Party Games

Hangman is one of many popular guessing word games falling in the category of indoor party games and is played with a paper and pencil along (though the computer versions are also available) by two or more players taking part in the game.

One of the players thinks of a word in her/his mind. The rest of the players are supposed to guess the same letter by letter, one letter at a time.

The one, who has decided the word, counts the letter in it and draws as many dashes on a piece of paper, each dash representing the letters of the word in order.

The guessing player/s guess a letter trying to fix 12 most commonly occurring letters e-t-a-o-i-n-s-h-r-d-l-u first, whereas the leader tries to think of words that use them the least. If the letter guessed happens to be in the word, the leader fills the same wherever it should fit in the word replacing its dash/es. But if it doesn't, the leader draws one element of the hangman-diagram known as a 'tally mark' in the game, denoting hanging the guessing players element by element.

If all the dashes are replaced by letters before all the elements of the diagram are drawn, the guessing player/s win/s the game. If not, they lose it to the player who had initially thought the word.

Associated Deals on eBay

Hangman by Milton Bradley Hasbro 2 Player Word Action    US $.99

HANGMAN Milton Bradley Copyright 1988 Family Fun    US $9.99

Hangman Dont Hang SAM from Cardinal Games    US $.99

MB Game HANGMAN 1976 Milton Bradley Vincent Price OB    US $9.50

Christmas Songs is very involving as one of the most popular Christmas Party Games, in which your Christmas music memory is put to a tough challenge in competition with the rest of the players.

How many songs of Christmas do you know and how many of them are unique ones which no one else knows? The game can be played on individual basis or in teams comprising any number of players. The number of teams also can go up as high as there are people to participate.

The game makes a very festive atmosphere as the participants are challenged to write down as many songs concerning Christmas as they know in a limited duration of time on a piece of paper with a pencil provided by the host.

Every player is awarded 1 point per song written by her/him and 2 points for every song written that no one else in the competition has, thus rewarding the players for the unique songs they know.

Then there is a round in which all the rewarded unique songs are sung by the participants who wrote them making the atmosphere all the more colorful for one and for all.

The person or the team scoring the highest points wins the game and gathers the major share of the Christmas gifts, which in any way are there for everyone who participated in the game.

Associated Deals on eBay

NAT KING COLE CHRISTMAS SONG    US $.01

NAT KING COLE CHRISTMAS SONG    US $.01

Precious Moments Brightest Star Christmas Songs Tape    US $.99

NAt King Cole The christmas Song 33 LP Record Album 67    US $.99

Pin the Tail on the Donkey is very popular among kids party games and is fondly played by children all around the world.

The game is as simple to play as all fun party games are. A picture of a donkey that is missing its tail is stuck on the wall at a height where the shortest of the kid is able to reach with her/his hands.

The kid whose turn it is, is blindfolded first of all. Then s/he is handed over a paper tail with a push pin attached to it. Then the kid is spun around so that s/he loses her/his orientation of direction.

Now the kid is supposed to reach the donkey and pin the tail where it is supposed to be. The distance of the tail where the kid pins it from the donkey's behind becomes a matter of laughter by the entire party of kids.

Everyone gets a chance and the one whose pinning has been closest to the donkey's behind wins the game. Of course winning the game is not as important as the fun of the light-heartedness that the game provides the party with, is.

The game is played by adults as well turning it into a drinking game where the worst pinning is awarded a shot of a particular variety of alcohol before the next round begins.

Associated Deals on eBay

Vintage PIN THE TAIL ON THE DONKEY GAME LG POSTER    US $3.99

Vintage PIN THE TAIL ON THE DONKEY GAME 50s    US $11.99

Pin the Tail on the Donkey Party Game    US $4.00

Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Other Party Games by    US $2.00

Pictionary (video game) falls under video party games in guessing word games of board games, in which 4 teams of unlimited players can participate either in "Regular Game" mode or in "Alternative Game" mode.

The game was introduced in 1990 by LJN Toys Ltd. and Pictionary Incorporated as an NES puzzle game that was designed by Software Creations Ltd. that wrote its software as well.

In the "Regular Game" mode, a "designated drawer" draws a picture on the topic that the computer assigns to her/him. If the team guesses the word correctly, the honor system gets activated to note the score. A virtual die is rolled telling how many squares on the screen board are to be moved. Whichever team reaches the finish space first, wins the game.

In the "Alternative Game" mode, the honor system doesn't get activated and the drawer her/himself decides if the guesses were correct or incorrect, which in this mode are done by all the teams and not only by one. Whichever team guesses right gets the chance to roll the die and move further along the board in their pursuit to come out as the winner team.

Associated Deals on eBay

NEW PICTIONARY MAN FAMILY GAME FREE SHIPPING    US $74.50

ELECTRONIC PICTIONARY MAN GAME BY MATTEL NEW    US $37.99

THE SIMPSONS PICTIONARY Board Game SEALED 2002    US $22.99

Pictionary The Quick Draw Board Game 1993    US $28.40

Pictionary falls in the category guessing word games as board games under indoor party games. First time the game was published in 1985, which immediately after became so hit that it was made into more than one game shows on TV as well as video games to play on computer.

