Are you tired of the same old “Guess Who?” and “Charades” at every indoor gathering? Fear not, fellow party animals! Today, I’m here to inject some fresh fun into your adult get-togethers. Forget the passé parlor games; it’s time to embrace creativity, laughter, and a wee bit of mischief. So, grab a drink, loosen up, and let’s dive into five outrageously entertaining games that will turn your next indoor gathering into the talk of the town!
Indoor Games for Adults That Aren’t Boring
Name That Tune X 3
Without a doubt, you have played Name That Tune before. So why is it on this list? Well, in this team version, your team listens to three songs at once and you don’t know which one you need to guess until indicated by the other team. Confused? Don’t worry, let me explain.
How to Play: Three different songs are played simultaneously on three different devices. One team needs to guess the name of one of these songs correctly. The trick is they do not know which song until the other team stops playing one of the three songs.
The other team then has 30 seconds to name the song that stopped playing. The team that is not guessing has one minute to choose which song to stop.
This game does require that you have three devices that can play music, this shouldn’t be too hard these days with everyone having a smartphone.
Auction Time
Who doesn’t like a good old-fashioned auction? This game is influenced by The Price Is Right style pricing games. The objective is for participants to strategically acquire valuable items by bidding on them. Whoever has the most valuable group of items at the end wins. The catch is that the value of the items up for auction will be kept secret until all the bidding is done.
How to Play:
- Each player starts with a set amount of currency (e.g., fake money).
- Several items are placed on the auction table.
- The goal is to get the most valuable items, in terms of their actual retail dollar amount.
- The price of the items is kept secret until the bidding is done, so bidders must use their wits and knowledge to try and acquire the most valuable items.
- Players take turns bidding on the items, starting from a minimum bid.
- The highest bidder wins the item and pays the amount they bid.
- Play multiple rounds, and the player whose items add up to the most value at the end wins the game.
Tip: The items that will work best are consumer goods that are not typically purchased. So the actual sale prices are not easily known. For example, you could have a box of fancy chocolates and a toaster oven. If the toaster oven is a cheaper brand, it might be less expensive than the box of chocolates. But these items are not items people are actively aware of the pricing.
Trivia Telephone
Trivia Telephone is a hilarious combination of the classic game of telephone and trivia. See how a simple fact transforms through whispers and miscommunication!
How to Play:
- Prepare a list of trivia questions.
- Divide into teams
- When a team is asked a trivia question, the questioner whispers the question to the first players, who then whispers their answer to the next player, and so on.
- The final player on the team announces their answer aloud.
Winning: Scoring would be handled the same as with normal trivia. The team who can answer the most questions correctly via the telephone method wins!
Meme Masters
The game is essentially a meme-making contest for your own personal photos. You get to create meme text to describe hilarious pictures of yourself and your friends. (If you have been living under a rock, then you can learn all about memes here, and please get out more.)
What You Need:
- A bunch of silly, serious, candid, professional, (whatever you want) photos of your friends. It can be as simple as using the photos saved on your phone.
- Pens and paper
How to Play:
- The game is played in rounds. Each round an image is shown and players must submit their idea for the “meme text”.
- Set a timer for 2 minutes, and let the creativity flow! Players write the funniest, quirkiest, meme caption they can think of.
- When the time is up, everyone anonymously submits their meme text. Everyone votes for the best combo (but not for their own, obviously).
- The player with the most votes after a few rounds is crowned the “Meme Monarch”!
Tic-Tac-Throw!
Really? Tic-tac-toe? Yes. But not the traditional version that you are thinking of. In this version of tic-tac-toe, you aren’t guaranteed to mark a space each round unless you land your ball in a bucket. Confused? Let me explain.
What You Need:
- Empty ice cream buckets, coffee cans, or pails of about the same size.
- 10 ping-pong balls, at least five of one color, five of another
You start with nine empty buckets. Empty one-gallon ice cream buckets work great, but you can use empty coffee cans or other plastic containers about that size. Set them on the floor or a large table in a 3 x 3 grid.
How to Play:
Be the first to align three of your marks in a row – horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Sounds easy? Ha! Teams take turns throwing a ping-pong ball into the buckets. Here’s the twist – your ball must stay in the bucket for the move to count. If it bounces out, or if you land in a bucket already claimed by a ball, you miss your turn.
