The Games
18 games and counting. Three a night, one from each category, never the same two weeks in a row. You find out which three the day before, on Instagram, and I don't pick them. A wheel does.
THE WARM-UP
Runs the whole first hour while people are still arriving. You sit with whoever you came with. You can join it fourteen minutes late and it still works.
THE WARM-UP Stranger Bingo
Twenty-five squares, twenty-five different people. You cannot fill this card standing next to your friends.
How to play + Close −
You get a card full of oddly specific things a person might have done. Has broken a bone. Hates cilantro. Can drive stick. You need a different signature in every square, which means you need to walk up to strangers and ask. It is the fastest way ever invented to make forty people talk to each other.
Setting up
You get a card of squares. Each square is something a person might have done. Big room gets the 25-square card, smaller room gets the 16.
How to play
- Find somebody the square is true for and get them to sign it.
- One signature per person. Nobody signs your card twice.
- You cannot fill this in standing next to your own friends. There are forty other people in the room.
- It runs the whole first hour, while people are still arriving.
How you score
First full card wins. First full line wins something smaller.
If it is your first timeThis is the easiest possible way to start talking to strangers, because the card gives you the excuse.
THE WARM-UP Secret Missions
The card in your hand tells you to do something to a stranger. Nobody else knows what yours says.
How to play + Close −
You draw one card at the door with a covert social task on it. Find two people who went to the same high school. Get someone to show you the last photo in their camera roll. You have the whole first hour. The three funniest get read out loud to the room.
Setting up
You draw one card at check-in with a secret social task on it. Nobody else knows what yours says.
How to play
- Read it, keep it to yourself, and go do it.
- Missions are things like getting three people to tell you their coffee order, or finding two people who went to the same high school.
- When you pull it off, the person you did it to signs the back of your card.
- Drop the signed card in the bowl. You never have to find the host.
- You have the whole first hour.
How you score
One point for each signed card in the bowl. The three funniest get read out loud to the room.
If it is your first timeMissions come in easy, medium and hard. Tell the check-in table you are nervous and you will be handed an easy one.
THE WARM-UP Two Degrees
There is a name on your card. It belongs to somebody in this room you have not met.
How to play + Close −
You write your name on a card at the door and draw somebody else's. Your job for the first hour is to find that specific person and work out one thing the two of you have in common that is not being here tonight. It is the only game in the library that hands you a stranger by name instead of hoping you drift toward one.
Setting up
At check-in you write your first name on a card and drop it in the box. Then you draw somebody else's card. Not your own, and not anybody you walked in with.
How to play
- Find the person whose name is on your card.
- Work out one thing you have in common that is not that you are both here tonight.
- Write it on the card. You both sign it.
- Drop it back in the box.
- If you cannot find them by 7:30, the card goes back in and you draw a new one.
How you score
One point for a completed card. The host reads the five best out loud before game two, and the room votes on the best one for a bonus point.
If it is your first timeYou do not have to invent an opener. The card is the opener.
THE WARM-UP The Hunt
You get paired with a stranger and a list of photos to take. Everybody who came alone gets paired with somebody else who came alone.
How to play + Close −
A list of photo missions and one partner you have never met. The oldest thing in this bar. The worst sign in here. Something that should have been thrown away in 2011. You spend half an hour roaming with somebody you just met, and by the end of it you are not strangers anymore. That is the actual reason this game exists.
Setting up
You get paired with one other person and a list of photos to take. Everybody who came alone gets paired with somebody else who came alone.
How to play
- Work through the list with your partner. You have thirty minutes.
- Every mission is an object, a place, or the two of you. Never a photo of anybody else in the bar.
- Submit the photos through the form on the table.
- The form asks whether it is OK to post. Say no and it goes nowhere.
How you score
Most missions completed wins. The host picks a best photo separately and judges it out loud, which is the fun part.
If it is your first timeYou spend half an hour roaming with somebody you just met. By the end of it you are not strangers, which is the actual reason this game is on the list.
THE WARM-UP Badge Swap
Your name tag stays on. The card is what you trade.
How to play + Close −
Everybody gets a colored card with this week's question on it and writes their answer. Then the trading starts. You cannot just swap, you have to get the story behind whatever is written on theirs first. At the end of the hour, whoever is holding the most cards whose owner will walk over and vouch for them wins.
