On my travels I played a few funny games with my friends. They are great to pass the time and are a lot of fun! The concept is, that only one or a few people know the rules behind these games and everybody needs to get behind those rules.
Guess-the-secret-games
The basic concept of this game is, that at least one person knows the rules and everyone else has to guess what these rules are. Everyone who has figured out the rules should not tell these as to not spoil the fun of everyone else. Because the fun part of these games is to figure out what is going on.
„Who´s Got the Ball?“
With this game one person tells a story of a ball that is passed around. This person doesn´t neccessarily have to know the rules. At the beginning he can tell a simple story of who passes the ball to whom. This story can be more and more elaborate in the development of the game to make it easier for the other people who have no idea to guess. For example it could go like this at the beginning: „I give the ball tho Simon, he gives it to Alice. Alice passes it to Joe. Who´s got the ball?“ And later on you could tell a story like this: „Joe gives the ball to Alice, who throws it into the sky, where it is grabbed by an eagle and brought to the moon. So, who´s got the ball?“
The secret of the game is that everyone who speaks first is the one who has the ball. 😉
Department Store
The Department Store-Game is quite similar, althoug it has slightly different rules. Here every speaker goes shopping and aks wheter he or she gets the things at the department store. At first you choose a floor and go to the left or right and look for some clohtes or things to buy there. Again the speaker doesn´t need to know the rules. For example he or she could ask like this: „I go to the first floor, to the department on the right and want to buy a pair of Jeans. Do I get it there?“ Everyone who knows the rules can answer that.
The secret of the game is, that the „floors“ are the people sitting in the round. Wether you can buy something or not depends on the fact if the people are wearing these items or not. Left or right decides wether the person sits right or left of the speaker and the number of the floor is the position where he sits. For example „the first floor on the right“ would be the first person on the righthandside of the speaker. The „left deparment on the fith floor“ would be the fith person in the left side of the speaker.
The Random Story
In this gamea a few people who know the secret answer a contestant only with „yes“ and „no“ questions. The knowing people make up a pattern of how to say „yes“ and „no“. A good way is: 2 times „yes“, 1 „no“, 1 „yes“ and 1 „no“. All in all that is five times. Like this you can make up a rule which finger stands for „yes“ and „no“ and like this you have a secret way of communicating.
When you play the game one contestant who has no idea of the game is chosen. He or she has to go outside and wait for a while, while the others who know the secret „make up a story“ which the contestant has to guess with „yes“ and „no“ questions afterwards. Actually all the do is to make up two or three words of how to start the story. These two words are then presented to the contestant who can now come in. He has to ask questions to find out what the story the others have made up is. The knowing people answer in the mentioned way.
The stories that are fabricated this way can be really funny. But also it can be a little bit mean sometimes, so be nice! 🙂
Games with a piece of paper
With a piece of paper you can also have a lot of fun.
Drawing a Monster together
In this game everyone in a round of people draws a part of a human, or an animal. Nobody should see what everyone else is drawing. You then fold the paper and pass it to your neighbour. Like this you go on until you have drawn all parts of the body. For example you start with the head, then the neck, arms/torso, legs and end with the feet. You should not let your neighbour see what you drew but leave him two lines that the next person knows where to continue drawing.
At the end everyone shows their hillarious results. 🙂
3 wins
Probably everyone knows this classic where you draw a game board on a piece of paper and the goal of the game is to have three crosses or circles in one line.
Number Plates
When you have a long and boring drive in a car, you can try to guess the city where the car is coming from (when you are in a country where there is a correlation between the name and the letters on the plate, like Germany or Austria for example ;).
Otherwise you could make a game where everyone has to say a say a river, country or city with the letter of a numberplate in it. Try to mix categories up, like illnesses, animals, persons, laws, websites, etc. Get creative.
Card Games
Card Games are also very popular with travellers of all countries. Here you can find a few ideas.