Stationary games are fun games that typically involve having people be seated in a circle or in the same place. Usually good for parties!
Summary: A guessing game in which people try to identify a person or object in 20 questions or less. Good for rainy days, long car rides, and for learning English (ESL students).
Ages: All. Recommended # of Players: A small group of 2 to 5 people. Messiness factor: No mess, no stress! Materials required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoor settings such as cars, classrooms, and just about anywhere else.
Summary: A game in which players attempt to guess the celebrity via clues (Round 1), charades (Round 2), and one word descriptions (Round 3).
Ages: All. Recommended # of people: 10-15. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Timer, small slips of paper, pens/pencils, bag or hat. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A funny icebreaker/stationary acting game in which a person randomly chooses an event (e.g. winning the lottery or being surprised by an wedding proposal) and must act out his or her reaction to this event. Based on this reaction, team members try to guess what the event was.
Ages: All. Recommended # of People: Groups or teams of 6-12 people. Messiness Factor: Might break a small sweat. Materials Required: Sheets of paper, pens, a container to hold the paper. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A funny storywriting game that involves creating a story as a team. Each player adds the next line of the story.
Ages: 8 and up. Recommended number of players: Teams of at least six. Messiness factor: No mess! Materials required: None – just a great sense of humor!
Summary: A quick thinking game of brainstorming unique items within categories!
Ages: All. Recommended # of People: Small groups of 5-10. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: Pens and lots of paper. Recommended Setting: Indoors in a not-too-noisy environment.
Categories (Also known as Scattegories)
Have you heard of the famous party game called Scattegories? You can play this on your own at parties or hanging out with friends.
Set-Up
You receive one point for every unique (not shared by any other player) word that starts with the given letter and fit into the given category.
Start the one minute timer.
Write down as many valid words (those that fit the category and start with the correct letter) for the category as you can. When the timer ends, stop writing. Go clockwise and have each player read aloud their words. If someone else has the same word, both players cross out that word (no points are earned).
If a word is read that doesn’t seem to be a good fit for the category, the other players vote on whether to accept the word or cross it off. In the case of a tie, the word is disqualified.
Each word that remains is worth one point. The player with the most points wins!
If you prefer to buy the official Scattergories party game with prepared categories, alphabet dice, you can buy it from Amazon.
Summary: A rapid-fire guessing game in which players write many clues and place them in a bowl.
Ages: All. Recommended # of People: 10-20. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: Bowl, lots of paper, and pens. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: Signs is a simple party game involving stealth, silliness, and not getting caught! Players seated in a circle attempt to “pass” a sign (hand motion or gestures) to each other while a guesser tries to catch the person who currently has the sign.
Ages: 12 and up. Recommended # of people: Groups of 10-20 people. Messiness Factor: No mess! Materials required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: An icebreaker / stationary game in which a person acts out an action only for the next person in line, who in turn acts out for the next person. The acting typically becomes distorted over time and hilarious, as the last person in line tries to guess what the original clue was.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of People: 5-6. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A classic kids’ icebreaker/stationary game in which the leader, Simon, instructs people to do various actions. The goal is to only do something when Simon says so, and to do nothing when he doesn’t.
Ages: All ages. Recommended number of people: Any size group, including large groups. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Nothing. Recommended setting: Indoors.
Summary: A stationary group game involving lots of strategy. People play as a member of the mafia, police, or town. The object is eliminate the mafia before they eliminate the entire town.
Ages: 14 and up. Recommended number of people: A groups of 8 to 12. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: A deck of cards to determine who plays which role. Recommended setting: Indoors.
One… Two… Let’s play Zoo!
Summary: Zoo is a rhythm-party game that has each player represented as an animal. The object of the game is to eliminate other players.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of people: 6-15. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A game about improvisation and performance! Find a PowerPoint presentation on anything difficult, strange, complex, etc. and the other team must deliver a speech on it without any preparation!
Ages: 16+. Recommended # of people: Teams of 2-4. Messiness factor: No sweat! Materials required: Laptops/computers to show PowerPoint slides. A whiteboard or big piece of paper. Optional: projector. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A simple party game in which players walk around mingling in a room and stare at each other. One person is secretly the “killer” who must try to eliminate players by winking at them without getting caught!
Ages: All. Recommended # of people: 10-20. Messiness factor: No sweat! Materials required: None! Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A fun, fast-paced card game involving teamwork in which a player tries to get four of a kind. Once he or she gets four of a kind, you must perform a secret nonverbal signal to try to get your partner to yell the word “Kemps!” without being caught by an opponent.
Ages: All. Recommended # of people: An even number of people between 6-10. Messiness factor: Not too messy. Materials required: A standard deck of 52 playing cards. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: Hodgy Podgy is a simple (and entertaining!) rhythm game that has each person go around taking turns adding words to create a story.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommend # of people: 6-15. Messiness factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A stationary game in which players are seated in a circle, and one person points to someone in the circle and instructs them to act out a “screaming viking”, a “smurf”, a “chia pet”, among other humorous things.
Ages: 8 and up. Recommended # of people: 8-25. Messiness factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A good get-to-know-you game in which players take turn on the “hot seat”, being asked a barrage of questions, some hypothetical, some silly, and some interesting.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of people: 5-10. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: A chair. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A memory-based game in which males and females compete to get all members of their team seated on the couch.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of People: 10-30. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: Paper, a couch or four chairs, pens. Recommended Setting: Indoors
Summary: A kids’ game in which seven people secretly select seven other kids by pushing their thumbs down at “night”, followed by those kids guessing which of the seven chose them.
Ages: 6-12. Recommended # of People: 20+. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: None.
Summary: Players stand in a circle and repeatedly take turns showing 0, 1 or 2 thumbs up signs with their hands. Players take turns trying to correctly guess the number of thumbs that will pop up.
Ages: All. Recommended # of Players: A small group of 3 to 6 people. Messiness factor: No mess, no stress! Materials required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoor settings.
