The Best Party Games For Entertaining Guests
A guest post by Brogan Tate.
It’s that time of year where many of us are hosting festive gatherings, cosy games nights and inviting family and friends over again. We know games are a great way to entertain guests, and personally I don’t think it’s a proper party without a good party game! I’m Brogan, and I’m an Ambassador for Big Potato. I’ve played and own almost every single Big Potato game, so I’ve got some good knowledge on what you need to buy next. I’ve gathered together a bunch of my favourites that are perfect for a mix of ages, sizes and parties, but be sure to share your favourite games with us on Instagram and Twitter.
Herd Mentality
First up, the game which always has my whole family in stitches (including my 85 year old Nanny!), Herd Mentality. It’s a very simple game, where your answer must try and match what the group (aka the herd) might think in order to win cow tokens. For example, ‘name a fruit that’s hard to juggle’. You might think of Pineapple or Banana (or something totally different!), but the aim is to write the same as everyone else. If you’re the odd one out, you’ll be saddled with the Pink Cow - and you don’t want that. This game provided us with a lot of giggles and questionable answers, where we learnt a thing or two about each other along the way. Perfect for ages 10+, and can be played between 4-20 players, lasting around 20 minutes.
20 Second Showdown
This is a perfect party challenge game where you’ll need to assemble two teams. It’s another good one for the whole family, where you can play with 5-20 players aged 10+, so all the adults and kids can get involved and complete the challenges together. It’s fast paced, easy to learn and quick to play. From “count to 10 like a caveman” to “perform a wedding service for 2 of your teammates”, you must complete as many crazy challenges with your team as you can before your time runs out. There are over 400 challenges so you won’t get bored digging this one out for each and every party. I played with my girlfriends and let me tell you, their acting and explaining was hilarious after a few wines!
Obama Llama
Next up is a Classic Big Potato game, one that everyone loves and finds easy to play, Obama Llama. Fun little fact, I actually got to play this once with the designer, BBC Radio 1 DJ and TV presenter Matt Edmondson! The pressure got to me and our team sadly lost, but the mission is to match more rhyming pair cards than the other team. There are 3 rounds to play to earn points, before trying to get your matching pairs. Describe It cards have you describing the rhymes to your team without using any of the words on the card, Solve It cards are for one person to read and the others to guess the rhyme and lastly, Act It cards have you doing a little bit of charades. This one is good for lasting a long time (30 minutes or so) with 4+ players from age 12+. You should also know that most of the rhymes are a bit silly, “Severus Snape choking on a grape” to “Uranium playing Cranium” and “A T-Rex mixing on the decks”, and that’s what makes it even better.
Scrawl
The adult drawing game that can go very wrong, very quickly. This is a game that all my friends ask to play, and is normally the last game I dig out at the end of the night. You don’t have to be good at drawing to play Scrawl. In fact, the worse you are, the better. It’s a bit like Chinese whispers but with drawings of ludicrous things like, “A Monkey Knife Fight” or “A Haunted Oven”. You then pass it on around the group, before unveiling the whole crazy story. This is for the grown-ups age 17+, for groups of 4-8 people.
Before we move on to a couple of non Big Potato games, don’t forget that you can head to their YouTube channel for easy tutorial videos. Gone are the days of reading boring instruction books, pop the videos on and everyone can listen and learn to play the easy way. Trust me!
Just One
This was a game we played with friends we met on holiday a few years ago, immediately buying it for ourselves when we got home, after hours of playing rounds with them every night. It’s an easy cooperative party game for 3 to 7 players ages 8 and up, in which you play together to discover as many mystery words as possible. One person has the main word to guess, and everyone else has to think of clues. Unlike Herd Mentality, you need to try and think outside the box and be unique, as all identical clues will be cancelled. For example, the word ‘Italy’ might have everyone writing things like Ciao, Pizza, Pasta, Rome, Vespas, Gelato etc, but it can only be one word each. Everyone reveals their clues and you must try and guess the answer from what the others have written for you. It’s so simple, sometimes we don’t bother with the official scoring, we just enjoy going around and seeing what comes up.
Exploding Kittens
My final recommendation is a popular card game called Exploding Kittens, a highly-strategic, kitty-powered version of Russian roulette. It was the most-backed game in the history of Kickstarter, and is suitable for 2-5 players aged 7+. The aim is to avoid Exploding Kitten cards, whilst the other cards in the deck help you avoid or mitigate your risk of drawing one. If you don’t explode, YOU WIN! It gets a little intense as you steal, swap, diffuse, skip, peek at cards or secretly relocate an Exploding Kitten. We enjoyed this so much, we also purchased their newest game called Throw Throw Burrito, which is next on our ‘to play’ party games list!
That’s a wrap on a few of the top party games you need to play, let me know what you think! You can find me @brogantatexo on social media, and I love trying new games so be sure to share any you think I might also like. Enjoy!
