• 40 games
  • Checked October 2026

Party Games for Small Groups

Games that are at their best with six to eight people around one table or in one living room.

Party Games for Small Groups

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  1. One Fact From Everyone, Recited in Order1. The sitter has one minute to ask every other player one question, and each answers in a few words: first job, a food you will not eat, the farthest you have been from home.2. Then the players all change seats.3. The sitter must go around the new circle and give back each player's answer.4. Score one point for each. A player whose fact was forgotten sits next, and the questions may not be reused.With six: five facts can just be carried. At eight, allow the sitter ninety seconds. Players: 5 to 8. You need: nothing.
  2. Name Six Before the Salt Comes Back1. The caller names a letter and a player, and starts the salt shaker around the table.2. The salt passes from hand to hand, as fast as the others like.3. Before it gets back to the caller, the named player must say six things that begin with the letter.4. A player who manages it calls next. If the salt gets home first, the same player tries again with an easier letter.With six: five passes make a fair race. At eight the namer has it easier, so ask for seven things. Players: 5 to 10. You need: a salt shaker.
  3. One Line Each, One Artist Has No Idea1. The host writes one thing to draw, such as a lighthouse, on a slip for every player but one. The odd slip says only bluff.2. On one shared sheet, each player in turn adds a single line. Go around the table twice.3. Then everyone points at the player they think was bluffing.4. A bluffer who is caught can still win by naming the thing. Artists who draw too clearly give it away, and artists who draw too vaguely look guilty.With six: twelve lines finish a picture. Above eight the sheet is full before the second lap. Players: 5 to 8. You need: slips, one large sheet and a marker.

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Everyone against everyone 8

  • A Secret Errand Each, Caught or Completed by Dessert 1. As guests arrive, each draws a slip with a small errand to carry out unnoticed during the evening: get someone to say the word pineapple, straighten every picture in the room, shake hands with each guest twice. 2. Anyone who suspects an errand may challenge once, by naming it. A right challenge ends that errand. 3. A wrong challenge ends the challenger's own. 4. At dessert, everyone reads their slip aloud, and each finished errand wins. With six: everybody can watch everybody, so an errand takes real nerve. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a slip for each player, written beforehand.
  • How Many Yeses in the Hat? 1. The host reads a statement, such as I have sung in public this year. 2. Each player secretly writes yes or no on a slip and drops it in a hat. 3. Before the hat is opened, everyone says how many yeses they think it holds, and no two players may say the same number. 4. Count the slips. The closest guess scores, and anyone who wants to own up to a yes tells the story. With six: the hat can hold seven different totals and there are six guessers, so one number always goes unclaimed. Players: 5 to 8. You need: slips, pencils and a hat.
  • Morning Person or Night Owl? The Table Votes on You 1. One player asks a question about themselves that has two answers, such as am I a morning person or a night owl, and secretly writes down the true one. 2. On three, everyone else holds up one finger for the first answer or two for the second. 3. The player reads out the truth. 4. Every voter who was right scores a point, and the player scores a point for each voter they fooled. Go around the table twice, and keep the questions to habits and tastes. With six: five voters give a clear verdict, and being misread by all five is worth the most. Players: 5 to 8. You need: paper and a pencil for each player.
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Everyone against everyone, continued

