TLDR; What are some good party games that encourage getting to know each other and are not centered around drinking?
A year ago I had a great party. I split all participants (maybe 16 people) into 4 teams and made a 3 game tournament which was very appreciated. This year I am hoping to replicate the good vibe we had, but I want new games.
I am now asking you; What are some good party games?
Criterias:
- Low or no amount of randomness (to keep things competitive)
- Reasonably easy to acquire the materials for
- Possible to do as a team
- Encourages interaction, either within the team, between teams or both
- Should not be centered around drinking
The Jackbox Party Packs are good for groups up to 8. Sometimes 10, sometimes 6, its game to game dependant.
“Werewolf” type games can be expanded to larger groups, its a social deduction and bluffing game where players are slowly eliminated and in turn vote out other players they deem the hidden enemy
Literally my two fav party games lol
TLDR; Use poker decks to clone 3 sets of Love Letter
I’ll recommend some boardgames.
Once you go over 7-8 players, the options are greatly reduced. The available genres become (mostly) limited to social deduction
Social deduction, all about trying to figure out other peoples cards. And lying, lots of lying.
- Love letter, 6 players, 20 cards, ~13 tokens, for points
- Avalon, 7-10 players, ~30cards, tracking mat/paper
- Secret Hitler, 7-10 players, ~30 cards, tracking mat/paper, has a print-at-home version.
- Ultimate werewolf/vampire/etc, ~10-12 players, ~13-15 cards, phone app (for narration, free)
*None of the above are very good for playing as teams (i.e. two ppl taking a single player spot)
Group Games games that do well with teams
- Codenames, various versions.
- Forbidden Island/Dessert/Sky - co-op game for various number of players
As a special mention, Challengers is a board game that allows you to create simple yet fun card drafting tournaments. There are two editions, each allows you up to 8 players, and if you have both they can be combined into 16ppl tournaments
For your numbers, you’d need to buy 2-3 copies of the same game. Not ideal, even if you have the budget.
I’d say, print yourself three copies of Love Letters, you can find the cards online, or just play with 2-3 poker decks. Its the best game in my library, simple yet deep. We’ve been playing it at least once a week for 3 years now. I’ve even managed to play once with a mob of disinterested teens ;)
Love letter really is the best, I bring it everywhere I go
The one where you stick a piece of paper on your forehead you have to guess what is written by asking yes/no questions to someone sitting in front of you.
Randomness is often desirable in party games because otherwise it’s usually a small number of people who are competitive and the rest are bored/quit.
Times up!
Needs at least 4 people, a pen and paper and a bowl/hat. And a stopwatch.
Tear the paper so you have about 25-35 pieces of similar size, then give these out to the players. Everyone writes down a famou name on each of their pieces of paper. Shuffle them up in the bowl. Divide into teams. Set stopwatch for 1 minute.
Round 1: one member of the first team describes the name on the paper without using any of the words written on the paper. The team gets to keep the paper if it’s correctly guessed. After a minute, play passes to the next team with a reduced number of papers in the bowl. This continues until all names have been guessed. Count the number of pieces of paper kept by each team and make a note. Return the papers to the bowl.
Round 2: same as round one, but the describer can now only use one word. No miming, no eye signals, one. Word.
Round 3: same as the previous rounds but the describer must stay absolutely silent and can only mime. The team that scored the most over 3 rounds wins.I’ve played this with strangers and with friends and family alike and it’s always fun.
Diy Monikers
I googled your comment and found the game Monikers which I’d never heard of. I honestly think the DIY version must be better, since there’s always someone who’s responsible for the name. That makes it so much better as a bonding experience! It’s also good across cultures because the people from culture a will know the answers from culture a and the same for culture b, c etc. and it then becomes a natural exchange
I agree there are benefits to the diy version. Most published party games are based off some home version that’s long existed already. And on that note, most party games can be recreated as home versions without buying the experience.
most pussy games can be recreated as home versions without buying the experience.
Tell that to my local sex worker, amirite.
(I’m guessing typo?)
Oh sweet baby jeebus. Auto correct strikes again.
No miming, no eye signals, one. Word.
Oh interesting, we always allow miming in Round 2. It’s a good way to “prime” your teammates for Round 3…but I could see why that’d be undesirable
The key is low effort social engagement
- Person do thing
- Two rooms and a boom
- charades
Some things are good with groups, but require a little more commitment:
- One night ultimate werewolf
- Avalon
- code names
Plus one for werewolves, a lot of fun and because of the debating element you get to see people getting creative, evasive, their ability to lie and what not
One night is really fun, this summer I successfully ran it with a group of 12. Non gamers, But I wouldn’t say it’s a party game, but in a pregame for sure with the right group.
The phone app really helps in getting a group quickly into the game.
Card games. We used to have card nights every week back in the 70s. One of the most fun games was something called Racing Demon. Each player has a full pack and all play at the same time. We would have 15 people sitting on the floor in a circle, all screaming. It gets CRAZY. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerts There are hundreds of card games, with a huge range of skill required. There are a lot of trick-taking games similar to bridge where you play with a partner - euchre, whist, 500. All you need is a few packs of playing cards. (Everyone brought their own pack for Racing Demon, lol.)
I played so much nerts in college. I was terrible at it due to the frenetic rate of play, but it was fun. It’s the reason I have like 8 packs of playing cards haha.
I second the Nerts recommendation because when I was a teen I played Ligretto (Basically just a branded Nerts) at one party and we all had a blast. To this day I wish I had the opportunity to play it again, but I’m not a party guy nor do I have that many decks of cards so /shrug
how have I never come across this? This sounds great
Hammershlagen (misspelled)
Bags
Beer pong
Quarters
President’s and Assholes
Cribbage
Poker (pick your poison)
Speed bump (the card game, but it’s your body your choice after all)
It’s been a long time and I’m not sure of it’s current state, but some friends and I used to have a blast play Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator (I think there’s a couple other games out there now that are similar)
You kind of need the right setup for it to work well, a big TV or projector you can hook up to a computer and everyone needs their own laptop, etc.
The basic idea is- picture the bridge of the enterprise (or your starship of choice) you’ve got a bunch of people with their own consoles responsible for different aspects of the ships operation, the helm, engineering, weapons, etc. That’s what you’re doing.
I think at some point they added support for support fighters and such to accompany the main starship so if you have more people they have something to do.
We also made up a couple extra positions, like a captain who didn’t really have his own console, he just got his own chair front and center and a fancy hat and gave out orders.
I always wanted to play that and even used to have the perfect setup for it (projector, big room, extensive seating) but never had the friends for it. I’m envious of your good fortune!
In my experience the most popular and fun “party games” are boardgames such as Top Ten, Time’s Up, Hot & Cold or Codenames (more or less in that order). They work best for 6 to 10 players. Though I don’t think they shine in a highly competitive tournament setting.
Randomness exists in all of these games but I consider it very balanced/smoothed out so it shouldn’t really affect the outcome. Not all of the games I mentioned have permanent teams, but that can easily be changed with house rules.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes! Learn how bad at communication you really are!
This was going to be mine. I love this game! It’s more fun when folks go in cold and learn as they go along. Really easy to take turns so everyone gets a chance.
Towerfall and Mario Kart are fantastic for couch gaming with friends
Pterodactyl is one of my favorite stupid games to play.
You just sit in a circle and see if you can make the person next to you to laugh while you say “pterodactyl” with your lips curled over your teeth so you look kinda like a pterodactyl.
There’s this old game I was taught to play at Christmas called wet biscuit.
Essentially everyone sits in a circle around a cup of water and people take turns adding coasters under it, until the glass eventually spills