Setting up
Your name tag stays on all night. Separately, everybody gets a colored card with this week's question on it and writes their answer.
How to play
- Trade cards with other people.
- You cannot just swap. You have to get the story behind whatever is written on their card first.
- Keep trading for the whole hour.
- Cards only. The name tag never comes off.
How you score
When the host calls it, you hold up your cards. Every owner who walks over and vouches for you is a point. If nobody walks over, that card is worth nothing.
If it is your first timeThe card does the talking for you. You never have to open with nothing.
THE WARM-UP Hot Takes
Eight things on a card. Put them in order. Your table has to agree, and it will not.
How to play + Close −
Your table gets a category and eight items and has to rank them one through eight together. There is no right answer. Your ranking gets scored against what the whole room thinks, so the only way to win is to work out what strangers believe. Everybody at the table has to argue for at least one placement out loud or the table is not done.
Setting up
One card per table. A category and eight things to rank. Three cards over the hour, new category each time.
How to play
- Rank all eight, one through eight, as a table.
- Everybody at the table has to argue for at least one item out loud. If you have not spoken, the table is not finished.
- Late arrivals get one veto. They can spend it on any placement already made and the table has to argue it again.
- Categories are things like what is worth waiting in line for, or acceptable reasons to leave a party without saying goodbye.
How you score
Your table's ranking gets compared to the whole room's aggregate. Closest table wins the card.
If it is your first timeNobody at this table knows more than you do. There is nothing to know.
TRUST ISSUES
Somebody at your table is lying and it might be the person you just met. This is the loudest twenty-five minutes of the night.
TRUST ISSUES Blend In
Say one word about the secret word. Too obvious and you hand it over. Too vague and everyone thinks it is you.
How to play + Close −
Sixteen words on the table, one of them is tonight's word, and everyone knows it except one person. Each player says a single word to prove they know. The problem is that a good clue helps the faker and a bad clue makes you look like the faker. Rounds run about five minutes, so you play it four or five times and the paranoia compounds.
Setting up
Sixteen related words sit face up on the table. Everybody secretly draws a card telling them which one is tonight's word. One person draws CHAMELEON and does not know it.
How to play
- Going around the table, each person says one single word that relates to the secret word.
- Too obvious and you hand it to the chameleon.
- Too vague and everybody decides you are the chameleon.
- Then everybody votes on who it is.
How you score
The table catches the chameleon and the table banks a point. The chameleon escapes the vote or guesses the word and they bank it.
If it is your first timeRounds run about five minutes, so you play it four or five times. It gets worse every round, in the good way.
TRUST ISSUES Odd One Out
Everyone at your table knows where you all are. Except one person, who is faking it.
How to play + Close −
Your table draws a location. One person draws a card that says they are the odd one out and they have no idea where everybody else is. Everyone asks each other questions about the place, and the odd one out has to answer convincingly enough to survive while working out where they are. Watching somebody bluff their way through a question about a submarine is the whole point.
Setting up
Everybody at your table draws a card showing the same location. One person draws a card that says ODD ONE OUT and has no idea where everyone is.
How to play
- Take turns asking each other one question about the place.
- If you know where you are, answer without giving it away completely.
- If you are the odd one out, fake it, and work out where you are from what everybody else says.
- After about eight minutes, everybody votes.
- Whoever was the odd one out last round sits out the next draw. Nobody gets it twice in a row.
- Locations are things like a submarine, a funeral, a Padres game, or Trader Joe's.
How you score
The table picks the odd one out correctly and everyone at the table banks a point. The odd one out survives the vote or guesses the location and they bank it instead.
If it is your first timeWatching somebody bluff their way through a question about a submarine is the whole point of this one.
TRUST ISSUES The Alibi
Two of you were together last Tuesday. Neither of you has met before tonight. You have ninety seconds to get your story straight.
How to play + Close −
Two people step away and invent a night they never had. Then they come back and get interrogated separately by everybody else. The ninety seconds of conspiring is the real game. Two strangers have to build something together under time pressure, which bonds people faster than any amount of sitting across from each other.
Setting up
Two people from your table step away from it. Ninety seconds to invent where they were together last Tuesday night.
How to play
- Where you went, who paid, what you ate, how you got home. Get it straight.
- Come back and get interrogated one at a time. The other one cannot hear it.