  • Name Cards in a Row: Guess the Scale 1. Write each player's name on a card. 2. One player silently lays the cards in a row, ordered by a scale of their own choosing: who lives nearest, who gets up earliest, who would last longest without a phone. 3. The others study the row and call out guesses at the scale. 4. Whoever names it orders the cards next. Players may protest their own place in the row only after the scale has been guessed. With six: six cards make a row that is read at a glance and argued over for minutes. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a card for each player and a marker.
  • One Line Each, One Artist Has No Idea 1. The host writes one thing to draw, such as a lighthouse, on a slip for every player but one. The odd slip says only bluff. 2. On one shared sheet, each player in turn adds a single line. Go around the table twice. 3. Then everyone points at the player they think was bluffing. 4. A bluffer who is caught can still win by naming the thing. Artists who draw too clearly give it away, and artists who draw too vaguely look guilty. With six: twelve lines finish a picture. Above eight the sheet is full before the second lap. Players: 5 to 8. You need: slips, one large sheet and a marker.
  • Out When You Do What Your Label Says 1. The host writes a small habit on a sticky label for each player and presses it on that player's back, unread by its owner: folds their arms, says actually, checks the time, laughs out loud. 2. Everyone goes on talking as usual. 3. The moment a player does what their label says, anyone may call it, and that player is out and reads the label. 4. Players may steer each other toward their labels by any fair means. The last player still in wins. With six: each player can keep five labels in mind, so nobody is safe for long. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a sticky label for each player and a marker.
  • Score for the Smaller Side 1. The host asks a question with two answers, such as window or aisle. 2. On three, each player holds up one finger for the first answer or two for the second. 3. Everyone on the smaller side scores a point. A player alone on a side scores two, and an even split scores nothing. 4. Play ten questions. The trick is to guess how the table will split and to stand with the few. With six: the splits are four against two or five against one, so points are scarce and a lone finger is a triumph. Players: 5 to 8. You need: nothing.
  • Seven Answers, One Different Question 1. The host writes the same question on a slip for every player but one, such as how many hours of sleep do you need. The odd slip asks something close: how many cups of coffee are too many. 2. Everyone reads their slip in silence and answers aloud with a number and nothing more. 3. The host then reads out the main question, and the table argues over whose number does not fit it. 4. On three, all point. The odd player scores if most fingers miss, and those who pointed right score if they do not. With six: one odd number hides among five, and everybody has time to defend their own. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a slip for each player and a pencil.

Two small teams 8

  • Four Things From This Room: Find the Link 1. Each team has three minutes to collect four things from the room that share one hidden link: all have hinges, all were gifts, all are older than the youngest player. 2. The first team lays its four on the table. 3. The second team has three guesses at the link and may pick up one of the things before each guess. 4. A right first guess scores three points, a second two and a third one. Then the second team shows its four. With six: three heads hunt fast and can still agree on a link. Players: 6 to 8. You need: whatever is in the room.
  • Guess the Other Team's Top Three 1. The host gives a subject, such as things to save from a flood or the best pizza toppings. 2. Each team secretly agrees on its top three and writes them down. 3. Teams take turns to guess one thing on the other team's list, and each team has five guesses. 4. The team that uncovers more of the other list wins the round. Teams that know each other well should be given odder subjects. With six: three people can agree on a top three in a minute. Four take two minutes and enjoy it more. Players: 6 to 8. You need: paper and pencils.
  • Hide a Spoon, Draw the Map, Swap 1. Each team takes a spoon, a sheet of paper and a different room. 2. In four minutes, hide the spoon where it can be reached without opening anything private, and draw a map to it with no words at all. 3. Swap maps. 4. The first team back with the other team's spoon wins. A map so good that it loses the race is still something to be proud of. With six: one draws, one hides and one keeps watch at the door. Players: 6 to 8. You need: two spoons, paper and pencils.
  • Radio Play Behind the Door 1. One team goes behind a door or a sofa with a few household things: keys, a cup, a newspaper, shoes. 2. It has two minutes to plan a scene told in sound alone, with no words: making breakfast, missing a bus in the rain, wrapping a gift. 3. The team performs it out of sight. The other team listens and then lists what happened, in order. 4. Score one point for each event in the right place. Swap over. With six: three sound makers can carry about five events, which is as many as the listeners can hold. Players: 6 to 8. You need: a few household things that make a sound.
  • Rebuild Their Pose From Memory 1. The first team strikes a group pose and holds it for ten seconds: one kneeling, one pointing at the ceiling, one with a hand on a hat. 2. The second team studies it, then turns away while the first team relaxes. 3. One minute later, the second team must rebuild the pose exactly, each player taking the place of their opposite number. 4. The first team checks it limb by limb, and each correct player scores a point. Swap, and make the poses busier. With six: a pose of three can be learned in ten seconds, and a pose of four cannot quite. Players: 6 to 8. You need: nothing.
  • Three Rounds From One Hat 1. Every player writes three things on slips, such as a lawnmower, a sneeze or the last day of school, and folds them into a hat. No real people. 2. In round one, a player has one minute to get their team to say as many slips as they can, with any words but those on the slip. Teams take turns until the hat is empty. 3. Put every slip back. In round two, the clue is one word only. 4. In round three, the clue is mime without a sound. The slips stay the same, so memory does half the work. With six: three a side, eighteen slips, and everyone gives clues in every round. Players: 6 to 8. You need: three slips for each player, a hat and a one-minute timer.
  • The Trial of the Toaster 1. The host accuses a household object of a small crime: the toaster burned the evidence, the sofa swallowed the remote. 2. One team prosecutes and the other defends. Each has two minutes to prepare. 3. Every team member must speak exactly one sentence, and the two sides take turns. 4. The host gives the verdict and the sentence. Swap sides for the next object. With six: the whole case is six sentences, so every one of them has to land. Players: 6 to 8. You need: nothing.
  • Write the Question for the Answer 1. The host announces an answer with no question, such as about forty, only on Tuesdays or under the stairs. 2. Each team has one minute to write the question that makes the answer funniest. 3. Both questions are read aloud, each followed by the answer. 4. The host, or a guest who is sitting out, picks the better pairing. Play to five. With six: three a side and the host judges. With seven, the spare guest judges and trades in after two rounds. Players: 6 to 8. You need: paper and pencils.

