The Vine: February 11, 2011
Do you have any good party games for grownups? I’m turning 30 next month (March 5th! Yay Saturday birthday!) and wanted to mark the occasion by throwing myself a little shindig (I also didn’t want anyone else to feel like they had to throw a party for me). A good chunk of my immediate family is coming in from out of town, some of my grad-school friends are coming down, and a few fratty friends from my summer softball team and my fun gay neighbors from the building all said they’d be there for a drink or five. So it’ll be a good mix of people from all different phases of my life.
I’m not a terribly socially awkward person, but I’m not a natural hostess either, so I wanted to have a couple casual games planned to help break the ice. I don’t think overly structured games is a great idea, since people will be coming and going, and it might be crowded for a little while (I hope!).
The only thought I had so far was some sort of celebrity game, where everyone gets a sticker with a celebrity’s name stuck on their back upon arrival, and have to determine who it is by asking yes or no questions, yadda yadda. I’m not married to that idea, but that’s the sort of casual, chatty thing I’m looking for. Although I should say that I am very competitive and would not mind a little yelling or trash-talking, either.
Any ideas, or memories from a kick-ass party you’ve been to before? Oh, and one other detail: I’m reserving the back room of the bar next door. So we’re not in a house, but it’s not a huge amount of space, either.
Planning my 30th birthday party like a 10-year-old
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult rando
Everybody needs to know about the Games Bible!!
http://www.amazon.com/Games-Bible-Over-Rules-Strategies/dp/0761153896
This contains basically every game in existence that does not require proprietary equipment (e.g. Apples to Apples, or board games, or things of that type.) The whole book is worth it just for “Get Down, Mr. President”.
I also am with the people who recommend “Celebrity”, although it takes the right crowd – when it works it’s one of the funnest games in the world. As several other people have noted, you MUST make a rule discouraging players from putting in random people no one else will ever have heard of. The only bad round I’ve ever played had several guys who put in a bunch of scientists in their very obscure fields. A good rule of thumb is to say at least 50% of the people have to have heard of the person, or it will get thrown out.
Another great game is Running Charades – the absolute best way to play Charades. I can’t remember if she describes this variation in the Games Bible (although I imagine she does), so I’ll write it out here:
Make two teams and put them in separate rooms. One neutral person is the clue-giver, and makes two identical lists of ten titles (of books, songs, movies, etc. – standard charades). Each team sends a player to get the first clue from the clue-giver, and once they get it the players run back to their teams and start acting it out. From there, it’s a race to see which team can get through the ten clues the fastest. The first person to guess an answer is the person to run and get the next one – and you do RUN, because as soon as you guess it the person acting it out is yelling “Yes, you got it, RUN!!” This game has become an addiction among my family and our friends.
The only caveat with Running Charades is that you have to have a space big enough to put the two teams far enough apart so they can’t hear each other easily. In my current place, the only way I can think to organize it is to put the clue-giver halfway up the stairs, and have one team in the living room and the other upstairs in one of the bedrooms.
Oh, and you need to have friends willing to play Charades. It helps to review the standard signs quickly before you start so everyone’s speaking the same Charades language.
Check out “Left, Right, Center.” It’s a dice game (I’ve seen the set at Target) that is face-paced and interesting. It’s GREAT fun for a larger size group of any age…I’ve played it with poker chips, and the big winner got a gift card; but I could see the “grand prize” being a gag gift or certificate or something too. Or you could play with quarters and the winner gets it all.
It’s not a game, per se, but it would definitely break the ice and get conversation flowing…Chuck Klosterman has a set of cards called “50 Questions for Insane Conversations” that is fun and funny. And if you’re not into something as twisted as Klosterman’s questions, there are books and other card decks like it with “what if” questions and things like that I’ve seen at bookstores. Happy birthday and good luck!
I wouldn’t discount kids’ party games, either. I organised my department’s Christmas party last year and we made it a children’s party theme, with suitable decorations and games. And you’ve never seen people have more fun than during drunken musical chairs.
I’ve played that sentence-drawing-sentence-drawing game and I actually kept the pieces of paper from it because they were SO funny. And any number of people can play, which is fun.
Thank you to whoever recommended Dixit – it looks perfect for a friend with an upcoming birthday.
I am SO going out and buying Apples to Apples now!
Okay, I’ll be the killjoy: I loathe party games. I’ve already purchased a gift for the host, gotten myself gussied up, and gotten to the party, and now I’m expected to walk around with a sticker on my back or guess what the birthday girl’s favorite movie is? What happened to letting people eat, drink, and converse with the people with whom they want to converse?
Things!
This is, in some ways, a less-structured, open-ended version of Apples to Apples.
http://www.thingsthegame.com/
Not sure it works as an icebreaker, but it’s the kind of game where:
1.) You can be competitative, and yet, everyone’s laughing so hard no one every remembers who wins.
2.) You learn things about people you didn’t know before – and even those you do know – very fast.
The premise is there’s a category (i.e. Gifts you wouldn’t give to your mother-in-law). Everyone writes an answer on a small piece of paper and hands it a the “reader” for the round. Then, the trick is to guess who wrote what.
Depending on who your friends are and what they’re like, it can go a little blue at times. But, it’s hilarious and a lot of fun.
Several years ago I threw a party where a lot of people didn’t know each other. In the days leading up to the event, I contacted each of the attendees and had them tell me one interesting fact about themselves that people might not already know.
I put all of those together in a list on a single half-sheet, like:
1. This person has skydived.
2. This person worked in an adult bookshop for one week.
3. This person won a Jelly-Belly eating contest in 1997.
4. This person is fluent in Esperanto.
5. This person was their college’s mascot at basketball games.
…that sort of thing. Random tidbits that make for good conversation starters. Anyway, I printed up a bunch of the half-sheets and had them at the door for people to pick up when they came in. It was casual, it was fun, and it was a great way for people to get to know each other and break out of their usual cliques.
Good luck!
Oh, please play Quelf. It’s technically a board game but I can’t describe it fully, you kind of have to start playing to get it. You can’t be afraid too look like a jackass at first, because this game makes you do ridiculous things (examples: creating an interpretive dance about getting out of jail WITHOUT telling anyone what you’re doing, or announcing, “I’ve got you NOW!” whenever someone makes eye contact with you.) But also has typical party game elements along the lines of trivia, pictionary, charades, etc.
The first time I played it, the last part of the game had me hiding behind a couch, one of the players was drenched from the neck up, and someone else was wearing ANOTHER player’s sock like a puppet and we all were toasting the King…