Continue taking turns until one team achieves the sacred alignment of three. If you manage to do this before descending into chaos, congratulations! You’ve mastered the art of throwing under pressure.
Bank Robber
Nothing raises the stakes of a game like a good reward for the winner, and nothing is a better prize than money. Add in the thrill of a chance to steal that money away from your friends and you have a game that is not boring. Bank Robber is a fun poker-style card game that lets players
What You Need:
- A deck of standard playing cards
- A “bank” – this could be a pot of money, tokens, or anything that has value agreed upon by all players
- 3-6 players who are ready to betray and be betrayed
How to Play: Before the game starts, all players must ante up as they would in poker. This means they must put an agreed-upon amount of money or other valuables into the “bank”. Depending on the group, it might be pennies, quarters, dollars, candy, or car keys (ok maybe not).
The goal is to be the first person to “rob” the bank. A player does this by swiping the cup or pot of money before anyone else. But you cannot just grab the bank at any time. Instead, you must wait until the cards on the table make up a winning poker hand.
If all the cards on the table combined produce two pairs, a flush, a straight, or three of a kind, then the bank can be robbed. Everyone’s cards are shown during the entire game so whenever anyone notices that a player’s hand meets the requirements, they can grab the bank. The first one to grab the cup wins the prize that round.
Players are dealt one card at the start of the game. To begin the dealer counts to three, and then everyone reveals their card face up in front of them. Everyone checks to see if all of the cards on the table contain any of the hands (two pairs, flush, etc.) that would allow them to snatch the bank.
If no one grabs the bank, the dealer draws a card without looking at it and passes it to their left. That player must take the card, without looking at it, and add it to their hand. They lay the new card face down. The dealer repeats by drawing a card without looking at it and handing it to the next player, who repeats this action.
When everyone has a new face-down card, including the dealer, the dealer again counts to three. Everyone reveals their new card and the group examines all hands to see if they can rob the bank. If someone robs the bank and there is no qualifying hand, then they are out that round.
It’s a combination of a few common game mechanics. The mental challenge of identifying if there is a flush or three of a kind on the table provides plenty of difficulty for any crew!
Hot Seat
There are countless party games you can buy, but Hot Seat is a game that sets itself apart. Why? Because in this game the answers are all about you.
In this engaging game, players take turns sitting in the ‘hot seat,’ where they are bombarded with questions by fellow players about their preferences, past experiences, and secret confessions.
This game not only spices up the party atmosphere but also deepens connections as players reveal intriguing aspects of themselves.
Ideal for adult gatherings, Hot Seat offers a delightful break from routine party games, ensuring an evening filled with surprising revelations and genuine camaraderie. Perfect for those looking to add a unique twist to their next social event!
Brains & Brawn Relay
Split into pairs of two. Rounds with different categories. Each round will consist of a physical challenge and a mental challenge. Based on the name of the round teams/pairs decide ahead of time who will do the mental challenge and who will do the physical challenge.
For example, a round might be titled: Dance Off. It could include a physical challenge to hold some ballet positions. The mental challenge might be to name five classical ballets.
Another example is if a round is called the Daytona 500, the physical challenge might be a race of some variety and the mental challenge could be naming three winners of the Daytona 500 in the last 10 years.
This game offers a chance to compete in some unique challenges and adds a level of strategy before each round trying to use clues from the name of the round to decide which team member is best suited for the potential challenges.
It does take some forethought and creativity but it is certainly worth it.
Puzzle Race
Putting together a puzzle doesn’t scream exhilarating good time. You probably associate puzzles with quiet rainy afternoons. However, this contest pits two teams in a race against the clock with a few twists. It can make for an entertaining and unique party game.
What You Need:
- Identical jigsaw puzzles for each team
- A stack of cards with extra challenges
How to Play:
- Divide into teams. Each team gets the same puzzle.
- Set a timer. The first team to complete their puzzle wins. Or Whichever team has more complete when the timer runs out.
- Throw in surprise challenges mid-game for extra laughs. These could include swapping teammates. Only use the left hand for 1 minute, blindfolding someone on the other team, etc. Set up your timer so that every 2-3 minutes a challenge card is drawn by a team and they must follow the instructions on the card.
Final Thoughts
There you have it, folks – a list of indoor games that are anything but boring. These games are designed to spark joy, creativity, and maybe a bit of friendly rivalry. So, at your next adult gathering, ditch the old and embrace the new. Let the games begin, and let the laughter roll!
