28 games
Checked October 2026

Going Away Party Games

Games for a going away party: memories of the guest of honor, guesses about the new place, keepsakes to pack.

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Lift the Suitcase, Guess the Pounds1. Pack one suitcase, for real or with books, and weigh it on a bathroom scale out of sight.2. Each guest lifts it once by the handle and writes down a guess in pounds.3. The guest of honor guesses last.4. Put the suitcase on the scale where everyone can see. The closest guess wins, and anyone within one pound is hired to carry it to the car.Players: 4 to 30. You need: a packed suitcase, a bathroom scale, paper and pencils.
The Last Local Quiz1. Before the party, the host writes ten questions about the place the guest of honor is leaving, things only a local would know: the number of the bus that stops outside, the name on the corner store's awning, the color of the nearest mailbox.2. The guest of honor answers each one aloud.3. The room may challenge any answer.4. Seven right out of ten is a pass. With fewer, the room rules that they have not lived here long enough to leave.Players: 4 to 30. You need: ten questions written by the host.
A Ring of Paper Keys1. Cut a paper key for every guest and punch a hole in each.2. Each guest writes on a key something the guest of honor can always come back to: my couch, Sunday dinner, the back row at the game. No names.3. Thread the keys on a ring or a ribbon.4. The guest of honor reads each key aloud and guesses whose it is. The ring hangs by the new front door.Players: 4 to 30. You need: paper keys, a hole punch, pens and a ring or a ribbon.

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Memory games about the guest of honor 6

Draw Their Daily Route From Memory 1. Name one trip the guest of honor has made hundreds of times: the walk to work, the school run, the way to the gym. 2. Each guest or pair has three minutes to draw a map of it from memory, with five landmarks marked. 3. The guest of honor draws one too, out of sight. 4. Lay the maps side by side. The guest of honor signs the closest and keeps the funniest wrong one. Players: 4 to 24. You need: paper and pencils.
Finish the Story They Always Tell 1. Every guest thinks of a story the guest of honor has told more than once. 2. One guest starts telling it, in the guest of honor's own style, and stops just before the ending. 3. The other guests call out how it ends. 4. The guest of honor gives the real ending, picks the closest version and, if the story was told wrong, tells it properly one last time. Five stories are plenty. Players: 4 to 30. You need: nothing.
The Last Local Quiz 1. Before the party, the host writes ten questions about the place the guest of honor is leaving, things only a local would know: the number of the bus that stops outside, the name on the corner store's awning, the color of the nearest mailbox. 2. The guest of honor answers each one aloud. 3. The room may challenge any answer. 4. Seven right out of ten is a pass. With fewer, the room rules that they have not lived here long enough to leave. Players: 4 to 30. You need: ten questions written by the host.

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Memory games about the guest of honor, continued

Miss It or Not? Sort Their Ten Things 1. Before the party, the guest of honor writes ten things about the place or the job they are leaving, each on its own card: five they will miss and five they will not. 2. The host reads a card aloud: the hill on the walk home, the line at the bakery on Fridays. 3. Guests vote miss or not, with a thumb up or down. 4. The guest of honor gives the verdict and one sentence of why. Guests keep their own score out of ten. Players: 4 to 30. You need: ten cards written by the guest of honor.
Who Still Has Their Stuff? 1. Each guest writes on a card one thing they borrowed from the guest of honor and never gave back, or one thing they lent and never saw again. It may be true or made up. 2. The host reads the cards aloud, with the names. 3. The guest of honor rules on each one: true or false. 4. A guest whose made-up card is believed scores a point, and so does the guest of honor for every right ruling. Real things are handed back at the door. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a card and a pen for each guest.
Whose Memory Is This? 1. Each guest writes one shared memory on a card in two or three sentences, leaving out their own name and one key detail: where it was, or what went wrong. 2. The host reads a card aloud. 3. The guest of honor must name the writer and supply the missing detail. 4. Score one point for each. If the guest of honor is stumped, the writer stands up and finishes the memory. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a card and a pen for each guest.

