I’ve been jotting down some of favourite games that we play at youthgroup. Most of these are good for all ages, and have passed the test of time (several times a term for 2 or 3 years). There are some newer ones we’ve done once or twice, but which seemed good.
Games with no equipment or preparation
(except possibly tables, chairs and a large room)
Splat – An all time favourite game of quick reactions.
I’ve not mentioned any ball games – there are millions!
Also, any sort of relay race – particular if it involves candles, water, pancakes, or balloons. Popping a balloon with a candle is particularly satisfying.
Good explanation of this one on Uk Family and Wikipedia. The aim of the game is to make 4-of-a-kind, and pick up a spoon, OR to not be the slowest to pick up a spoon.
Start with a deck of cards, between 3 and 8 players, and one less spoon than you have players. You need to play this at a table so that everyone can reach the spoons.
The dealer deals 4 cards to each player, and then puts the rest of the deck on the table. He takes the top card, and adds it to his hand. He then chooses a card, which he passes on to the player on his right, by sliding it face down along the table.
The player on the right picks up this card, and then chooses one of her (now) 5 cards to pass on to the player on her right. In the meantime, the dealer has taken another card from the top of the deck, ready to pass one on.
In this way, the cards are ‘fed’ all the way around and back to the person to the left of the dealer, who places one card into the discard pile. No player may have more than 5 cards or less than 4 cards in their hand at any point.
Should the deck run out, the discard pile is shuffled, and re-used.
When someone manages to get 4-of-a-kind (4 cards of the same value), they pick up one of the spoons. At this point, everyone else has to pick up a spoon as quickly as possible. The person who is left without a spoon is “out”. One spoon is taken away, all the cards are returned, and the next round is played with one player less.
The player who first picks up a spoon should do so as subtly as possible – gameplay may continue for several seconds before other people realise a spoon as been picked up.
A spoon may only be touched when either the player has 4-of-a-kind, or another player has picked up the first spoon, although feints are quite allowed, as long as the spoon isn’t touched.
Requires a pack of playing cards. The aim is to lose all the cards in your hand.
All the players sit around a table, so that they can all reach the centre. The cards are dealt out to all the players as normal.
The person to the dealer’s left then puts his card into the centre, face-up, saying “One”. The player on his left then puts her card face-up on top of his, while saying “Two”. Play continues in this way (going “One”, “Two”, … “Nine”, “Ten”, “Jack”, “Queen”, “King”, “One”, “Two”, etc) until one (or more!) of the following happens:
The card just laid matches the card underneath (same as normal snap).
The card just laid matches the card number spoken by the player (e.g. they put down an Ace while saying “One”).
The card just laid is a Queen.
At this point, all the players must SLAM their hands on top of the pile of cards in the centre, and the last player to do so takes the entire pile, and puts them on the bottom of the pile in his/her hand. He/she then starts off the next round.
In addition.
If any player slams, or even starts to but jerks it back (“flinches”) they forfeit the round and pick up all the cards in the centre.
The game has two major variants:
When a player has used all their cards, they continue to say numbers in turn, and still have to SLAM when a “snap” occurs”. This variant never ends.
When a player has used all their cards, they cease play. The first player to do so is the winner, and the player left with all the cards at the end is the loser.
And there are several minor variations:
Numbers aren’t spoken – the players must keep track in their head!
When a player has no cards, their number still “counts” – i.e. if a 6 is laid, and a non-card holding player says “six”, that’s still a snap.
When certain numbers are spoken (e.g. “Jack”), play changes direction. Alternatively, keep the jokers in, and use them to change direction.
Have special words for certain numbers. So “cat” instead of “ten”, or “monkey” instead of “three”.
I feel like I need to make some comment on the passing of a pop icon.
Unfinished Christian likens his death to that of Elvis or Lennon. I don’t think there’s very much doubt he was one of the world’s biggest pop-stars, certainly at his peak.
I suppose I would sum up my feelings as “Flawed Genius.” His achievements and failings will no doubt be covered in great depth in the Sunday papers, and I’m not even going to attempt it. But he clearly went off the rails at some point (in the 90s?), and I find it hard to shake the nagging feeling that we are all, somehow, a bit responsible.
His music more than speaks for himself, and the fact sold out the O2 shows his ongoing support and fanbase.
I will steal shamelessly from Unfinished, because they put it so well:
His music and legend will live of so let us today not focus on his eccentricities but let the genius of his music do the talking. Michael wanted his music to evoke these images and get us to change and understand how child-like qualities could really heal the world.
Sit everyone present around a table so that there are no gaps.
