A List of Party Games for your Next Gathering!

Disclosure:   A few months ago I threw out this question on facebook, “What is your Favorite Adult Party Games to play?”  Many responses came in.  Along with doing research on various board games, the answers from said questions, these are my thoughts on the Top 10 “Party” Board Games for Adults. Post may include affiliate links.  It help keeps the site running, and its the holidays, anything helps! 

Lets be honest!  Parties, sometimes, can be a little lame.  We get to the house, we stand around, we talk, then we leave.  We drink beer, we drink wine, we laugh hard, but sometimes, some parties need a little push, and that’s when the “Party” games are thrown out there.  Everyone has an opinion as to what are the best… this just happens to be mine after delving through answers on Reddit, my own Question, and searching the internet for hours on end.

And lucky for me, this list comes out a few days before Thanksgiving.  Enough time to grab a new game and let the laughs begin at your next “family” gathering.  Gawd knows we all need it:

1) Cards Against Humanity

If you haven’t played this game yet, you may just have been living under a rock, or like me, just hadn’t had the right opportunity.  I busted my Cards Against Humanity Cherry this past summer, and once it was popped, I couldn’t stop playing.

This game is designed for the sick minded, for the immature kid in all of us.  Just be forewarned: some things may offend you.  The Game has come out with MANY MANY expansion packs.  The expansion packs cost 10 dollars each, and they even have holiday versions.

2)Apples to Apples Party Box – The Game of Crazy Combinations (Family Edition)

This was ALWAYS a favorite during any family gathering.  And it brought our family together every time we played it.  The object of the game is to win the most rounds by playing a “red apple” card (which generally features a noun) from one’s hand to best “match” that round’s communal “green apple” card (which contains an adjective) as chosen by that round’s judging player. The game is designed for four to ten players and played for 30–75 minutes.

3) Loaded Questions

I LOVED this game when I first played it, but, the only way to play is with a huge group gathering.  So the upcoming holidays is the perfect occasion, and it’s a great way to get to know other family members and friends.

Poses said his game is “very simple” compared to strategy games, as in Loaded Questions “you get through the instructions in about three minutes.”^[1] He said the game “tests players on how well they know each other.”^[1]

Players try to be the first person to move from the “START” square to the “WIN!” square. Players traverse the board with dice rolls, and each turn, they have the opportunity to win bonus moves.^[2]

Once a player has moved the number of spaces indicated by the dice roll, the player draws a card and asks the question corresponding to the color that the player landed on. The board is made up of spaces of four colors: orange, purple, blue, and yellow, which correspond to questions of the categories “Hypotheticals,” “Anything Goes,” “No-Brainers,” and “Personals,” respectively.^[2]

Once the roller has read the appropriate question, all other players write their answers on a piece of paper, and one player reads the answers to the roller, who assigns answer writers for each response. For each correct assignment, the roller moves an additional space along the game board, and rolling commences in clockwise fashion.  ~Wikipedia

It sounds complicated, but once you get started, the fun part begins, matching the answers with the person that wrote them down.

4)Hasbro Electronic Catch Phrase

What’s GREAT about Electronic Catchphrase is that in a big group setting, it is much easier to play.  You can easily pass it around as the time runs down, the whole purpose of the game.

And some games are just true classics, this being one of them.

The premise is really simple: Do your best to come up with words and clues to help your teammates guess the secret phrase. No rhyming words allowed or the other team scores. Once your team guesses correctly, pass it on to the other team. But you have to move fast because the team holding the unit when the buzzer goes off loses.

And with the Electronic version even easier to keep the game going fast and on track.

5) Adult HedBanz Game

So, the first time I played this game, I was in a room filled with a ton of people I had not met before.  I was at a housewarming party for a friend in Los Angeles, and I was surrounded by many of her friends and family.  But SOON, I joined in on this game, and by the end of the night, I was laughing with everyone.

Everyone has a hedbanz that they wear during the game, and they’re given a card, and you begin asking a variety of questions to figure out what your card is.  Is is a food, animal, etc?  The goal is to get as many cards correct as you can.   The fun part is that you can see exactly what their card says but they have no idea as they’re asking the questions.

6) Munchkin Deluxe

So, of course, I had to throw in a few games meant for some “geeks” in our lives.  It’s okay, I love this GAME, surprisingly.  Really, any game by Steve Jackson will have your geek at heart loving you.

There are a VARIETY of rules when it comes to the Munckin Games and expansion packs, but trust me, it will have you laughing with a geeky group of friends and sometimes family members if you can convince them to join in.

7)Telestrations 8 Player – The Original

Here’s the basic game play. Each player starts with their own erasable sketch book, dry-erase marker and word card. A roll of the die determines each player’s unique secret starting word. The timer gets turned and everyone draws their word. After 60 seconds, everyone passes their book to the player on their left. Then each player takes a few seconds to guess in words(s) what they see, and passes again. The timer is turned and everyone draws what they see. ~Telestrations

I have not played this game, but I’ve heard good things about it, and it does look fun.  Have you played it before?

8) Lunch Money

Lunch Money is a game I haven’t played but it was well recommended by a family member.  This game is based off the name, “Lunch Money,” in which in an elimination style card game you begin stealing each other’s lunch money with sneak attack cards and much more.  This game is not designed for the faint of heart because it may get vile the more competitive it gets.

9) The Game of Things

This game people either love or they hate, but I had to put it on the list because it’s a little different.

The Game of THINGS…… is the hilarious party game that presents players with provocative topics like “THINGS… people do when no one is looking”, “THINGS… you wouldn’t do for a million dollars” or “THINGS… your parents forgot to tell you”… and allows each player to say whatever comes to mind. Pick a topic, get everyone to write a response, read them out loud and then guess who said what. ~The Game of Things

And of course, it allows you to GUESS how well you truly know a person, and they may surprise you!

10)Balderdash

And another classic party game is none other than “Balderdash.”  Why did I put it on the list?  Because with every SEARCH result, Balderdash was ALWAYS, ALWAYS at the top.

The classic game of “Bluffing” too.

The rules:

The game begins by all players rolling a die, with the high roll chosen to be the first “dasher”. The dasher draws a “definition card” from the supplied box, and rolls the dice to decide which of the words listed there is to be used. Then the dasher writes the definition of the word (as supplied on the card) on a piece of paper. All other players then write down a definition, which may be an honest attempt to supply the correct definition, or, if they do not know or for tactical reasons decide not to, a fictitious definition for the word designed to sound convincing.

The players hand their definitions to the dasher. Players submitting the correct definition are immediately awarded three points, and, if there is more than one, the round is abandoned (though the points are retained). The definitions, including the real definition, are then read out in random order. Players record which answer they believe is correct. Players are awarded two points if they guess the correct definition. Players are awarded one point for each other player who incorrectly chooses the fake definition they wrote. The dasher is awarded three points if no one guesses the correct definition. Players move their tokens around the game board one square for each point awarded. The role of dasher then passes to another player. The winner is the individual whose token reaches the end square first. ~Wikipedia

Needless to say, there are a LOT of options when it comes to picking out the perfect Party game for your next Gathering.  Have you played any of the games above, have I introduced you to some new ones?  Tell me some of your favorite party game stories.