- The table asks each of you the same six questions off the card.
- Answers get read back side by side.
- Table votes: did the story hold? Then a new pair goes.
How you score
The story holds and both of them bank a point. The table finds the hole and everybody at the table banks one.
If it is your first timeThe lying is the easy part. You are just making things up with somebody, out loud, fast.
TRUST ISSUES Tell Me Everything
Ninety seconds of questions about you. One of your answers is a lie you were assigned.
How to play + Close −
You draw a card naming one thing you have to lie about, then the table fires questions at you for ninety seconds. Everything else you say is true. It is the only game in the category where the byproduct is that eight people learn seven real things about a stranger, because most of every answer is honest. The deduction is the wrapper. The information is the point.
Setting up
One person is up. They draw a card naming one thing about themselves they have to lie about for the whole round. Their job. Their hometown. Last weekend.
How to play
- The table fires questions at them for ninety seconds. Anything goes.
- They answer everything honestly except the assigned topic, and they have to keep that one straight.
- At the end, the table votes on which topic was the lie.
- Everybody at the table takes a turn.
How you score
The table calls it right and everybody who voted correctly banks a point. Nobody gets it and the liar banks two.
If it is your first timeYou spend most of this round just answering honest questions about yourself. That is easier than it sounds and better than it sounds.
TRUST ISSUES Six Liars
Three statements, two true, one false. Then you stand up and do it again with somebody else.
How to play + Close −
Ninety seconds across from a stranger, three things about yourself, one of them invented. They call it, you call theirs, then everybody stands up and finds a new partner. Six rounds, six different people, nobody eliminated. This is the game where you learn actual facts about strangers. Somebody always turns out to have been a competitive figure skater.
Setting up
Nothing to write, nothing to hold. You just need somebody standing in front of you.
How to play
- Say three things about yourself. Two true, one false.
- Your partner has ninety seconds to call the false one. Then you call theirs.
- Host calls time. Everybody stands up and finds somebody new.
- Six rounds, six different people. Nobody gets knocked out.
- The two highest scores go head to head on the mic at the end.
How you score
One point every time you call a lie correctly. One point every time yours gets past somebody.
If it is your first timeYou are never out, so there is no bad round. Worst case you learn six things about six people.
TRUST ISSUES Story or Stolen
Sixty seconds to tell a story. It is either yours or it is on the card in your hand.
How to play + Close −
Everybody tells one, at their own table, one after another. It might have actually happened to you or it might be somebody else's story handed over thirty seconds ago. The people who lose hardest are the ones telling the truth, which is the funniest possible outcome. Best teller from each table goes to the mic at the end.
Setting up
Everybody at the table draws a card. Some cards are blank, which means you tell a real story. Some have somebody else's story on them.
How to play
- Sixty seconds each, going around the table. You cannot be interrupted.
- After each one, the rest of the table votes: their story, or stolen.
- Then the truth comes out.
- Every person at the table tells one.
- Each table sends its best teller to the mic for a three-story final.
How you score
You fool your table and you bank a point. You call one correctly and you bank one.
If it is your first timeThe people who lose hardest are the ones telling the truth, which is the funniest possible outcome.
FULL SEND
Everybody standing, nothing quiet, and this is where the good footage comes from.
FULL SEND The Paper Airplane Open
Six inches of tape per person. One throw each. The whole bar is watching.
How to play + Close −
Ten minutes of building, then everybody lines up behind a strip of tape on the floor and throws. Distance first, then accuracy. Forty adults standing in a bar losing their minds over paper airplanes is exactly as good as it sounds, and it produces the best footage of the entire night.
Setting up
One sheet of paper each, six inches of tape per person, and ten minutes to build.
How to play
- Build one plane each. Ten minutes, and the tape limit is enforced.
- Everybody lines up behind a strip of tape on the floor.
- Distance round. Every person throws once, and your team's best three throws get added together.
- Accuracy round. A chair or a bin fifteen feet out, three throws per team.
- Throw down the lane. Never across the room.
How you score
Distance and accuracy are scored separately, so there are two points on the table.
If it is your first timeForty adults standing in a bar losing their minds over paper airplanes is exactly as good as it sounds.
FULL SEND Freeze Frame
Twenty seconds to build the photo. Then nobody moves.