There are two teams in the game and the players in a team are supposed to guess and recognize particular words from what their teammates have expressed in their drawings.

A team moves a piece on the board on which squares are made with letters or shapes inside them telling what picture is to be drawn by one of the team members who picks up a card from a deck that has a word printed on it which the team member tries to express as best as possible in the form of a drawing without a single letter or digit written on it. The rest of the team members try to guess the word that the drawing is supposed to be made for.

The board has five types of squares made on it denoting P (for Person - animate nouns), O (for Object - inanimate nouns), A (for Action - verbs), D (for Difficult - challenging words) and AP (for All Play - any type of word); and each card out of the deck has five words printed on it. Players are bound to select the word out of those five, which the marker on a particular square (P, O, A, D or AP) on the board dictates the player to correspond to.

The accuracy of guessing as well as the speed of it makes a team win the turn and move on to the next one. There is an absolute time limit imposed on the moves including both drawing and guessing by a team, enforced by a one-minute sand timer. The team moves on to the next turn by rolling a die and moving as many squares on the board. If the team has lost the turn, the other team takes over.

In AP (All Play) category, both the teams play simultaneously and the one that does it earlier comes out to be the winner of the turn.

The team that reaches the last space of the board first, wins this beautiful game named Pictionary falling in the category guessing word games as board games under indoor party games.

Associated Deals on eBay

NEW PICTIONARY MAN FAMILY GAME FREE SHIPPING    US $74.50

ELECTRONIC PICTIONARY MAN GAME BY MATTEL NEW    US $37.99

THE SIMPSONS PICTIONARY Board Game SEALED 2002    US $22.99

Pictionary The Quick Draw Board Game 1993    US $28.40

A scavenger hunt is one of the fun party games in which the participants are given a list to collect (without spending money) or perform, either individually or in teams that makes the game a very involving one, at times filling it with a spirit of adventure, thrill and curiosity making the game as colorful as one's imagination can take it to be.

Everyone tries to complete the list as fast as possible in order to come out the winner of the game. At times it is not the speed but the quality of collection or performance that decides who the winner is, like in a photograph clicking hunt on a particular theme or topic where the number of the photographs clicked id not as important as the creative quality of the pictures clicked is.

Video game industry has exploited the theme of the game to a real great extent by incorporating the same in Super Mario 64, Metroid, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Rugrats, Grand Theft Auto and even partially in Pokémon series of the party video games.

A few of the famous traditions that play this game are The University of Chicago Hunt, the annual Tricadecathlonomania in Northfield, MN in April every year, and the "Rally Intergaláctico del Rey Lagarto" in Mexico City.

Associated Deals on eBay

Scavenger Hunt VHS    US $42.45

The Addams Family Pugsleys Scavenger Hunt SNES    US $21.99

NEW The Scavenger Hunt Travel Activity Book Kirchm    US $15.26

NEW The Scavenger Hunt Kristine D Henning    US $11.73

Yahtzee is one of very popular dice games in the category Indoor Party Games first created by Milton Bradley and now being marketed by Hasbro.

There are five dice in the game, which are rolled in order to make certain combinations. The player whose turn it is can take up to three chances to roll them for coming out with one out of 13 pre-decided scoring combinations. There are 13 rounds in the game and in each one of them every player decides and declares beforehand as to which scoring combination s/he is going to choose for that round out of the 13 permissible ones. The combination once used by a player in a certain round cannot be chosen again in any other round by the same player. All the combinations have different point values, some of them fixed and the rest having the cumulative value of the dice.

In the scoreboard there are 13 boxes that are divided in two sections - the upper and the lower. In the boxes in upper section, the cumulative values of the dice faces in the corresponding rounds are recorded. In the lower section some poker-themed combinations are noted down with their specific point values; like Three-Of-A-Kind showing the same face in three dice scoring sum of all the dice, Four-Of-A-Kind showing the same face in four dice scoring sum of all the dice, Full House showing three-of-a-kind with a pair scoring 25 points, Small Straight showing four sequential dice scoring 30 points, Large Straight showing five sequential dice scoring 40 points, Yahtzee showing five same dice scoring 50 points, and Chance showing any combination scoring sum of all the dice.

As the game is over when all the thirteen rounds have been played, each player's total score is calculated by summing all thirteen score boxes along with the bonus points that a Yahtzee summons for being worth 100 points each for the subsequent ones after the first one has earned its scheduled 50 points under certain detailed conditions of the game.

The highest scorer is declared the winner of this one of the most popular dice games in the category Indoor Party Games now available in its video version as well.

Associated Deals on eBay

SCRABBLE YAHTZEE TRAVEL GAME SET SNAP IN TILES NEW    US $29.99

Simon Game 4850 Original Box Instructions Probe Yahtzee    US $42.60

MICKEY Mouse CLUBHOUSE YAHTZEE JR Game Minnie NEW HTF    US $29.49

Monopoly Boggle Yahtzee Battleships for Nintendo DS    US $32.73

Mafia aka Werewolf aka Assassin falls in the category of Role Playing Games under Party Games and is a highly significant game as far as learning the psychological skills of warfare is concerned.