One person in the hot seat 8

  • Every Object Handed Over Joins the Story 1. The sitter starts telling a story about anything at all. 2. Every twenty seconds or so, another player hands the sitter an object from the room, in silence: a slipper, a whisk, a set of keys. 3. Within one sentence, the object must come into the story, and it must matter to the plot. 4. The story ends when the sitter holds one object from each player. The group votes for the object that was worked in best, and its giver sits next. With six: five objects make a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Players: 4 to 8. You need: whatever is in the room.
  • One Fact From Everyone, Recited in Order 1. The sitter has one minute to ask every other player one question, and each answers in a few words: first job, a food you will not eat, the farthest you have been from home. 2. Then the players all change seats. 3. The sitter must go around the new circle and give back each player's answer. 4. Score one point for each. A player whose fact was forgotten sits next, and the questions may not be reused. With six: five facts can just be carried. At eight, allow the sitter ninety seconds. Players: 5 to 8. You need: nothing.
  • One Witness, Ten Seconds to Remember 1. The sitter is the witness and leaves the room. The others plan a ten-second scene with a part for everyone: one enters in a hat, one moves a cup to a shelf, one checks a watch twice. 2. The witness comes back and watches the scene once. 3. Each actor then asks the witness one question about a detail. 4. The witness scores a point for each right answer. An actor whose detail was missed is the next witness. With six: five actors, five details. With eight there are seven, and the scene gets one more second for each. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a few things from the room.
  • Talk Around the Secret Subject 1. The sitter leaves the room, and the others agree on a subject, such as camping. 2. The sitter comes back to a conversation already going. The others chat about the subject without naming it or saying any word that gives it away at once: the zip got stuck again, mine always ends up on a slope. 3. The sitter may join in to test a guess, without asking outright. 4. When sure, the sitter names the subject. The player whose line gave it away sits next. With six: five talkers keep one conversation going. At eight it splits in two, and the sitter gets to pick which to overhear. Players: 5 to 8. You need: nothing.
  • Three Questioners at Once 1. Three players stand around the sitter: one in front and one at each shoulder. 2. For one minute, all three ask easy questions at the same time and keep asking: what did you eat today, what is seven plus eight, name a river. 3. The sitter must answer each questioner in turn, facing them, and may not ask for a repeat. 4. The rest of the group counts the answers that made sense. The highest count of the evening wins. With six: three ask and two count, and the jobs trade around after every sitter. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a one-minute timer.
  • Three Stock Answers and a Straight Face 1. The sitter is given three stock answers, such as not on a Tuesday, ask my mother and it was like that when I got here. 2. The others take turns asking the sitter any question they like. 3. The sitter must reply with one of the three answers, with a straight face, and may not use the same one twice in a row. 4. The sitter scores a point for each answer given without a smile and is out at the first laugh. The questioner who breaks them sits next. With six: five questioners is one lap of fresh ideas before anyone has to repeat a trick. Players: 4 to 8. You need: nothing.
  • Which Letter Is the Sitter Dodging? 1. The sitter secretly picks one common letter, such as T, and writes it on a hidden slip. 2. The others take turns asking questions, and the sitter must answer each in a full sentence that never uses the letter. 3. After any answer, a questioner may guess the letter in place of a question. A wrong guess costs that player their next turn. 4. The sitter wins by lasting two laps of the circle and loses at once by using the letter. With six: two laps are ten answers, about what it takes to spot a missing letter. Players: 4 to 8. You need: a slip and a pencil.
  • Whose Kind Words? The Sitter Matches Slips to Writers 1. While the sitter waits outside, each of the others writes one kind and true sentence about them on a slip, unsigned. 2. The host reads the slips aloud, one at a time. 3. After each, the sitter names the writer they think it came from. 4. The sitter scores for each right match, and a writer who goes unnamed scores too. The sitter keeps the slips. With six: five slips, read slowly, fit between two courses, so every guest can have a turn in the seat. Players: 5 to 8. You need: slips and pencils.