How to play + Close −
The host calls a scene and your whole team has twenty seconds to arrange itself into a frozen picture of it. Everybody has to be in the frame. Then the room votes by yelling, so the louder the bar gets the better this game works. Five rounds, and by the end you have twenty photographs of the night that took no effort to stage.
Setting up
Everybody standing, teams spread out with room around them.
How to play
- The host calls a scene. A family photo that is going badly. The exact second the Padres lose it.
- Twenty seconds to arrange your whole team into a frozen picture of it.
- Every single person has to be in the frame.
- Host counts down and takes the photo. Nobody moves.
- The room votes by volume. Loudest cheer takes the round. Five rounds.
How you score
One point a round to the loudest-cheered team. The host picks one overall favorite at the end for a bonus point.
If it is your first timeYou do not have to be funny. You have to stand somewhere and hold still.
FULL SEND Pass It Down
No talking. Just tap the person in front of you and act it out.
How to play + Close −
Your team lines up facing away. Something gets acted out to the person at the back, who taps the next one and passes on whatever they think they just saw. By the front of the line it has become something else entirely. It is the only game in the library that gets better the louder the bar is, because nobody was allowed to talk anyway.
Setting up
Your team lines up, everybody facing away from the front.
How to play
- Something gets acted out to the person at the back of the line.
- No talking, at all, for the whole game.
- They tap the next person and act out whatever they think they just saw.
- It travels up the line, getting worse at every step.
- The person at the front guesses what it was.
How you score
Correct guess and everybody on the team banks a point.
If it is your first timeIt is the only game in the library that gets better the louder the bar is, because nobody was allowed to talk anyway.
FULL SEND Speed Draw
Ten seconds to draw. Pass the marker. The next person never saw the word.
How to play + Close −
A relay where the drawing degrades with every single person who touches it, and the last one in line has to guess what it was supposed to be. It starts as a roller coaster and ends as a crime scene. The guesses are always insane and the whiteboards are the thing you film.
Setting up
Pictionary run as a relay. One whiteboard per team, everybody lines up.
How to play
- The host shows the person at the front a word.
- They get ten seconds to draw it, then pass the marker back.
- The next person adds ten seconds without ever having seen the word.
- It keeps going down the line.
- The person at the end has to guess what it was supposed to be.
How you score
Correct guess and everybody on the team banks a point.
If it is your first timeIt starts as a roller coaster and ends as a crime scene. You cannot really be bad at this one.
FULL SEND Sixty Seconds
Three challenges, sixty seconds each. Your whole team is in all three.
How to play + Close −
Rapid-fire physical challenges back to back with everybody playing at once and team totals counting. The order is deliberate. Skill, then luck, then humiliation. Nobody is competitive by the third one, which is exactly why it goes last.
Setting up
Three sixty-second challenges back to back. Whole team plays every one, and team totals are what count.
How to play
- Cup stack. Everybody builds their own six-cup pyramid and takes it back down. Most completed stacks on the team wins.
- Ball bounce. Everybody bounces a ping pong ball into a cup from three feet. Most balls in on the team wins.
- Cookie face. Cookie on your forehead, get it into your mouth using no hands. Whole team at once, most cookies eaten wins.
- The order is deliberate. Skill, then luck, then humiliation.
How you score
Each of the three is scored separately, so there are three points on the table.
If it is your first timeNobody is competitive by the third one. That is exactly why it goes last. Ask the host for the no-cookie version if you need one.
FULL SEND The Tower
Big wooden blocks, sudden death, and a room that goes completely silent every time somebody reaches for one.
How to play + Close −
Bracket format, one representative per team per turn, and it gets quieter and quieter until it does not. The team that knocks it over is out. Nothing else in the catalog produces that specific hush followed by that specific noise.
Setting up
A tower of big wooden blocks, and a bracket. One person per team per turn, rotating.
How to play
- Take one block out and put it on top.
- One hand only.
- If it comes down on your turn, your team is out.
- Sudden death. Last team standing wins.
How you score
Last team standing takes it and everybody on that team banks a point.
If it is your first timeThe room goes completely silent every time somebody reaches for a block. Then it does not.
How the three get picked
A wheel. Not a vibe, not a favorite, a wheel. Spin it yourself if you don't believe me.
The same wheel picks the format, which is how teams work that week. The Pod, The Drift, or The Anchor.
