Hey there! We’d like to let you know that InqPOP! might receive a share of sales from the links on this article. Hope you like the products we suggest!
We’ve picked out 11 games ranging from wholesome family fun to disturbingly dark humor that’ll liven up your next get-together. Check them out:
1. Don’t Take Buster’s Bone (Beware of the Dog)
Get it here.
Suitable for: ages 5 & up
Requirements: 3 AA batteries, a steady hand, and nerves of steel
Mechanics: Players will draw a card and will try to steal bones from Buster’s bowl using a small tong without waking him up. The card indicates the color and the number of bones the player needs to steal. It sounds easy until you get scared out of your wits by Buster’s angry growl!
Check out this video to see it in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV398dgaPPA
2. Wet head
Suitable for: ages 5 & up
Requirement: water (or some other liquid) and luck
Mechanics: Wet Head is basically a roulette game. You fill it up with cold water and wear it on your head like a hat. Players will spin a spinner and based on where the arrow lands, either pull out one rod, two rods, or skip a turn. The goal is to be able to stay dry for as many turns as you can. Want to up the ante? Try putting other kinds of liquid inside: vinegar, pickle juice, raw eggs– the possibilities are endless (and gross)!
Check out this Ellen video where they play giant wet head:
3. Watch Ya’ Mouth
Get it here.
Suitable for: ages 8 & up
Requirements: clear diction and a piece of cloth to dab saliva off your chin
Mechanics: It’s like charades, but so much more hilarious. Players will wear mouthguards, pick a card, then read the phrase written on it. Team members need to correctly guess what their teammate is trying to say to score a point.
Check out this video from The Late Late Show with James Corden that pretty much inspired this whole game:
4. Pie Face Showdown:
Get it here.
Suitable for: ages 7 & up
Requirements: whipped cream and fast hands
Mechanics: Two players will place their chins on a chin rest and quickly push the button near them. The slower of the two players will have pie thrown into their face. If you love whipped cream too much to waste it, try alternative food items like peanut butter or margarine.
Check out this video from Team Kramer to see Pie Face in action:
5. Uno Stacko
Get it here.
Suitable for: ages 7 & up
Requirements: a steady surface and good temper
Mechanics: It’s Jenga but with an UNO twist. Players will take turns taking blocks from the tower and piling it on top. The color and number or symbol of that block determines what block the next player should pull out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHEWBgyWiRE
6. A Game of Thrones
Get it here.
Suitable for: ages 18 & up
Requirements: basic GoT knowledge, political strategy, and a hunger for the Iron Throne
Mechanics: “Three to six players take on the roles of the great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and vie for control of the Iron Throne through the use of diplomacy and warfare. Will you take power through force, use honeyed words to coerce your way onto the throne, or rally the townsfolk to your side? Through strategic planning, masterful diplomacy, and clever card play, spread your influence over Westeros!”
Here’s a short tutorial for this game:
7. Disturbed Friends
Get it here.
Suitable for: ages 17 & up
Requirements: friends and acceptance of the fact that you might lose said friends after playing
Mechanics: “Disturbed Friends is an adult party game designed to find out how disturbed your friends are, but, more importantly, how disturbed they think you are. You will be faced with horrible situations, sexual scenarios and unethical debates that may cause you to re-evaluate your friendships. Each player receives a Set of Voting cards. On your turn, you pick a Question Card and read it out loud. Your friends simply vote on which answer they believe you will choose and place their vote face down. Once all players have voted, you indicate your answer. Each player turns over their card revealing the answer they think you chose. Players that predicted your answer correctly receive a #winning Card. The first player to get 10 winning cards wins! ”
Tutorial:
8. Joking Hazard
Get it here.
Suitable for: adults only
Requirements: a sick sense of humor
Mechanics: “Joking Hazard is an EXTREMELY not-for-kids party game from the minds of Cyanide & Happiness, the hit webcomic. Three or more players compete to build funny and terrible comics about friendship, violence, sex, and everything in between. 360 panel cards (including 10 add-your-own-words cards) combine to form millions of awful situations, and sometimes nice ones. High quality cards can be burned for heat after society collapses.”
Here’s a video about the game:
9. Bed Wed Dead
Get it here.
Suitable for ages: adults only
Requirements: basic pop culture knowledge (so you’d know the people named in the game) and secret fantasies about famous people
Mechanics: “In Bed, Wed, Dead: A Game of Dirty Decisions, a roll of the dice gives you three names, then the rest is up to you! Will you choose to wed Maid Marian and murder Morgana? How about one night with Jimmy Fallon vs. a lifetime with Jimmy Kimmel? There are no easy choices — only easy laughs as your friends watch you struggle while wagering on what you’ll decide.”
10. Exploding Kittens
Get it here.
Suitable for: ages 7 & up (there’s a NSFW version of the game that is for adults only, though)
Requirements: love for cats and card games
Mechanics: “In this highly-strategic, kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette, players draw cards until someone draws an Exploding Kitten, at which point they explode, they are dead, and they are out of the game — unless that player has a Defuse card, which can defuse the Kitten using things like laser pointers, belly rubs, and catnip sandwiches. All of the other cards in the deck are used to move, mitigate, or avoid the Exploding Kittens.”
Here’s a tutorial:
11. Cards Against Humanity
Get it here.
Suitable for: adults only
Requirements: a group of witty friends and a stomach for twisted notions
Mechanics: “A card game which involves a judge choosing a black question or fill-in-the-blank card. Each player holds a hand of ten cards at the beginning of each round, and each player contributes card(s) to the “card czar” anonymously. The card czar determines which card(s) are funniest in the context of the question or fill-in-the-blank card.”
Here’s a video from Ellen where they play some hilarious rounds of Cards Against Humanity:
/PAR