the whole notebook
All games
54 games, A to Z. Each one works with what's already in the room.
- Wordplay · from India
Antakshari
best bit: a whole team stuck on the letter Z, humming desperately
Sing a few lines of a song. The other team's song has to start with the letter yours ended on.
- Outsmart · from Korea
Baskin Robbins 31
best bit: realizing three turns too late that you were already doomed
Count up from 1 together, saying one to three numbers each turn. Whoever has to say 31 loses.
- Wordplay
Botticelli
best bit: stumping the know-it-all with a clue they can't name
Someone picks a famous person. Stump them with clues to earn yes-or-no questions, then guess who they are.
- Push your luck
Bunco
best bit: the whole room stopping dead when someone yells “Bunco!”
Teams of two roll three dice hunting for the round's number. Roll three of it at once and shout “Bunco!”
- Wordplay
Categories
best bit: defending a wildly creative answer to a very skeptical table
Everyone gets the same letter and races to name a band, a city, a TV show and more. Only unique answers score.
- Draw & act
Charades
best bit: your quietest friend miming “Jaws” with total commitment
Act out a movie, book or song without saying a word while your team shouts guesses before time runs out.
- Social deception
Cheat
best bit: calling “Cheat!” and flipping over four very confident lies
Play cards face down and say what they are, true or not. Get caught lying and you pick up the whole pile.
- Wordplay
Concentration
best bit: blanking on a single fruit while everyone keeps clapping at you
Keep a clapping rhythm going around the circle. Name something in the category on the beat, or you're out.
- Wordplay
Consequences
best bit: a story where your boss meets a raccoon at the DMV
Write a line of a story, fold it over and pass it on. Nobody sees the rest until it's read out loud.
- Wordplay
Contact
best bit: two friends yell the same word and the keeper groans
One player knows a secret word. Everyone else trades clues to pry out its letters until someone guesses it.
- Outsmart
Crazy Eights
best bit: playing an eight and naming the one suit they don't have
Match the top card by suit or number to empty your hand. Eights are wild and change the suit.
- Outsmart
Dots and Boxes
best bit: one line that hands you seven boxes in a row
Take turns drawing lines between dots. Close a box to claim it and go again. Most boxes wins.
- Outsmart · from Russia
Durak
best bit: piling attack after attack on the same poor defender
Throw cards at your neighbor that they have to beat. There's no winner, just one fool left holding cards.
- Fast hands
Egyptian Ratscrew
best bit: every hand at the table slamming down on a pair of 8s
Take turns flipping cards onto a pile. Spot a pair and slap it first to win the whole stack.
- Outsmart
Euchre
best bit: slamming down the right bower to steal the last trick
Partners race to win three of five tricks, where two jacks become the most powerful cards in the deck.
- Push your luck
Farkle
best bit: risking 2,000 points on one die and somehow rolling a 5
Roll six dice and keep the ones that score. Bank your points, or risk them all on one more roll.
- Wordplay
Fictionary
best bit: your made-up definition getting more votes than the real one
Someone reads out a real word nobody knows. Everyone writes a fake definition, then guesses which one is real.
- Draw & act
Fishbowl
best bit: by round 3, one eyebrow wiggle means Dolly Parton
Two teams guess names pulled from a bowl: first by describing, then with one word, then acting them out.
- Wordplay
Ghost
best bit: cornering a friend so they have to say the final letter
Take turns adding one letter to a growing word. Whoever is forced to finish a real word loses the round.
- Outsmart
Gin Rummy
best bit: calling gin when they were one card away
Draw and discard to build sets and runs. Knock when your leftover cards add up to 10 or less.
- Outsmart
Golf
best bit: flipping your last card and finding the king you prayed for
Swap cards to build the lowest-scoring grid of six. Lowest total after nine rounds, or holes, wins.
- Crack the rule
Green Glass Door
best bit: finally getting it, then refusing to explain it to anyone else
You can bring a kitten through the green glass door, but not a cat. Work out the secret rule by guessing.
- Outsmart
Hearts
best bit: dumping the queen of spades on your friend with a smile
Avoid winning tricks with hearts in them, and steer clear of the queen of spades. Lowest score wins.
- Get to know you
Hot Seat
best bit: the question that gets a much longer pause than expected
One person sits in the hot seat while everyone fires questions at them for two minutes. Then swap.
- Social deception
Kemps
best bit: a very suspicious amount of eyebrow scratching
Get four of a kind, then secretly signal your partner so they can call it before the other team catches on.
- Social deception
Liar's Dice
best bit: calling “Liar!” on a bid that turns out to be exactly right
Bid on how many of a number are hidden under everyone's cups. Call a bluff, and someone loses a die.
- Social deception
Mafia
best bit: finding out your sweetest friend was the killer all along
A few players are secretly the Mafia. Each night they take someone out; each day the town votes on a suspect.
