Party Games for College Students

College party games for a dorm floor, a common room or an apartment, all alcohol-free: press Pick 3 new games.

Party Games for College Students

  1. The Story That Slides Under Doors1. The host writes the first two lines of a story at the top of a sheet and slides it under the next door. 2. That room adds two lines, initials them and slides the sheet under the next door along. 3. The sheet goes down one side of the corridor and back up the other. 4. The last room pins it to the whiteboard to be read at breakfast. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 5 min. Props: one sheet of paper and a pen.
  2. Two-Touch Bench Volley1. A park bench is the net, with two players on each side and a soccer ball or a beach ball. 2. Each side may touch the ball twice with feet, knees or head, and may let it bounce once, before it goes back over the bench. 3. A ball that bounces twice, or is touched with a hand, gives the other side a point. 4. Play to eleven. The next pair in line takes on the winners. Players: 4 to 12. Time: 15 min. Props: a soccer ball or a beach ball and a bench.
  3. Hearts a Person, Spades a Place: Story by Cards1. Agree what each suit stands for: hearts a person, spades a place, diamonds a thing, clubs a problem. 2. A player draws three cards. The number on each card is how many times that person, place, thing or problem has to come up. 3. The player tells a one-minute tale that fits all three cards. 4. Listeners count on their fingers. A tale that hits its numbers scores a point. Players: 4 to 12. Time: 15 min. Props: a deck of cards.

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How it works

These party games for college students are built on what a residence hall has: a corridor, a common room, a whiteboard and quiet hours. Many need only paper, tape or cards; the quad games add a ball or a disc.

Read the full guide

Match the game to the place

The All games menu sorts by place. Corridor and floor mixers suit 15 to 40 people who met this week. Most Common-room tournaments run on a bracket drawn on the whiteboard. Quad games with a ball or a disc need grass.

After quiet hours

Low-noise games for quiet hours are silent or nearly so. Two of them are played under doors, and one, Corridor Chess, One Move Each Time You Pass, runs for days.

Tips
  • A whiteboard bracket keeps a tournament going while people come and go.
  • Trade-up and fetch games stay on your own floor, and every loan goes back the same night.

Questions and answers

Are these games alcohol-free?

Yes, all of them. No game here involves alcohol, and nothing is staked or forfeited. The list is written for floor socials, club nights and apartments where not everyone is of age.

What games work for a dorm floor of strangers?

Mixers with a job to do. In Find Your Suit in Silence, Line Up by Rank, each player gets a card and finds the others of that suit. In Floor Census, Checked by a Show of Hands, teams of four count facts about the floor.

What can students play in an apartment with eight people?

Small-room games with one deck or some cardboard. Couch Court, Guess the Guest From Five Groceries, Invent a Card Game in Ten Minutes and Delivery Box Arcade all suit 6 to 12.

What is there to play during quiet hours?

Games that make no noise in the corridor. Under-the-Door Quiz and The Story That Slides Under Doors are played on paper, room by room, and Silent Charades, Guesses in Writing keeps a common room quiet.

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All 35 games

Corridor and floor mixers 8

  • Everyone Has It, Only We Have It 1. Teams are made of the people from three or four rooms. 2. Each team has to bring two things to the common room in six minutes. 3. The first is something every room on the floor is likely to own. The second is something they believe no other room has. 4. Other teams may challenge either claim by fetching proof. A claim that stands scores a point. Players: 12 to 40. Time: 12 min. Props: whatever is in the rooms.
  • Find Your Suit in Silence, Line Up by Rank 1. Deal every player one playing card, face down. 2. On go, players look at their cards and find their suit without saying its name, by showing cards only. 3. Each suit gathers along its own wall and lines up from ace to king. 4. The first suit in order wins. Each suit then has two minutes to find one thing all its members share. Players: 12 to 52. Time: 8 min. Props: a deck of cards.
  • Floor Census, Checked by a Show of Hands 1. Split the floor into teams of four who do not know one another. 2. Read out five things to count on this floor: people who can whistle, people who share a birthday month with a teammate, people who have never seen the ocean. 3. Teams get five minutes to walk the corridor, ask at doors and write their five totals. 4. Check each one by a show of hands. The team closest on the most counts wins. Players: 15 to 40. Time: 12 min. Props: paper and pens.
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Corridor and floor mixers, continued