Paper passed around the circle 8

  • A Clue a Seat: The Last Reader Guesses 1. Each player writes a thing at the top of a sheet, such as a lighthouse, and passes it to the left. 2. Each player who gets a sheet reads the top line and adds one clue below it. A clue may not use any word from the top line. 3. Before a sheet reaches the last player in its lap, the one sitting on the owner's right, its top line is folded under. 4. That last reader sees only the clues and guesses the thing. A right guess scores for the reader and for the owner. With six: four clues reach the last reader, enough to guess from and few enough to stay hard. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a sheet of paper and a pencil for each player.
  • A Name Down the Margin, a Line a Player 1. Each player writes their own first name down the left edge of a sheet, one letter a line, and passes it to the left. 2. Each player who gets a sheet fills in one line that starts with one of the letters, with something kind and true about the person named. 3. Keep passing until every letter has a line. 4. The sheets go back to their owners, who read them aloud and guess who wrote which line. With six: five writers fill a five-letter name exactly. Longer names go around twice. Players: 4 to 8. You need: a sheet of paper and a pencil for each player.
  • Change One Word and Pass It On 1. Each player writes a newspaper headline of six to eight words at the top of a sheet. 2. Pass the sheets to the left. Each player copies the headline underneath with exactly one word changed, then folds the older lines back so that only the newest shows. 3. Keep passing until every sheet is home. 4. Each player reads out the first headline and the last. The sheet that traveled farthest in meaning wins. With six: five changes turn most headlines into different news. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a sheet of paper and a pencil for each player.
  • Guess the Fridge: Lists Travel, Guesses Fold Under 1. Each player writes on a sheet five things that are in their fridge or kitchen cupboard right now, with no name. 2. The host shuffles the sheets and deals them out. 3. Each player writes at the bottom the name of the person they think owns the list, folds the guess under and passes the sheet to the left. 4. When every sheet has gone all the way around, unfold the guesses. Owners own up, and a point goes to each right name. With six: each list collects six guesses, its owner's bluff among them. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a sheet of paper and a pencil for each player.
  • The Next Writer Must Use This Word 1. Each player writes the first sentence of a story on a sheet and, under it, one unlikely word for the next writer. 2. Pass to the left. The next player adds a sentence that uses the word and moves the story on, then leaves a new word. 3. Keep passing until the sheets are home. 4. Each owner reads their story aloud. The table votes for the word that was hardest to fit in. With six: six sentences are a whole story with nothing spare. Players: 4 to 8. You need: a sheet of paper and a pencil for each player.
  • One Snip Each: The Snowflake Goes Around 1. Each player folds a square of paper in half three times and passes it to the left, with a pair of scissors if there are enough. 2. Each player who gets a folded square makes exactly one snip, cutting out one small piece, and passes it on. 3. When a square gets home, its owner makes the last snip and unfolds it. 4. Hold them all up. The table votes for the best snowflake, and nobody may vote for their own. The owner of the one that fell apart sweeps up. With six: six snips are enough for lace and too few for confetti. Players: 4 to 8. You need: a square of paper for each player and a few pairs of scissors.
  • Problem, Advice, Problem: The Folded Chain 1. Each player writes a small problem at the top of a sheet, such as my socks never match, and passes it to the left. 2. The next player writes a piece of advice for it underneath, folds the problem out of sight and passes the sheet on. 3. The next player sees only the advice and writes the problem they think it was meant for. Fold and pass, taking advice and problems by turns. 4. When the sheets come home, unfold them and read each chain aloud. With six: each sheet holds three problems and three pieces of advice, and ends on advice for the owner. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a sheet of paper and a pencil for each player.
  • Six Boards in Orbit: One Mark and Pass 1. Each player draws a tic-tac-toe grid on a sheet. Going around the circle, players are X and O by turns, so that neighbors differ. 2. On go, everyone makes one mark on the sheet in front of them and passes it to the left. 3. Keep marking and passing without a pause. A player who completes a line of three keeps that sheet and draws a fresh grid. 4. After three minutes, the player holding the most finished sheets wins. With six: three play X and three play O. With seven, the odd player marks whichever sign a board is short of. Players: 6 to 8. You need: a few sheets of paper and a pencil for each player.