Each person puts their hands on the table so that their arms cross over/under the people either side, so if we have five players, A=B=C=D=E, the order of hands will be:
Now decide who is going to start, and which way you will go (clockwise or anti-clockwise). Assuming clockwise for a moment, the starting person taps one of their hands on the table, and then the hand to the left of that hand has to tap, followed by the hand to the left of that, etc. In the above example, this means that if we start with C, and he taps his right hand, the order of tapping must be C-RH, D-LH, B-RH, C-LH, A-RH, B-LH, etc. The tapping must be done as quickly as possible.
If a ‘hand’ hesitates or taps at the wrong time, it is “out”, and the game continues without it.
Finally, a player can decide to tap twice, in which case the direction reverses, and the tap starts travelling around the circle in the opposite direction.
These are quite a good “getting to know you” games. There are many other variations.
2 true, 1 false
Give each person a sheet of paper. They must write their name on the top, then they must write three things about themselves, two of which are true, and one of which is made up.
Gather in all the sheets of paper, then for each person in turn, the group has to try and guess which of the three “facts” is not true. Feel free to get the story behind any particularly peculiar or interesting facts.
3 Facts
As a variation, ask each person to write down either 3 random facts about themselves, or alternatively the answers to three pre-canned questions (e.g. “favourite food”, “favourite music”).
Gather in all the sheets, and then go through each sheet reading out the answers/facts. The group then has to try and guess which person is being described by this sheet of paper.
Me in a nutshell
As a final variation, give every person in the group a piece of paper with the list of everyone’s name who’s present down the side. Each person then has 1 minute to think up a question (e.g. “When did you last brush your teeth”, “what is the bravest thing you’ve ever done”, “what colour are your socks”), and they then have 5 minutes to ask that question to everyone else in the group, writing the response down against that person’s name.
After 5 minutes, everyone comes back to the table. Then each person in turn has to stand up, while all the others should out the answers that person gave. So, for instance, Fred might stand up, and then various people would call out “Fred last brushed his teeth on Sunday”, “The bravest thing that Fred has ever done is pick up a spider” and “Fred is wearing green and pink socks”).
All the players stand in a circle, facing one another, but looking down at their feet.
When the leader says “now”, everyone looks up and at someone else’s eyes. If they make direct eye contact with someone (i.e. person A is looking straight and person B, and person B is looking straight at person A), both people SCRREEEAAAAMMMMM, and then sit down.
All the remaining players look back down at their feet, and the game continues until only 2 people are left.
You need probably at least 6 players for this game, but this really is a case of the more the merrier.
Nominate one player to be the “detective”, and send him/her out of the room.
When the “detective” has gone, choose one of the remaining players to be the “murderer”. The murderer and all the remaining players then sit in a large circle facing each other.
The “detective” is called back in, and stands in the centre of the circle.
The “murderer” now has to “kill” off all the other players by winking at them. The “detective” has to try and work out which of the players is the murderer before all the other players are murdered. The other players are not allowed to give the game away to the “detective”, and usually “die” in a highly dramatic and noisy fashion!
A less blood-thirsty variation is to nominate a “leader” instead of a “murderer”, who performs certain actions that the rest of the group must follow. The “detective” has to work out who the leader is. Good actions are clapping, stamping feet, waving, slapping knees, etc (i.e. the whole group is clapping, and suddenly switch to stamping their feet).
Another mad game that’s fairly pointless, but lots of fun and breaks the ice. There are no real winners and losers – it just runs on until everyone’s had enough!
You need a large-ish hall for us, and probably at least 8 players.
Put out two less chairs than there are players, scattering them around randomly so that they are all slightly further than touching distance away (that is, if you sit on a chair and stretch out your arms, you wouldn’t quite touch someone else doing the same thing in another chair). The aim is to create a sort of “maze” that can be dodged around by the two people who will be running around. This doesn’t matter too much, but there does need to be enough space to move between the chairs, but not so much it’s easy to run between them.
Pick two players, one is the “cat”, the other is the “mouse”. The game starts like normal “it”. The “cat” chases the mouse in and out of the chairs, and tries to touch him/her. If the “cat” manages it, the roles swap, and the “mouse” is now the “cat” and the “cat” is the “mouse.”
The fun bit is that the “mouse” can, at any point, touch the shoulder of someone who is sitting down. The person sitting down must then stand up, and becomes the “cat”, while the old “cat” now becomes the mouse!
There are a couple of variations. Firstly, the “cat” and “mouse” don’t have to swap when the “mouse” sits down – the person who stands up can become the “mouse” instead.
Secondly, you can have them lying on the floor instead of sitting in chairs, and the “mouse” must lie down beside them to switch to a new “mouse”. I’ve also heard of this done where they lie down in pairs, and the “mouse” lies down to make them three in a row, and the person ‘opposite’ the “mouse” in the threesome becomes the new “cat”.
