Popular Party Games

Popular Party Board Games

Here’s some popular party games for you and your friends to enjoy the next time you decide to throw a party. Since we just finished posting a page on popular kids games, these are going to focus on adult parties. Many of these games either have kids versions or would appeal to children, too.

I’m going to try to stay away from trivia games, since your party might have people drinking at it. From experience, you should not drink and play Trivial Pursuit. I think that’s called TPUI.

1. Apples to Apples

Apples to Apples won a lot of awards when it first appeared in 1998, mostly because it’s great for parties. First off, you play with as few as 4 people, but Apple 2 Apples can be played by up to 10 people. It’s fast-paces and zany, because there are no right or wrong answers. Let me explain.

Each turn, one player acts as “judge”. The judge draws a characteristic (adjective). The judge announces this to all the other players. Then the players take a card out of their hand and make a match with the card the judge played. The players cards are a person, place, thing or event. The fun part comes in when the players try to justify their card by explaining why the two cards match. Eventually, the judge decides who played the best card. Then play rotates to a new judge and a new round begins.

2. Charades

This isn’t a board game and you won’t need many materials to play. All you need is a pen or two and some scrap sheets of paper. Divide up into teams, have each team come up with a collection of words or phrases that the other team will challenge or stump the other team. Tear up your paper into scraps and write one phrase for scrap of paper.

When the game starts, one member of a team takes out one word or phrase and tries to convey it’s meaning to their teammates through pantomime. The player can’t speak or tip off their opponents, except through gestures.

You can also play a drawing version of charades, which can be a lot of fun at a party. All you’ll need is a chalk board or dry erase board. I think the board game is called Pictionary, but you can play it with the same exact rules as Charades.

3. Cranium

Cranium is a great party game because it lets everyone show off a different talent. If you’re good at charades, some rounds involve charades style questions. If trivia is your specialty, you can show off that aspect of your personality. If you excel at speaking, writing or artistry, those skills come into play at times.

Conversely, if you suck at any of the above, that doesn’t mean you lose the game. I’ve seen Cranium played at parties and work. I’ve seen Cranium played at family events and work. It’s a very versatile board game.

4. Game Show Games

There’s a wide variety of board games and party games based on television game shows. The advantage of tv game show party games is that most players will be familiar with the rules and how it’s played. This cuts down on explanation time and let’s people show off what they would do if they were on the gameshow.

Popular party games based on tv game shows right now are “Deal or No Deal”, “Jeopardy”, “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire”, “Family Feud”, “The Price Is Right” and “Wheel of Fortune”.

5. Tribond

Tribond is fun to play when everyone is a little tipsy, because you never know what kind of crazy answer you’re going to get. You’ll draw a card with three things on it. The players have to guess what all three disparate, seemingly unrelated things have in common.

Here’s an example. Question: What do a bird, pumpkin and sunflower have in common? Answer: Seeds.

But there no telling what somebody at your party is going to say.

6. Loaded Questions

Another fun one for people looking to have a good time. In Loaded Questions, a question is drawn. Example: What would you do if you found out that a nuclear war would start in 24 hours?

Everyone besides the person who asked the question writes down on a piece of paper their answer. Then the questioner must guess who wrote each answer, moving spaces around the board for every correct answer. Some answers will be obvious, while some will be downright laughable.

That’s what popular party games should be about.

Related Posts

Popular Kids Games
25 Most Popular Board Games
Board Games University
100 Board Games You Should Play Before You Die

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 7:03 pm and is filed under Board Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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