TLDR; What are some good party games that encourage getting to know each other and are not centered around drinking?
A year ago I had a great party. I split all participants (maybe 16 people) into 4 teams and made a 3 game tournament which was very appreciated. This year I am hoping to replicate the good vibe we had, but I want new games.
I am now asking you; What are some good party games?
Criterias:
- Low or no amount of randomness (to keep things competitive)
- Reasonably easy to acquire the materials for
- Possible to do as a team
- Encourages interaction, either within the team, between teams or both
- Should not be centered around drinking
Card games. We used to have card nights every week back in the 70s. One of the most fun games was something called Racing Demon. Each player has a full pack and all play at the same time. We would have 15 people sitting on the floor in a circle, all screaming. It gets CRAZY. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerts There are hundreds of card games, with a huge range of skill required. There are a lot of trick-taking games similar to bridge where you play with a partner - euchre, whist, 500. All you need is a few packs of playing cards. (Everyone brought their own pack for Racing Demon, lol.)
I second the Nerts recommendation because when I was a teen I played Ligretto (Basically just a branded Nerts) at one party and we all had a blast. To this day I wish I had the opportunity to play it again.
I played so much nerts in college. I was terrible at it due to the frenetic rate of play, but it was fun. It’s the reason I have like 8 packs of playing cards haha.