  • Four Rooms Drawn Together for a Snack 1. Write every door number on a slip and draw the slips in fours. 2. The people behind each set of four doors make one table in the common room. 3. Give every table the same question, which it has to settle with one answer in three minutes, such as the best cheap meal near campus. 4. Each table reports. The floor votes for the answer it will try first. Players: 12 to 40. Time: 12 min. Props: slips of paper.
  • Meet Twelve, Remember Ten 1. Players pair off along the corridor for one minute and trade a name and one fact each. 2. On a clap, everyone finds a new partner. Run twelve rounds. 3. Hand out paper. Each player writes down as many names with their facts as they can remember. 4. A point for each name with its right fact. The winner reads the list out, which introduces half the floor again. Players: 14 to 40. Time: 20 min. Props: paper and pens.
  • Roommate Match: Alarm Times and Breakfasts 1. Roommates play as pairs. One of each pair steps into the corridor. 2. The host asks those who stayed three questions about their roommate, such as an alarm time or a usual breakfast, and each writes the answers on paper. 3. The others come back and answer the same questions about themselves, aloud. 4. A point for every match. Swap who leaves, and play again. Players: 8 to 40. Time: 15 min. Props: paper and pens.
  • Schedule Overlap Hunt 1. Everyone brings their class schedule, on paper or on a phone. 2. In ten minutes, players find people who share something with them: a class, a building at the same hour, or a free period. 3. Each match is written down with both names. 4. The longest list wins. The matches are worth keeping, because they are people to walk to class with. Players: 12 to 40. Time: 12 min. Props: class schedules, paper and pens.
  • Trade Up From a Paper Clip, Door to Door 1. Each team of three starts with one paper clip. 2. Teams knock on doors on this floor only and offer a trade for something a little bigger or odder, on loan for the evening. 3. They keep trading up for fifteen minutes. 4. Back in the common room, the floor votes for the best final item. Everything is returned to its owner before anyone goes to bed. Players: 12 to 36. Time: 20 min. Props: a paper clip for each team.

Common-room tournaments 7

  • Book-Paddle Table Tennis, Doubles Bracket 1. Push two tables together and stand a row of paperbacks across the middle as the net. 2. Players use hardback books as paddles, in teams of two who take alternate hits. 3. Play each game to seven points. 4. Draw a bracket on the whiteboard. The losers of each game keep score for the next one. Players: 8 to 24. Time: 30 min. Props: a table tennis ball, two tables and a pile of books.
  • Corridor Bocce With Paper Balls 1. Roll a coin down the corridor as the target. 2. Two pairs take turns rolling paper balls wrapped in tape, four balls a pair, in two colors. 3. When all eight have been rolled, the pair with the ball nearest the coin scores a point for each of its balls that beats the other pair's best. 4. First to seven goes through to the next round on the whiteboard. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 20 min. Props: paper, tape in two colors and a coin.
  • Paper Plane Golf, Nine Doors 1. Tape nine numbered sheets of paper to the corridor floor, some of them in open doorways. 2. Everyone folds one paper plane. 3. Players throw from where the plane last landed and count the throws it takes to land on each sheet in order. 4. Keep the scores on the whiteboard. Fewest throws over the nine holes wins. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 25 min. Props: paper and tape.
  • Sock Darts, Count Down From 101 1. Tape three rings on the floor, one inside another, worth 5, 10 and 20 points. 2. Players throw three rolled socks a turn from a line. 3. Each score is taken off 101. 4. A player has to land exactly on zero to win, and a throw that would go below zero does not count. Play it as a bracket, two at a time. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 20 min. Props: tape and three rolled socks.
  • Stare-Down Bracket 1. Two players sit knee to knee and look each other in the eye. 2. The first to blink, laugh or look away loses. 3. The crowd may say anything to break them but may not touch them or step between them. 4. Winners go through on the whiteboard. The final is played standing on one foot. Players: 4 to 32. Time: 15 min. Props: a whiteboard.
  • Trick Shot Letters With a Table Tennis Ball 1. A paper cup stands on a chair. The first player invents a shot, such as one bounce off the floor, or off the wall and in. 2. If it goes in, the next player has to make the same shot or take a letter of the word SHOT. 3. If it misses, the next player invents a shot instead. 4. Four letters and a player is out. Run it as heats of four, with the winners meeting in a final. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 20 min. Props: a table tennis ball and a paper cup.
  • Whiteboard Category Duel 1. Two players stand at the whiteboard with a marker each. 2. The room calls a category, such as things in a backpack. 3. Both write as many as they can in thirty seconds. 4. Strike out any answer that both wrote. The longer list of answers left wins and stays on against the next challenger in the bracket. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 20 min. Props: a whiteboard and two markers.

