TLDR; What are some good party games that encourage getting to know each other and are not centered around drinking?
A year ago I had a great party. I split all participants (maybe 16 people) into 4 teams and made a 3 game tournament which was very appreciated. This year I am hoping to replicate the good vibe we had, but I want new games.
I am now asking you; What are some good party games?
Criterias:
- Low or no amount of randomness (to keep things competitive)
- Reasonably easy to acquire the materials for
- Possible to do as a team
- Encourages interaction, either within the team, between teams or both
- Should not be centered around drinking
For bigger groups: Wavelength, Telestrations, Just One, The Game
For smaller groups: Mysterium, codenames, jackbox party packRandomness is often desirable in party games because otherwise it’s usually a small number of people who are competitive and the rest are bored/quit.
TLDR; Use poker decks to clone 3 sets of Love Letter
I’ll recommend some boardgames.
Once you go over 7-8 players, the options are greatly reduced. The available genres become (mostly) limited to social deduction
Social deduction, all about trying to figure out other peoples cards. And lying, lots of lying.
- Love letter, 6 players, 20 cards, ~13 tokens, for points
- Avalon, 7-10 players, ~30cards, tracking mat/paper
- Secret Hitler, 7-10 players, ~30 cards, tracking mat/paper, has a print-at-home version.
- Ultimate werewolf/vampire/etc, ~10-12 players, ~13-15 cards, phone app (for narration, free)
*None of the above are very good for playing as teams (i.e. two ppl taking a single player spot)
Group Games games that do well with teams
- Codenames, various versions.
- Forbidden Island/Dessert/Sky - co-op game for various number of players
As a special mention, Challengers is a board game that allows you to create simple yet fun card drafting tournaments. There are two editions, each allows you up to 8 players, and if you have both they can be combined into 16ppl tournaments
For your numbers, you’d need to buy 2-3 copies of the same game. Not ideal, even if you have the budget.
I’d say, print yourself three copies of Love Letters, you can find the cards online, or just play with 2-3 poker decks. Its the best game in my library, simple yet deep. We’ve been playing it at least once a week for 3 years now. I’ve even managed to play once with a mob of disinterested teens ;)
It’s been a long time and I’m not sure of it’s current state, but some friends and I used to have a blast play Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator (I think there’s a couple other games out there now that are similar)
You kind of need the right setup for it to work well, a big TV or projector you can hook up to a computer and everyone needs their own laptop, etc.
The basic idea is- picture the bridge of the enterprise (or your starship of choice) you’ve got a bunch of people with their own consoles responsible for different aspects of the ships operation, the helm, engineering, weapons, etc. That’s what you’re doing.
I think at some point they added support for support fighters and such to accompany the main starship so if you have more people they have something to do.
We also made up a couple extra positions, like a captain who didn’t really have his own console, he just got his own chair front and center and a fancy hat and gave out orders.
I always wanted to play that and even used to have the perfect setup for it (projector, big room, extensive seating) but never had the friends for it. I’m envious of your good fortune!