mafia or not. The detective then goes to sleep.
The next step is where the doctor is awakened by the narrator. The doctor can either choose to save themselves or another person. The good thing about the doctor saving themselves is if the mafia picked the doctor to die then they would live to save another player at another time. If the doctor gets picked by the mafia and dies then they’re out for the game and can’t save anyone. After the doctor chooses someone to save, he or she goes to sleep.
The second round is called the Day Cycle. There are a few steps in this round. In step one everyone opens their eyes and the narrator directs the conversation explaining the events of what happened without giving information away. At this time everyone needs to try to figure out who is the mafia. The mafia need to convince everyone that they’re not mafia.
When the group comes to a conclusion about who might be the mafia they all agree and accuse one person. If the group decides on one person and that person is not in the mafia and the doctor didn’t save the right person, then whoever the mafia wanted to kill, dies. Then the game goes on repeat until the mafia is figured out or everyone but the mafia is dead.
Passive Party Games
Passive party games are really good for parties like baby showers. These games don’t require any movement or interaction between each other. They are fun and very easy to understand. They are also good for people who don’t really like games or interacting with people. Here are just a few that I could think of:
Guess the amount: In this game the guests must guess how many items are in a container. Make sure that as the host you count and have that number before you start the game so when the game is over you can see who won. The person who is closest to the correct amount wins the game.
Guess the cost: In this party game, the guests must guess the cost without looking the item up on the internet. The guests guess how much the item costs from dollars to cents. The closest person wins. Make sure as the host you remember or have the receipt to prove who will win.
Unscramble the Words: In this game, someone writes a bunch of letters in different orders and the guests have to figure out what the word really is. There is usually a list of 50 or so words and everyone has to try and unscramble as many words as they can in a certain amount of time. So I was at a baby shower and someone put bbya and we as the guests had to figure out that the word is baby.
Conclusion:
Party games are a good way to keep guests entertained while mingling, or to get people interacting. Whether you are going to be hosting a party or just attending one, it may not be a bad idea to know some party games to play.