The game models a battle between an informed minority and an uninformed majority by assigning roles to the "mafia-members" secretly so that the "townspeople" don't know who they are among them though they might have been given the information regarding how many of them are there.

There are two phases in the game - the night phase and the day phase. In the night phase the "mafia-members" - who all know one another since they are the informed minority - choose among themselves to "kill" an innocent. In the day phase all the players (including "mafia-members" whom no one knows as what they really are!) discuss regarding who the "mafia-members" could be and reach an agreement to kill one of them.

Thus the players keep getting eliminated through getting "killed" either by "mafia-members" or by the "townspeople". "Mafia-members" would never "kill" their own since they know, but the "townspeople" can since they don't know though they have the privilege of being more in number to be "killed" in the game.

The game continues till only either the "mafia-members" or the "townspeople" survive and there is no more left to be "killed".

Obviously the team that survives wins the battle. The bigger the group to play as is generally the case in the online versions of the game, the more the enjoyment in the fun party games that the famous Mafia aka Werewolf aka Assassin belongs to!

More Role Playing Games on eBay

PC Games Action Adventure and Role Playing    US $99.00

Heros Guide Star Wars Roleplaying Game by J D Wike    US $50.00

Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game 2nd Ed Mint In plastic    US $100.00

Star Trek Role Playing Game Books 13 asst plus BONUS    US $99.00

The Game of Life (1992 version) among board games in the category indoor party games started rewarding players for their social awareness and responsible action like recycling trash and helping the homeless.

It all reflected our public awareness changing from valuing a self-centered, rich jerk to valuing a socially responsible citizen more.

The routes of "Business and college" changed to those of "Career and College", the College route putting the player in debt in the beginning though promising much more salary than the Career route in the long run.

Another major change in this version is the collection of "LIFE Tiles" as one move further along the game. These tiles represent and account for major life events rewarding as huge sums of money as $50,000 to $250,000 to be added to the player's account in the end of the game.

Also in the Retirement zone, new Countryside Acres have been added, which previously had made the "Bankrupt" space in the older version.

In 1998, a CD-ROM version of the game was introduced adding computerized moves and short animations to the game.

Next, in the 40th anniversary edition in 2000, the Travel Agent was replaced with a Computer Consultant.

Then in 2005 the new edition tried to limit the importance of the chance factor in favor of more realistic life situations and jobs.

Now the current 2007 version all the jobs except the Police Officer have lost their special abilities, though still it is basically a luck-driven game more than it is driven by life-skills.

But then may be the real life goes the same way too - more dependent on luck or chance than it depends on the skills! May be The Game of Life - one of the most popular board games played as indoor party games represents life in a real way, the way we live it here on this planet!

Associated Deals on eBay

The Suite Life of Zack Cody Tipton Caper Game Bo    US $2.36

XBOX 360 Live The Lord of the Rings Conquest Game    US $20.00

Vtg Book BWANA GAME The Life Story of George Adamson    US $4.99

XBOX Live Yu Gi Oh The Dawn of Destiny Game    US $5.99

The Game of Life is one of the most popular board games played as indoor party games and was created the very first as long back as in 1860 by Milton Bradley who had named it The Checkered Game of Life then.

Later in 1960 Milton Bradley Company, which is a subsidiary of Hasbro now, published the game in its modern version. Although the game is designed for two to six players to participate but it can be extended to as much as eight to ten players as well.

The 1970s/1980s version of the game is a journey from "Infancy" to "Happy Old Age" passing through the "good" spaces by landing on to them and collecting 100 points for doing so, spinning a small wheel on which any number from 1 to 10 can be gotten to move ahead. The wheel is placed in the middle of the board, which also accommodates mountains, buildings, automobiles and a bank issuing notes, insurance policies, promissory notes, and stock certificates.

Players get their salaries either through shorter route called Business paying $12,000 per pay day, or through the longer route called College paying anything from $16,000 to $50,000 per pay day. The players also get "Share the Wealth" cards of three types - Collect, Pay, and Exemption.

On important life events adding members to the family, the players "collect presents" from other players. There are three insurance policies - automobile, life, and fire. Some spaces are marked "Lucky Day" rewarding players with money. Retirement could be settled for in the "Millionaire" space where the player with the largest sum of money wins the game.

There are three newer versions - the 1992 version, the 1998 CD-ROM version, and the 2007 Current Version of The Game of Life - one of the most popular board games played as indoor party games; which we shall be taking up in our next posts to come.

Associated Deals on eBay

The Suite Life of Zack Cody Tipton Caper Game Bo    US $2.36

XBOX 360 Live The Lord of the Rings Conquest Game    US $20.00

Vtg Book BWANA GAME The Life Story of George Adamson    US $4.99

XBOX Live Yu Gi Oh The Dawn of Destiny Game    US $5.99