Tired of watching the tube? Instead, turn on a few of these great party games to try with your friends! It's more fun to interact with people than to blankly stare at a televsion screen anyway.
These games will help get people talking, interacting and making better use of your time together.
The Couch Game
The couch game is a great one that forces everyone to learn other's names. This game is also great if there is almost an even number of guys and girls, because it promotes the battle of the sexes, which is usually the most spirited battle.
Rules:
Divide everyone into two teams according to visible differences. Guys and girls is the classic division of teams. Ideas for other divisions that would work well: socks vs no socks, light shirts vs dark shirts, dark hair vs light hair. You get the idea. As long as the dividing trait is visually obvious, the division will work.
Everyone sits in a large circle. On 'the couch' sits two guys and two girls (i.e. two people from each team). Everyone writes down their name on a piece of paper. These papers are folded, collected and redistributed to everyone randomly. The possessor of the paper assumes the name written on the paper.
To the left of the couch will be an empty seat. The empty seat is important. Whoever sits on the left hand side of the empty seat calls out a name, and whoever is holding a piece of paper with that name on it has to go and sit in the empty seat. After sitting in the empty seat, the person who just sat down exchanges their piece of paper with the person who just called the name out. Then, the person to the left of the new empty seat gets to call out a new name.
The Goal:
To have all guys or all girls (i.e. all members of one team) on the couch. To do so, call out the name that the people on the couch have written on their piece of paper. You need to get them off the couch, and get either all guys or all girls on the couch.
The Job Game
Goes by many different names, and doesn't nessasarily adhere to 'jobs' alone. This game can be played with anything substituted for 'jobs.' The more it is played, the sillier it gets. And sillier is better.
Rules:
Everyone writes down a random job on a piece of paper. Whatever each person writes is 'their' job and they need to remember it and keep it a secret.
The papers are collected by a single person and reads all of the job titles out loud twice. Then they are all discarded.
Going around the circle, each person gets to ask somebody else if they wrote down a certain 'job.' If that person guesses correctly, then the person who was 'found out' has to to become a team with whoever guessed corrrectly, with the person who 'guessed' acting as the boss of the team. When guessing correctly, the guesser gets to guess again, until they err in their guess.
The Goal:
To be the only person to not have their job guessed. This is usually achieved by bluffing.
Truth or Dare
The quintessential all time classic.
Rules:
You know the rules, but for those who live in a cave and aren't familiar with this one, this game involves asking a person to pick a Truth or Dare. Truth involves asking a revealing question about the person and Dare involves presenting the person with a usually bold dare. Remember that who ever did the last truth or dare gets to make up the next one.
The Goal:
To embarrass other people, or to get them to do some incredibly gross things.
Precautions:
Only play this game with people who are completely willing to do a dare that you ask them. Lots of people want to dare other people, but less will actually follow through when dared themselves.
Tips:
Using a dice is the best way to keep it interesting. For example, the person who starts rolls the dice, and goes around the circle to wherever that number dictates. This makes the game more random. This method of going around the circle adds a level of unpredictablility to the game. It also helps to be creative.
Try to incorporate double or triple or quadruple inclusions to the dare to make it interesting. A more complicated dare would be that the die is rolled once, and that person has to run outside for 15 minutes. The second roll of the dice selects who has to lick chocolate sauce from the armpit of the person who just ran around the house.
Whatever you plan on doing, be sure to do it creatively and be sure it is fun. The more you use your imagination and creativity the more exciting and stimulating your get-togethers will be.
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