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.
Celebrity Game
The Celebrity Game is a guessing game similar to the Bowl Game. It features a lot of good variety in gameplay and works well with medium sized groups.
Supplies: 1 minute timer, small slips of paper, pens/pencils, a bag or hat to hold the slips of paper.
Setup: Distribute three slips of paper for each player. Each player must think of three celebrities or famous people (living, dead, real, or fictional) and write these on a slip of paper (one name per slip). Divide the group into two teams. There needs to be a scorekeeper to keep score. Each team will have 1 minute per turn.
For each turn, the person who is “it” (the clue giver) and must use verbal clues or gestures (charades) to try to get their team to correctly guess what is written on the slip. The goal of the game is to have your team correctly guess as many clues as possible. The winning team at the end of the game is the team that has the most points.
- First Round – Verbal Clues. For the first round, the person who is “it” must use descriptive clues in a way that is similar to board games like Taboo and Catchphrase, i.e., saying anything that might get their team to correctly guess the word written on each slip. For each turn, the 1-minute timer begins and the person grabs a slip from the bag and begins to give clues. The team can shout out multiple answers freely, even if they’re wrong. The clue giver can say almost anything, besides the name on the paper. Whenever the clue giver’s team correctly guesses the name on the sheet, the clue giver grabs another slip from the bag. At the end of the minute, the team adds up the number of papers (names correctly guessed) and receives one point per paper. Then the next team goes and takes their turn. This process repeats until all the names in the bag are used up.
- Second Round – Charades. For the second round, all the slips from the first round return into the bag. The game continues as before, except clue givers are not allowed to speak or make any noise at all! This round is played like charades. Again, for each correct guess, each team receives a point.
- Third Round – One Word Clues. For the third and final round, all the names are returned to the bag and game continues as before, except the clue giver can only say one word for each slip! This round continues as before until all the names are used up and scoring is the same. At the end of this round, all the scores from each round are added up and the winners are declared!
Variations to consider:
- For the Charades round, consider allowing the use of props (i.e., using objects in the room to help deliver clues.)
Note: You can have each person come up with more celebrities based on the group size. Smaller groups will need to think up more names than very large groups. You can also have more than two teams for very large groups.
(Credits to Keri Allen for suggesting this game).