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Party games for adults

These games are for a house party or the hour after dinner, when the guests are adults and nobody wants to be put on the spot. None of them involve drinking. Most need only paper and pens.

Play now on your phone:Would You RatherTruth or DareCharadesThis or ThatMost Likely ToNever Have I EverRiddlesIcebreaker Questions

14 classic party games for adults

These 14 games need little setup and take about a minute to explain, starting with the most popular.

1. Fishbowl

Players: 6 to 16, in two teamsAges: 12 and upYou need: A bowl, slips of paper, pens and a way to time one minute

  1. Everyone writes three names or things on slips of paper, folds them and drops them in the bowl. Split into two teams.
  2. Round one: a player draws slips and describes each one without saying the words on it. Their team guesses as many as it can in one minute, then the other team takes a turn.
  3. When the bowl is empty, count each team's slips, put them all back and play round two with the same slips.
  4. In round two the clue is a single word. In round three it is acting only, with no sound.
  5. The team with the most slips after three rounds wins.

Ask for slips the whole room will know, like a neighbor's dog or the host's old car. By round three everyone has heard the clues, and one gesture is enough.

2. Who am I?

Players: 4 or moreAges: 10 and upYou need: Sticky notes and a pen

  1. Each guest writes a famous person or character on a sticky note and sticks it on another guest's forehead without showing them.
  2. Guests take turns asking the room yes or no questions about who they are, such as 'Am I alive?' or 'Am I a cartoon?'
  3. A yes earns another question. A no passes the turn to the next guest.
  4. Keep going until everyone has guessed their name.

At a house party, skip the turns. Guests wear their note all evening and ask one question of each person they talk to.

3. Paper telephone

Players: 5 to 10Ages: 10 and upYou need: A stack of small sheets and a pen for each player

  1. Each player takes as many sheets as there are players and writes a sentence on the top one.
  2. Pass the stack to the left. Read the sentence, move it to the back and draw it on the next sheet.
  3. Pass again. Look only at the drawing, move it to the back and write a sentence saying what you see.
  4. Keep alternating drawing and writing until each stack is back with its owner.
  5. Take turns showing each stack from start to finish.

Start with sentences that have an action in them, like 'My landlord is learning the trumpet'. A plain noun is too easy to draw.

4. Empire

Players: 6 to 15Ages: 10 and upYou need: Slips of paper, pens and a bowl

  1. Everyone secretly writes the name of a famous person or character on a slip and puts it in the bowl.
  2. The host reads all the names out loud twice. Nobody may write them down.
  3. The first player asks someone a direct question: 'Sam, are you the pirate captain?' If the guess is wrong, the turn passes to the person asked.
  4. If it is right, that person joins the guesser's empire, sits beside them and helps, and the guesser goes again. Capturing a leader brings their whole empire along.
  5. The last player whose name is still secret wins.

Have the host add one or two fake names to the bowl. It stops the last few players from working it out by elimination.

5. Wink murder

Players: 6 to 14Ages: 10 and upYou need: A deck of cards

  1. Deal one card to each guest at the table. Whoever gets the ace of spades is the murderer and keeps it secret.
  2. Carry on with dinner. The murderer winks at one guest at a time when nobody else is watching.
  3. A guest who is winked at waits a few seconds, then dies at the table as quietly or as loudly as they like.
  4. Any living guest may accuse someone at any time. A wrong accusation kills the accuser.
  5. The murderer wins if only one other guest is left alive.

Let one round run through a whole course of the meal. Winks are easier to hide while people are passing dishes.

6. The dictionary game

Players: 4 to 10Ages: 12 and upYou need: A dictionary, paper and pens

  1. One player picks a word from the dictionary that nobody knows, reads it out and spells it.
  2. Everyone else writes a made-up definition that sounds real. The reader copies down the true one.
  3. The reader shuffles the definitions and reads them all out in the same serious voice.
  4. Each player votes for the one they think is real. Score a point for picking the true definition and a point for every vote your fake one gets.
  5. Pass the dictionary to the next reader.

Open your fake the way real entries start, with something like 'a small tool for' or 'an old word for'.

7. Alibi

Players: 6 to 12Ages: 12 and upYou need: A second room

  1. Tell the group a crime happened last night between 7 and 10. Pick two suspects and send them out for five minutes to agree on where they were together.
  2. The rest of the group, the detectives, plan their questions.
  3. Bring in the first suspect alone and question them for three minutes. Then swap and ask the second suspect the same questions.
  4. The suspects are guilty if the detectives find three details where their stories differ.

Ask about small things the suspects will not have planned, such as who paid or where they parked.

8. The clothespin game

Players: 6 or moreAges: 10 and upYou need: One clothespin or safety pin per guest

  1. Give each guest a clothespin to clip to their shirt as they arrive.
  2. Announce one forbidden word for the evening.
  3. If you hear a guest say the word, you take all of their pins.
  4. At the end of the night, the guest with the most pins wins.