Apartment games for 6 to 12 6

  • Couch Court 1. Pick a household dispute that does not matter, such as whether a bed needs to be made. 2. One guest is the judge, two guests argue each side, and everyone else is the jury. 3. Each side gets one minute and may call one witness. 4. The jury votes with thumbs. The judge sets a harmless sentence for the losing side, such as taking out the recycling. Players: 6 to 12. Time: 15 min. Props: none.
  • Delivery Box Arcade 1. Each pair gets one cardboard box, tape and whatever is in the recycling. 2. In fifteen minutes, each pair builds a tabletop game with a way to score. 3. Everyone plays every game once and writes their score on its box. 4. Hand out two awards: the highest total score, and the game with the longest line. Players: 6 to 12. Time: 30 min. Props: cardboard boxes, tape, scissors and markers.
  • Guess the Guest From Five Groceries 1. Each guest writes, from memory, the last five things they bought to eat. 2. Fold the lists and mix them in a bowl. 3. The host reads one list at a time, and everyone writes down whose they think it is. 4. A point for each right guess, and a point to the writer of the list that fooled the most people. Players: 6 to 12. Time: 12 min. Props: paper, pens and a bowl.
  • Hearts a Person, Spades a Place: Story by Cards 1. Agree what each suit stands for: hearts a person, spades a place, diamonds a thing, clubs a problem. 2. A player draws three cards. The number on each card is how many times that person, place, thing or problem has to come up. 3. The player tells a one-minute tale that fits all three cards. 4. Listeners count on their fingers. A tale that hits its numbers scores a point. Players: 4 to 12. Time: 15 min. Props: a deck of cards.
  • Invent a Card Game in Ten Minutes 1. Split into groups of three or four with a share of one deck each. 2. Each group has ten minutes to invent a card game with a name, a way to win and no more than five rules. 3. Each group teaches its game to another group, who play one round of it. 4. Everyone votes for the game they would play again. Nothing is staked in any of them. Players: 6 to 12. Time: 25 min. Props: a deck of cards.
  • Takeout Menu Poetry 1. Give each pair two takeout menus or free newspapers, scissors and tape. 2. In six minutes, each pair cuts out words and tapes them down as a poem of at least four lines. 3. Each pair reads its poem in a serious voice. 4. The room votes by snapping fingers, and the loudest snaps win. Players: 6 to 12. Time: 15 min. Props: old menus or newspapers, scissors, tape and paper.

Quad games with a ball or a disc 7

  • Closest Disc to the Backpack 1. Set a backpack on the grass thirty steps away. 2. Teams of two take turns throwing, two discs a team in each round. 3. The disc that stops nearest the backpack scores a point, or two points if it is touching it. 4. The winners of a round choose where the backpack goes next. First team to seven wins. Players: 4 to 12. Time: 20 min. Props: two flying discs for each team and a backpack.
  • Fewest Throws Across the Quad 1. Each team of four spreads itself across the quad however it likes. 2. The team moves one disc from one end to the other, and nobody may take a step while holding it. 3. Count every throw. A dropped disc costs one extra throw. 4. Each team gets two runs, and its lower count stands. Fewest throws wins. Players: 8 to 24. Time: 15 min. Props: a flying disc.
  • Five Hundred, Thrown From the Steps 1. One thrower stands on the steps with a ball or a disc. Everyone else spreads out on the grass. 2. Before each throw, the thrower calls what a catch is worth: 50, 100 or 200. 3. A clean catch earns the points, and a drop loses them. 4. The first catcher to reach 500 becomes the thrower. This is how we play it, and house rules vary. Players: 4 to 15. Time: 15 min. Props: a ball or a flying disc.
  • Soccer Ball Golf to Nine Trees 1. Choose nine targets around the quad, such as trees, bench legs and lampposts, and agree their order. 2. Each player kicks a ball from target to target and counts the kicks. 3. A ball has to touch the target to finish the hole. 4. Lowest total wins. Play in groups of three or four so that nobody waits long, and give way to people walking through. Players: 2 to 16. Time: 30 min. Props: a soccer ball for each group.
  • Throw It, Kick It, Roll It Relay 1. Each team of six stands in pairs at three stations along the quad, with one ball. 2. The first pair moves the ball to the second station by throwing and catching only. 3. The second pair takes it on by passing with their feet, and the third pair rolls it along the ground between them. 4. The ball has to finish between two water bottles. The first team through wins, and pairs change stations for the next race. Players: 12 to 30. Time: 15 min. Props: a ball and two water bottles for each team.
  • Tree-Base Disc Ball 1. Choose a home tree and three more trees as bases. 2. The batter throws a disc into the field from the home tree and runs the bases. 3. Fielders catch or fetch the disc and pass it hand to hand back to the home tree. A runner who is between trees when it arrives is out, and so is a batter whose throw is caught in the air. 4. Three outs and the sides change. Nobody throws the disc at a runner. Players: 8 to 20. Time: 20 min. Props: a flying disc and four trees.
  • Two-Touch Bench Volley 1. A park bench is the net, with two players on each side and a soccer ball or a beach ball. 2. Each side may touch the ball twice with feet, knees or head, and may let it bounce once, before it goes back over the bench. 3. A ball that bounces twice, or is touched with a hand, gives the other side a point. 4. Play to eleven. The next pair in line takes on the winners. Players: 4 to 12. Time: 15 min. Props: a soccer ball or a beach ball and a bench.

