Four nifty party games and after-dinner games for writers, bookworms, and word lovers, which need little to no prep, mostly suitable for a wide age range, and ranging from the playful to the deeply writerly to the very, very silly. Enjoy!
Passround Elevenies
Elevenies are tiny poems of just eleven words in five lines, following an exact pattern:
Line 1: 1 word: a noun (a thing, place or person)
Line 2: 2 words: what it does
Line 3: 3 words: where it is
Line 4: 4 words: further explanation
Line 5: 1 word: a feeling about all this
This passround game uses their very exact structure to create consequences-style poems, from the uncannily meaningful to the gleefully absurd.
For example...
Parrots
hover, untidily
up down everywhere
They dream of jungles
terrified
You'll need...
📜 PAPER: Strips of paper big enough for five lines of text (max four words per line) and space to fold. (A4 cut into four strips widthways is perfect)
🖊️ PENS for each person.
How to Play
- Give each person a slip of paper.
- Put one person in charge of reading out the instructions for each line
- Each write a first line, then fold and pass on.
- Each write a second line, then fold and pass on – and so on till the end.
- Unfold the finished poems and each read one aloud. Feel free to do Special Poetry Voices and Dramatic Declaiming!
👑 Everyone wins, and what you win is a poem!
Ex Libris
This is one for the real bookworms. In a nutshell, by turns, one person reads out the back cover blurb of a novel, they write out the real first line while everyone else makes up a first line for it, and then the reader reads them all out and everyone tries to guess which is the real first line. (This is a homespun version of the game invented by Leslie Scott and designed by Sara Finch.)
You'll need...
📚 BOOKS! Ideally, each person should bring 3+ books from their own shelves, so the host doesn't have the Home Shelf advantage – or if you're playing in a family, each person gets to choose 3+ books that they'll be The Reader for. (You can also use Kindle books, of course.)
📜 PAPER: Strips of paper big enough to hold one sentence. They should all be the same so you can't tell whose strip is being read out.
🖊️ PENS for each person.
How to Play
Take it in turns to be the reader for each round.
- The reader reads out the back-cover blurb of a novel.
- Everyone invents a first line for the novel, and writes it on a slip of paper. The reader writes out the real first line on a strip of paper.
- The reader reads out all the first lines, including the real one, and everyone votes for the one they think is real. (Reader: make sure you can read everyone's handwriting, so you don't stumble while you read them out!)
- You get 1 point if you vote for the real first line and 1 point for each person who votes for your first line.
Change reader for the next round, and keep playing for as long as you like, or until you reach an agreed score (eg 20), or until you run out of books.
👑 The winner is whoever has the most points at the end
25 Letters
In a
nutshell, you each have a 5-by-5 grid which you want to make words in,
and each person takes it in turn choosing a letter. The best bits are
the YEEHA! when you manage to wrangle a word and the bewilderment of WHY
ON EARTH someone wants a *J* and where on earth you can put it.
You'll need...
📜 PAPER, any kind big enough to draw a 5-by-5 grid on
🖊️ PENS for each person
🕵️
Some way to stop each other seeing your own grids – something to press
on so you can write on your laps, or open books to stand up in front of
your grid, or just jealously guard it from view with your other hand
How to Play
🏹 Your aim is to make 3, 4, or 5 letter words.
- Each draw your own 5-by-5 grid on a piece of paper.
- The first person chooses a letter. You each have to write it somewhere in your own grid; you can choose where.
- The next person chooses a letter, and so on round, each person taking a turn, until all 25 squares are filled.
- You get 3 points for a 3-letter word, 4 points for a 4-letter word, and 5 points for a 5-letter word. (If you have younger players, you can also have 2 points for a 2-letter word.)
- Words can overlap (eg JIGIN can be both "jig" and "gin") but one word can't contain another (eg MIXER can't be "mix" and "mixer")
👑 The winner is whoever has the most points at the end
Answers and Questions
Definitely one for the silly part of the evening! In a nutshell, players use their Mythical Mystical Telepathic Skills to divine the answers to questions that haven't been asked yet. The best bits are when answers uncannily match the questions – or are wildly off-piste. Also, finding a book of Answers years later and puzzling over this mysterious homemade I Ching type thing.
You'll need...
🤷 Nothing, or if you don't fully trust each other, 🖊️📜 pens and paper
How to Play
- The first person Thinks Of A Question, but doesn't say it out loud. This can be anything from "What shall I make for dinner?" to "What is the purpose of existence?"
- When you've Thought Of A Question, announce this to the group, but NOT the actual question: Telepathically Transmit The Question. You may wish to rub your temples and hum mystically to aid the process of Telepathic Transmission.
- When each person has Received The Question, and Divined Their Answer, they say they're ready.
- The Questioner announces their Question and each person tells them their Answer.
- The Questioner chooses the person with the best Answer, who then gets to ask the next Question
Trust Issues!
Sadly, the world of Spiritual Communication is full of ghastly charlatans who may use smoke and mirrors, or outright lies, so depending on how much you trust the group, you can adjust how to play:
😍 Maximum trust: All the Answerers genuinely will say their original Answer, no need for proof
🤨 Medium trust: All the Answerers have to write their answers down, so they can show it as proof. (Still, real mountebanks might have several answers written down. So...)
😈 Zero trust: All the Answerers have to write their Answers down and pass them over, and the Questioner announces the question before looking at any of the Answers.
We generally play on maximum trust, although one year my partner had a bunch of heartshaped notebooks left behind at the restaurant, so we used those. I found it years later and was utterly confounded by these strange notes I'd scrawled to myself! (And in case it's not abundantly clear, I don't believe in telepathic powers!)