- Crack the rule
Mao
best bit: a penalty card for “talking”, with no further explanation
Nobody explains the rules. Break one and you get a penalty card. Work them out before your hand gets huge.
- Social deception · from Germany and Denmark
Mia
best bit: announcing Mia with a perfectly straight face
Secretly roll two dice and claim a score that beats the last one, true or not. Get caught lying, lose a life.
- Get to know you
Most Likely To
best bit: the whole room pointing at you at once
Someone asks who's most likely to do something. On three, everyone points at the person they pick.
- Fast hands
Nertz
best bit: four hands diving for the same pile with the same 6 of hearts
Everyone plays speed solitaire at once, with shared piles in the middle. Empty your stack and yell “Nertz!”
- Fast hands
Ninja
best bit: freezing in a ridiculous lunge, inches from someone's fingers
Strike a pose, then take turns making one swift move to slap someone's hand. Lose both hands and you're out.
- Outsmart
Oh Hell
best bit: desperately trying to lose a trick you never wanted to win
Bid the exact number of tricks you'll take. One too many is as bad as one too few.
- Get to know you
Paranoia
best bit: hearing your name and having no idea what the question was
Answer a whispered question with someone's name, out loud. A coin flip decides if the question gets revealed.
- Draw & act
Pictionary
best bit: guessing “Titanic” from one boat and a very sad stick figure
One teammate draws a secret word, no letters allowed, while the rest of the team races to guess it.
- Push your luck
Pig
best bit: rolling a 1 at 38 points when you really should have stopped
Roll one die as many times as you dare, adding it up. Roll a 1 and you lose everything from that turn.
- Outsmart
President
best bit: Scum handing over their two best cards through gritted teeth
Beat each play to get rid of your cards first. Finish first and you're President, last and you're Scum.
- Crack the rule
Psychiatrist
best bit: realizing everyone's been answering as the person on their left
The group secretly agrees on a rule for answering questions. One player has to work out what it is.
- Outsmart
Salvo
best bit: watching their face fall right before they say “hit”
Hide your fleet on a secret grid and call out shots to sink your opponent's ships before they sink yours.
- Social deception
Sardines
best bit: six grown adults silently wedged into one coat closet
One person hides and everyone else searches. When you find them, you squeeze into the hiding spot too.
- Outsmart · from Italy
Scopa
best bit: slapping down a king to sweep the whole table
Capture table cards that match your card or add up to it. Sweep the whole table clean and shout “Scopa!”
- Push your luck
Ship, Captain & Crew
best bit: rerolling your cargo hoping for a 12 and getting a 3
Roll five dice up to three times to find a 6, a 5 and a 4, in that order. Your last two dice are your score.
- Wordplay
Song Association
best bit: belting a lyric you didn't know you remembered
Someone calls out a word. You have five seconds to start singing a real song that has it in the lyrics.
- Outsmart
Spades
best bit: your partner bidding nil and somehow pulling it off
Partners bid how many tricks they'll win, and spades beat every other suit. Make your bid to score.
- Fast hands
Speed
best bit: both of you slamming a 7 on the same 8 at the same instant
Two players race to play cards one higher or one lower onto the middle piles. No turns, just speed.
- Fast hands
Spoons
best bit: looking up to find every spoon is already gone
Pass cards around the table fast. Get four of a kind, grab a spoon, and don’t be the one left without.
- Draw & act
Telephone Pictionary
best bit: watching “a cat running for mayor” turn into “tax fraud”
Write a phrase and pass it left. The next person draws it, the next guesses the drawing, and on it goes.
- Wordplay
Twenty Questions
best bit: nailing it on question twenty with a total wild guess
One person thinks of something. Everyone else gets twenty yes-or-no questions to work out what it is.
- Get to know you
Two Truths and a Lie
best bit: learning the unbelievable one was true the whole time
Tell everyone three things about yourself, one of them made up. They grill you, then vote on which is the lie.
- Outsmart
Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe
best bit: discovering tic-tac-toe can actually be hard
Nine games of tic-tac-toe inside one big one. Where you play decides where your opponent has to play next.
- Social deception
Up Jenkins
best bit: a row of perfectly innocent faces, one of them lying
One team hides a coin under their hands. The other clears hands away one by one, saving the coin for last.
- Wordplay
Who Am I?
best bit: asking “am I a real person?” with Shrek stuck to your head
Everyone has a famous name stuck to their forehead. Ask yes-or-no questions to work out who you are.
- Social deception
Wink Murder
best bit: your friend dying very slowly and very loudly mid-sentence
One secret killer takes people out with a wink. Everyone else tries to catch them before they're next.
- Social deception · from Japan
Word Wolf
best bit: realizing halfway through that you're the wolf
Everyone gets the same secret word, except one player who doesn't know their word is different. Find them.