Games for game night
No-board, no-box games for a night in with friends.
All games for game night
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Back-to-Back Drawing
One partner describes a picture using only shapes and directions while the other, facing away, tries to draw it.
- 2+ players, make game
- 15 min
- Ages 7+
- Calm
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Categories
Pick a category and a letter, then race to name things that fit before the rhythm or the timer catches you out.
- 2+ players, think game
- 15 min
- Ages 7+
- Calm
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Charades
One player acts out a word or phrase without speaking while their team races the clock to guess it.
- 4+ players, talk game
- 20 min
- Ages 6+
- Lively
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Consequences
Each player adds one line to a story without seeing what came before, then the folded papers are opened and read aloud.
- 3–12 players, make game
- 15 min
- Ages 8+
- Calm
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Fishbowl
The same bowl of names is guessed three times: first by describing, then with one word, then in silence.
- 6–20 players, talk game
- 40 min
- Ages 10+
- Lively
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Mafia
A hidden few eliminate a player each night, and by day the whole group argues over who to vote out.
- 7–20 players, talk game
- 30 min
- Ages 12+
- Lively
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Name That Tune
Play the first few seconds of a song and see who can name it first. The shorter the clip, the bigger the bragging rights.
- 3+ players, think game
- 20 min
- Ages 8+
- Lively
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Paper Telephone
A sentence becomes a drawing, the drawing becomes a sentence, and by the end of the stack nothing is what it started as.
- 4–10 players, make game
- 25 min
- Ages 8+
- Calm
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Twenty Questions
One player thinks of something and the rest have twenty yes-or-no questions to work out what it is.
- 2+ players, think game
- 10 min
- Ages 7+
- Calm
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Two Truths and a Lie
Each player makes three statements about themselves and everyone else votes on which one is false.
- 3–20 players, talk game
- 15 min
- Ages 10+
- Calm
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Who Am I?
Everyone wears a name they cannot see and asks yes-or-no questions around the room until they work out who they are.
- 4–20 players, talk game
- 20 min
- Ages 8+
- Lively
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Wink Murder
A secret murderer picks off the circle one wink at a time while a detective tries to catch them in the act.
- 6–20 players, talk game
- 15 min
- Ages 8+
- Lively
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Would You Rather
Players choose between two equally tempting, or equally awful, options and then have to defend their choice.
- 2+ players, talk game
- 15 min
- Ages 6+
- Calm
How to choose
These are games for friends around a table or a couch, with no board and no box to buy. Paper, pens and a timer cover most of them. Check the player range before you choose: a game built for a crowd falls flat with four people, and a quiet game for four gets lost in a crowd.
Not sure which of these fits your group? The game picker asks how many people you have, how old they are and where you are, then deals three games.