Games you only need your hands and other players to play.
We all know rock paper scissors, thumbwars and chopsticks but I’m looking for niche.
There’s many obscure or local ones that get passed down through generations or shared around the playground and I’d love to learn something new.
There’s one called Double Tap. Not sure it qualifies, as it requires a table and chairs.
Everyone places their hands in front of the person sitting to each side. That is, you’ll have your right neighbor’s left hand to the left of your right hand, and vice versa.
The starting direction is clockwise. The goal is for each hand at the table to tap sequentially. Someone taps a hand, and the hand to the left of it (ie. clockwise) has to tap and so on. It’s a bit confusing, because everyone has arms crossed with each other and the hands in front of you aren’t yours.
Instead of tapping once, you can choose to double tap, which changes the direction (clockwise to counter-clockwise, or vice versa).
If someone messes up, that hand is removed from the table (all others remain where they are). Last person (or two or three) remaining wins.
That’s pretty cool for big groups.
We had a verbal game that was similarly confusing called “I went to the market”
Would you mind sharing the game?
Sure. It’s better with 4 or more players.
At first every player is assigned a number. Then one person starts.
They say “I went to the market with (another player’s number)”. That player has to quickly respond “Why with (their number)?”. The first player says “Then with what?”, they say “With (any other player’s number)”.
For example: 1 says “I went to the market with 2”. 2 has to say “Why with 2?”. 1 has to say “Then with what?”, 2 says “With 4”. 4 has to respond “Why with 4?” and so on so it’s a call and response game.
Repeat until someone gets confused, makes any mistakes or takes too long to respond. When they do, the person that flustered them gets to assign them a new name. This replaces their number, they have to answer to it and everyone has to use it now. Generally these are insults as this is a rowdy game between friends but of course they can choose whatever they want.
If someone makes more mistakes after being assigned a nickname you add adjectives to it. Eventually you’ll get things like:
“I went to the market with fat smelly pig”
“Why with fat smelly pig?”
“Then with what?”
“With arrogant ass”
And so on.
After 3 adjectives you’re eliminated and everyone continues until 1 person is left.
It’s confusing because you gotta keep track of everyone’s names and your own and answer quickly.