Where they are going 6

Four Facts About the New Place and One Fake 1. Before the party, the guest of honor looks up four true facts about the place they are moving to and makes up a fifth. 2. They read all five aloud in a level voice. 3. Guests hold up one to five fingers for the one they think is made up. 4. The guest of honor reveals the fake. Guests who caught it stay in for a second round of five, if the guest of honor has done the homework. Players: 4 to 30. You need: five facts prepared by the guest of honor.
I Packed Their Suitcase, This Town Only 1. Sit in a circle. The first guest says in their suitcase I packed, and names one thing from this town that the guest of honor should take along, such as the smell of the bakery. 2. The next guest repeats it and adds one more. 3. Go around the circle, each guest repeating the whole list in order. A guest who slips is out. 4. When one guest is left, the guest of honor must recite the whole suitcase, and may add the one thing everybody forgot. Players: 4 to 15. You need: nothing.
Lift the Suitcase, Guess the Pounds 1. Pack one suitcase, for real or with books, and weigh it on a bathroom scale out of sight. 2. Each guest lifts it once by the handle and writes down a guess in pounds. 3. The guest of honor guesses last. 4. Put the suitcase on the scale where everyone can see. The closest guess wins, and anyone within one pound is hired to carry it to the car. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a packed suitcase, a bathroom scale, paper and pencils.
Pin the New Town on a Blank Map 1. Print or draw an outline map with no names on it: the state, the country or the world, whichever fits the move. 2. Each guest writes their initials on a small sticker and presses it where they think the new home is. 3. The guest of honor places the last sticker, in the right spot. 4. The closest initials win. Leave the map out, so that late arrivals can see how far off everyone was. Players: 4 to 30. You need: an outline map with no names, small stickers and a pen.
Point to Where They Are Going 1. Everyone stands in the middle of the room. 2. On three, each guest points an arm in the direction of the guest of honor's new home, as the crow flies. 3. Everyone holds still while the guest of honor finds the true direction with the map and the compass on a phone. 4. The guest whose arm is closest wins. Play again for the nearest airport and for the place the guest of honor grew up. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a phone with a map and a compass.
The Postcard They Will Send in Six Months 1. Hand every guest a blank card. 2. Each guest writes the postcard that the guest of honor will send home six months from now, in their voice: three sentences and a sign-off. 3. The host reads the cards aloud without names. 4. The guest of honor picks the likeliest and the least likely, and takes the stack along to check against what really happens. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a blank card and a pen for each guest.

Advice and wishes 6

A Toast Where Every Wish Begins With the Last Word 1. Stand in a circle with a glass of anything. The first guest makes a wish for the guest of honor in one sentence. 2. The next guest must begin their wish with the last word of the wish before. 3. A guest who cannot start within five seconds says cheers and sits down. 4. Keep going until one guest is standing. That guest makes the final toast, which may start any way they like. Players: 4 to 20. You need: a glass for each guest.
Good Advice or Bad? The Guest of Honor Sorts the Pile 1. Each guest writes two cards for the move, with no names: one piece of advice they mean and one piece of terrible advice. 2. Shuffle all of the cards together. 3. The guest of honor reads each card aloud and drops it on a keep pile or a bad pile. 4. Guests score a point for each of their cards that lands on the pile they meant it for. The keep pile goes into the last box to be packed. Players: 4 to 30. You need: two cards and a pen for each guest.
How to Manage Without Me: Guess Their Three Instructions 1. Before the party, the guest of honor writes three instructions for the people staying behind, such as water the plant by the copier on Fridays. 2. Each table has three minutes to guess what the three might be and writes down three of its own. 3. The guest of honor reads the real ones. 4. A table scores a point for each instruction it came close to. Then each table reads its best wrong guess. Players: 6 to 30. You need: three instructions written by the guest of honor, paper and pencils.
Leave This, Take That 1. Each guest gets a card with two lines to finish: leave behind, and take with you. 2. Guests fill in one habit, worry or thing for the guest of honor to leave here, and one quality of theirs to take along. Keep both kind. 3. The host reads the cards aloud as pairs. 4. The guest of honor picks the pair they will try hardest to live by, and its writer gives the next toast. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a card and a pen for each guest.
Never Move Without: Ten Endings No Other Table Has 1. Each table gets paper and a pencil. 2. In two minutes, write ten endings for the sentence never move without, such as labeling the box with the kettle in it. 3. Tables read their lists in turn. Any ending that another table also wrote is crossed off by both. 4. The table with the most endings left wins. The guest of honor gets every list. Players: 6 to 30. You need: paper and pencils.
One Last Thing to Do Here: The Top Five by Vote 1. Each guest writes on a slip one thing the guest of honor must do before leaving: one last walk on the pier, one more plate at the diner. 2. Tape the slips to a wall. 3. Every guest gets three sticker dots, or three pencil ticks, to vote with. 4. The five slips with the most votes become the list for the last week, and the guests who wrote them have to come along. Players: 6 to 30. You need: slips, tape, pens and sticker dots.

Team games for a mixed crowd 5

Deliver the Mail: Envelopes Addressed by Clue 1. Before the party, the host addresses one envelope to each guest by a clue and not a name: to the person who taught them to drive, to the neighbor with the loud dog. 2. Mixed teams of three each take a stack. 3. Teams go around the room asking questions until they find who each envelope is for, and hand it over. 4. The first team with an empty stack wins. Inside each envelope is a blank card for that guest to write to the guest of honor. Players: 9 to 30. You need: an envelope for each guest, addressed by a clue, with a blank card inside.
Get the Sofa Around the Corner 1. The sofa is a long, empty cardboard box, or two taped end to end. Set a course with a doorway, a tight turn around a chair and a finish line. 2. A team of four carries the sofa through the course, with one hand each. 3. Every touch of a wall, a door frame or the chair adds five seconds. 4. Time each team. Shouting directions is allowed and usually makes it worse. Players: 8 to 24. You need: a long cardboard box, a chair and a timer.
Load the Paper Truck 1. Draw a rectangle on a sheet for each team: the floor of the moving truck. Cut the same twelve paper shapes for each team, sized so that all twelve only just fit: a sofa, a bed, a table, boxes. 2. On go, teams arrange the shapes inside the rectangle with no overlaps. 3. The first team to fit all twelve calls loaded. 4. The host checks for overlaps. No truck may leave a box on the curb. Players: 4 to 24. You need: a truck outline and twelve paper shapes for each team.
Pack It So It Does Not Rattle 1. Each team gets a box, a stack of newspaper and the same six awkward things: a plastic cup, a whisk, a spoon, a jar lid, a ball, a toy car. 2. Teams have four minutes to pack the box so that nothing moves. No tape inside. 3. The host closes each box and shakes it three times beside one ear. 4. The quietest box wins. Then each team unpacks another team's box against the clock. Players: 6 to 24. You need: a box, newspaper and the same six unbreakable things for each team.
Write the Ad for Their Replacement 1. Each team writes a help-wanted ad of forty words or fewer to fill the gap the guest of honor leaves: neighbor wanted, must lend a ladder without being asked. 2. The ad must list three duties and one thing no applicant could ever match. 3. Teams read their ads aloud. 4. The guest of honor picks the ad that describes the job best, and that team is told the position is not open. Players: 6 to 30. You need: paper and pencils.