Pick a word people need all evening, like 'work' or 'no'. Guests soon start steering each other into saying it.

9. Back-to-back drawing

Players: 4 or more, in pairsAges: 8 and upYou need: Paper, pens and something to lean on

  1. Pairs sit back to back. One partner gets paper and a pen, and the other gets a simple picture or object to look at.
  2. The describer explains what to draw using only shapes and positions, without naming the thing.
  3. The artist may not ask questions or peek. Stop after three minutes.
  4. Pairs hold up the drawing next to the original, and the room votes for the closest match.

If you have no pictures ready, hand each describer an object from the kitchen drawer.

10. Consequences

Players: 4 to 10Ages: 10 and upYou need: A sheet of paper and a pen for each player

  1. Each player writes a name at the top of a sheet, folds the paper down to hide it and passes it to the left.
  2. On the sheet that arrives, add the next line, fold and pass. The lines in order: a second name, where they met, what each one said, and what happened in the end.
  3. When the last line is written, pass once more and unfold.
  4. Take turns reading the stories aloud.

Mix guests' names with ones everyone knows, like a cartoon character or the host's cat.

11. Honey, if you love me, smile

Players: 6 or moreAges: 10 and upYou need: Nothing

  1. Sit in a circle with one player in the middle.
  2. The middle player goes up to anyone and says, 'Honey, if you love me, would you please smile?'
  3. That person has to reply, 'Honey, I love you, but I just can't smile', with a straight face.
  4. If they smile or laugh, they swap into the middle. If they hold out, the middle player tries someone else.

Funny voices and kneeling are allowed. Touching is against the rules.

12. Limbo

Players: 4 or moreAges: 6 and upYou need: A broom handle and music

  1. Two people hold a broom handle level at chest height.
  2. Everyone else lines up and passes under it one at a time, leaning backward, with only their feet touching the floor.
  3. Anyone who touches the stick or puts a hand down is out.
  4. Lower the stick a little after each full round. The last one through wins.

Play on carpet or grass, in bare feet or shoes. Socks slip on a hard floor.

13. Blind taste test

Players: 4 or moreAges: 10 and upYou need: A blindfold, spoons and 8 to 10 foods from the kitchen

  1. Ask guests about allergies first. Then set out small tastes of each food where the players cannot see them.
  2. Blindfold one guest and give them a taste of each food on a clean spoon.
  3. They whisper each guess to the scorekeeper so later tasters hear nothing.
  4. After everyone has had a turn, the guest with the most correct answers wins.

Use foods that feel alike in the mouth, such as three kinds of jam. Texture gives most foods away.

14. Hum that tune

Players: 4 or more, in two teamsAges: 10 and upYou need: Slips of paper, pens and a bowl

  1. Everyone writes three well-known song titles on slips and puts them in the bowl.
  2. Split into two teams. One player draws a slip and hums the song to their own team, with their hands behind their back.
  3. The team has 30 seconds to name the song. A correct answer scores a point, and a miss lets the other team steal with one guess.
  4. Teams take turns until the bowl is empty.

Tell guests to write songs everyone at the party would know, from any decade. One obscure title stalls the round.

Games to play from one phone

Open one, pick who's playing, and pass the phone around.

Would You Rather questions for adults

Pick one of two options, then see how everyone else voted.

219 questions

Truth or Dare questions for adults

Choose truth or dare and the phone deals a card. Add players and it tracks whose turn it is.

263 truths and dares

Charades ideas for adults

The phone shows what to act out and runs the timer. Tap when your team gets it.

295 ideas

This or That questions for adults

Two words, pick one, next. Vote on each and see the split.

202 questions

Most Likely To questions for adults

Read the card, count to three, and everyone points at someone.

203 questions

Never Have I Ever questions for adults

Ten fingers up. Put one down for each thing you've done.

336 questions

Riddles for adults

Read the riddle, let everyone guess, then reveal the answer.

147 riddles

Icebreaker questions for adults

Questions that get a short story out of anyone, for meetings, classes and first dates.

170 questions

Tools for the host

Random team generatorPaste the names, choose how many teams, and get a fair random split.

Questions people ask

What are fun party games for adults without drinking?
Fishbowl, Paper telephone and Empire work well with a sober room. The laughs come from bad drawings and wrong guesses, and nobody is singled out.
What games work at a dinner party?
Wink murder and the clothespin game run during the meal without stopping the conversation. After dinner, the dictionary game and Consequences can be played at the table with paper and pens.
How many games should I plan for a party?
Plan three and expect to play two. Start with one that needs little explaining, such as Who am I?, and save a team game like Fishbowl for when everyone has arrived.

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Updated November 2026.