Image By Rebecca Angel
Previously, I wrote about games that take a long time to play, which is perfect for New Year’s Eve. Here is a list of games for lots of people to play (seven or more!)
First, here are a few games that only require paper and pencil:
Celebrity: I played this with a group one New Year’s Eve a decade ago and some of us who were there still refer to it as one of our favorite parties. Hand out small strips to paper and a pencil. Everyone writes the name of one celebrity on each strip (alive, dead, real, fictional…) Depending on how many celebrities each person writes, the game can be long or short (4 – 10). Here is the complete gameplay. Be sure to do the Alternative Version which has three rounds.
Drawing Telephone: One of our favorite party games because the less-skilled you are in the art department, the better! Everyone gets a piece of paper and pencil. Each person writes a random phrase on the top of their paper and passes it to the person on their right. That person illustrates the phrase. Then everyone folds back the phrase so only the drawing is showing, and passes their paper to the right. Now the next person only sees the illustration and writes a phrase they think matches it. And so on. Here is a more detailed description of the game. We have some games taped up permanently in our house because they were so hilarious.
Round Singing: You all know Row, Row, Row Your Boat. And Are You Sleeping? Get everyone to try a round. No one needs to sound like a pop star, it’s just for fun. Here is a nice resource. Don’t be shy. If everyone is singing, who cares what individual voices sound like? (By the way, making live music together lights up more of your brain than any other activity, so this is good for you!)
And here is a list of great games to buy for lots-o-people to play!
Mad Libs
Tsuro: The Game of the Path
7 Wonders
The next three games are ‘apples to apples’ types that can have multiple people, and end whenever you feel like it:
Snake Oil Card Game
Mad Scientist University
UnNatural Selection
What games do you recommend for a group?
May be worth checking out Wits & Wagers (trivia for people who aren’t good at trivia) and Codenames for some other party games. I also liked “But Wait, There’s More”, but that’s in the same vein as Snake Oil so probably not worth having both. 🙂 If you want a boxed version of drawing telephone, Telestrations comes in up to 12 player sets and contains nice bound whiteboards and cards ready to go. Definitely not necessary, but the boards are pretty nice and well formatted to the alternate “phrase”/”draw” parts of the game. I’ve heard good things about “Say Anything”, though if you have littler ones around you may be better off w/ the Family version – same silliness/fun, but a little less likely to go family unfriendly.
Thanks for the suggestions! Gunna check out Wits and Wagers…
Forbidden Desert, Jamaica, No Thanks