Quiet keepsake games 5

A Ring of Paper Keys 1. Cut a paper key for every guest and punch a hole in each. 2. Each guest writes on a key something the guest of honor can always come back to: my couch, Sunday dinner, the back row at the game. No names. 3. Thread the keys on a ring or a ribbon. 4. The guest of honor reads each key aloud and guesses whose it is. The ring hangs by the new front door. Players: 4 to 30. You need: paper keys, a hole punch, pens and a ring or a ribbon.
Draw a Month, Promise a Hello 1. Write the next twelve months on slips, with repeats if there are more than twelve guests. 2. Each guest draws a month and writes on a card what they will do that month: a call, a postcard, a visit, a parcel of the local hot sauce. 3. Guests read their promises aloud in calendar order. 4. The guest of honor keeps the cards as a calendar. With twelve guests or more, the year has no empty month. Players: 4 to 30. You need: month slips, and a card and a pen for each guest.
Open on the First Night: Predictions for Week One 1. Each guest gets a card with five blanks about the first week in the new place: first meal cooked, first thing bought, first box unpacked, first thing lost, first person texted. 2. Guests fill in their predictions and sign the card. 3. All of the cards go into one envelope, sealed at the party. 4. The guest of honor opens it on the first night, keeps track for a week and sends back the name of the winner. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a card and a pen for each guest, and one large envelope.
Open When: Envelopes With a Label Drawn From a Hat 1. Write labels on slips and put them in a hat: open when you are lost, open when it rains all week, open when you cannot find a good sandwich. 2. Each guest draws a label, copies it onto an envelope and writes a note to fit it. 3. Guests seal their envelopes and read only the labels aloud. 4. The guest of honor takes the stack and opens each envelope when its moment comes. Players: 4 to 30. You need: label slips, a hat, and an envelope, paper and a pen for each guest.
Sign the Map Where It Happened 1. Lay a paper map of the town on a table, with fine pens beside it. 2. Each guest finds the spot of one memory with the guest of honor and writes a few words and their name there: flat tire in the rain, or best pancakes. 3. Guests may not explain their note to anyone but the guest of honor. 4. Late in the party, the guest of honor reads the map aloud and guesses the story behind three of the notes. The map travels in the car, not in a box. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a paper map of the town and fine pens.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions for a farewell party for someone who is moving away, changing jobs or leaving for school. The wording and the player counts are ours. No game involves alcohol, nothing is staked, and nothing asks about money, age or why someone is leaving. Facts about the new place are the guest of honor's to look up, and the local quiz is the host's to write: none is in our list, which states no fact that needs an outside source. Licence: own work

How it works

These going away party games are about the move itself: the town being left, the place ahead and the people staying. The five quiet games each end with something to pack.

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An order for the party

1. As guests arrive: Pin the New Town on a Blank Map and Sign the Map Where It Happened. 2. To mix the room: Deliver the Mail: Envelopes Addressed by Clue. 3. Sitting down: The Last Local Quiz, then Finish the Story They Always Tell. 4. To close: A Ring of Paper Keys.

What to ask the guest of honor for

Three games need homework from them: ten cards for Miss It or Not? Sort Their Ten Things, five facts about the new place, and three instructions for the people staying. The host writes the local quiz and the clue envelopes.

Put the cards and envelopes in one shoebox as you go, and hand it over at the door.

Questions and answers

What are fun games for a going away party?

Ones only this guest of honor could inspire: The Last Local Quiz, Who Still Has Their Stuff? and Miss It or Not? Sort Their Ten Things. For a crowd that does not know each other, start with Deliver the Mail: Envelopes Addressed by Clue.

What games work for a coworker's going away party?

Write the Ad for Their Replacement and How to Manage Without Me: Guess Their Three Instructions are both about the gap they leave. Draw Their Daily Route From Memory works with the commute.

What do you do at a going away party?

Look back, look ahead and send them off with something to keep. Quiet keepsake games has 5: envelopes to open later, a promise for every month, predictions for the first week, a signed map of the town and A Ring of Paper Keys.