Low-noise games for quiet hours 7

  • Corridor Chess, One Move Each Time You Pass 1. Tape a paper chessboard to the wall, with paper pieces stuck on with reusable putty. 2. Odd-numbered rooms play white and even-numbered rooms play black. 3. Anyone walking past may make one move for their side, if it is their side's turn, and initials the move list. 4. The game runs for days. A player who does not know chess may ask a teammate before moving. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 5 min. Props: a paper chessboard and pieces, putty and a move list.
  • Headphone Dance, Guess the Tempo 1. One player puts on headphones, starts a song only they can hear and dances to it. 2. Everyone else watches in silence for thirty seconds. 3. Each watcher writes down fast, medium or slow, and one word for the kind of music. 4. The dancer reveals the song. A point for the tempo, and a point for the kind of music if the dancer agrees. Players: 4 to 14. Time: 12 min. Props: headphones, a phone, paper and pens.
  • Same Deal Solitaire Race 1. Each player needs a deck. One player shuffles, and the others arrange their decks in exactly the same order, card by card. 2. Everyone deals the same solitaire game that the group knows. 3. On a nod, all play at once, in silence. 4. After ten minutes, the player with the most cards cleared wins. With the same deal, only the choices differ. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 20 min. Props: a deck of cards for each player.
  • Silent Charades, Guesses in Writing 1. This is charades for a room that has to stay quiet. The actor draws a slip and acts it as usual. 2. The guessers may not speak. They write guesses on paper and hold them up. 3. The actor points at the first right guess. 4. Laughing out loud costs your team a point, which is the hard part. Players: 6 to 16. Time: 15 min. Props: word slips, paper and thick pens.
  • The Story That Slides Under Doors 1. The host writes the first two lines of a story at the top of a sheet and slides it under the next door. 2. That room adds two lines, initials them and slides the sheet under the next door along. 3. The sheet goes down one side of the corridor and back up the other. 4. The last room pins it to the whiteboard to be read at breakfast. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 5 min. Props: one sheet of paper and a pen.
  • Tissue Drop: The Slow One Wins 1. Each player gets one paper tissue and one minute to tear or fold it however they like. 2. Two players at a time hold their tissues at arm's length above their heads. 3. On a nod, both let go. 4. The last tissue to touch the floor wins the heat. Keep a bracket on the whiteboard, and no blowing. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: paper tissues and a whiteboard.
  • Under-the-Door Quiz 1. The host writes ten questions on one sheet and makes a copy for every room. 2. After quiet hours begin, a sheet is slid under each door. 3. Each room writes its answers and slides the sheet back out by a set time. 4. The scores go up on the whiteboard for the morning. Nobody says a word in the corridor. Players: 6 to 40. Time: 20 min. Props: a question sheet for each room and a whiteboard.

How this list was compiled: Written by the Game Night Generator editors on 2026-10-03 for college students on a dorm floor, in a common room, in an apartment or on a quad. The games and their wording are our own, and player ranges and times are our estimates. No game involves alcohol or a stake of any kind, and many need only paper, tape or a deck of cards; the quad games need a ball or a disc. Five Hundred is a playground game with many house rules; the entry gives one common way to play and claims no official rule. Licence: own work