What Are We Shouting

Everyone seems to be talking at once, it's giving you a headache - you can't stand it anymore. Whatever you do don't start playing What Are We Shouting. A fun game for two teams. One team decides upon a well known phrase (or line from a popular song) which has the same or fewer words in it than players in the team. Each player is assigned a word (if there are more players than words then some

The Best Chinese Whispers' Phrase Ever!

Chinese Whispers , which we used to know as Gossip or Russian Scandal, is a game that everyone knows. However, if you watch people playing it these days you will notice how dull and short the phrases are that start the game. In the drawing room we used to put a lot more effort into the phrase.Here is an actual suggested phrase to start off the game. It comes from a 1940's book called 'The Home

One Legged Tug of War

There are innumerable ways a staid game can be enlivened by variations. As Aphra Behn said, "Variety is the soul of pleasure." I saw One Legged Tug of War being played for the first time on a windswept beach in Kent last Summer.As for standard tug of war, a rope and two equal teams of similar sized players are all that is required. At the start of the game all players lift one leg off the ground

Royal Court

Shouting, confusion, people crashing into each other...three things that make an ideal party game. I first played Royal Court at one of Sir Herbert Rowsell's Summer Shindigs. Get a pack of playing cards and pick the King, Queen, Jack, Ten, etc. of each suit so that you have as many cards as players of the game. You will need the number of players to be divisible by four.Place one chair in each

Zombie Tag

I came across the game of Zombie Tag only recently. It had myself and the players prostrate in paroxysms of cachinnation. To make a Zombie simply pair up two players - ones of similar size are best. Then, stand them side by side and then bind their adjacent legs together. The binding must be more severe than a three legged race where only ankles are tied. In Zombie Tag the legs must be tied

Advantage Wrestling

It's a typical Summer's day on the beach. The sea is freezing, the sky is cloudy and the wind is whipping up the sand into your sandwiches. What you need is a spot of Advantage Wrestling. Mark out a ring on the sand, outside which no player can go. Simply, all you have to do to win is get behind your opponent and grab him by the waist and lift him off the floor. And he has to do the same to you.

Slaps / Slapsies revisited

I previously wrote about Slaps or Slapsies (one of the most brutal yet satisfying playground games) in post:27 - yet I have just discovered a fantastic computer simulation of it. The game, called Operation Slaps or Hand to Hand Combat Facility allows you to play slapsies against a friend or against a computer opponent.You can decide to be one of five different characters ranging from Lieutenant

Poor Pussy / Banoffee Bum

Poor Pussy is a party game I was not going to write about as it is already very well known even though I rarely see it played and it is quite strange. However, I was reminded of it by a game my great-grand daughters (Jemima and Daisy Blister ) invented for their own pleasure which they call Banoffee Bum.First Poor Pussy: One member of the party is given the role of Pussy and must go round to each

Squeaky Sheets

There are many guess-the-identity party games but Squeaky Sheets is my favourite variation. Divide the players into two teams. One team leaves the room taking a large sheet with them. One player then re-enters the room under the sheet and crawling on all fours. He must crawl into the centre of the room and then squeak loudly once. The opposing team have ONE guess regarding the identity of the