Quick fillers between courses 8

  • Echo Three Words Before You Speak 1. Until the next course arrives, nobody may speak without first repeating the last three words of the speaker before them. 2. Then they say what they wanted to say. 3. A player who forgets the echo, or echoes the wrong words, gets a mark on the host's napkin. 4. The player with the fewest marks when the plates arrive wins. Short sentences are a fair defense. With six: one conversation holds the whole table, so every echo is heard and every slip is caught. Players: 4 to 10. You need: a paper napkin and a pencil for the host.
  • Exactly One Stands, Then Exactly Two 1. Nobody speaks or signals. The aim is for exactly one player to stand up. 2. If two rise at once, everyone sits and tries again. 3. Once one player has stood alone and sat down, the aim is exactly two standing at the same moment, then three, up to the whole table. 4. Any wrong number sends the target back by one. The whole table standing is the easy part, and the middle numbers are not. With six: three is the hard number, and it usually takes a few tries. Players: 5 to 10. You need: nothing.
  • Eyes Closed: Who Rang a Glass? 1. Everyone but the caller closes their eyes. 2. The caller points to one player, who taps their own glass once with a spoon and puts the spoon down. 3. Eyes open. On three, each player points at the glass they think rang. 4. The ringer scores a point for every finger that points elsewhere, and each right pointer scores one. The ringer calls next. With six: the ring comes from one of five directions, and neighbors are the hardest to tell apart. Players: 5 to 10. You need: a glass and a spoon at each place.
  • Fifteen Clinks: Everyone Touches Glasses Once 1. For a toast, every player must touch glasses with every other player exactly once. 2. The table counts the clinks aloud as they happen. 3. Nobody may clink the same glass twice, and a pair caught doing so sends the count back to zero. 4. The table wins if the count ends on the right number with no pair left out. Work the number out first, or find it out the hard way. With six: the right number is fifteen. With seven players it is twenty-one, and with eight it is twenty-eight. Players: 4 to 10. You need: a glass for each player.
  • Look Up, Lock Eyes 1. Everyone at the table looks down at their plate. 2. On the caller's word up, each player looks straight at one other player. 3. If two players are looking at each other, both are out and push their chairs back a little. 4. The caller says down, then up again. The last two left share the win. With six: a pair goes out in most rounds, and the table is done before the plates are cleared. Players: 5 to 10. You need: nothing.
  • Name Six Before the Salt Comes Back 1. The caller names a letter and a player, and starts the salt shaker around the table. 2. The salt passes from hand to hand, as fast as the others like. 3. Before it gets back to the caller, the named player must say six things that begin with the letter. 4. A player who manages it calls next. If the salt gets home first, the same player tries again with an easier letter. With six: five passes make a fair race. At eight the namer has it easier, so ask for seven things. Players: 5 to 10. You need: a salt shaker.
  • Three Beans to Speak 1. Deal every player three dried beans or toothpicks. 2. Until the next course arrives, a player must put one in the middle of the table each time they speak, however short the remark. 3. A player with nothing left must stay silent, though nodding and pointing are free. 4. When everyone is out, deal the beans again. The talkers learn to spend wisely, and the quiet ones find that they hold the power. With six: the table has eighteen remarks to spend before it falls silent. Players: 4 to 10. You need: three dried beans or toothpicks for each player.
  • Two Claps Race Around the Table 1. One clap travels around the table: each player claps once, in turn, as fast as the table can manage. 2. Now the starter sends one clap to the left and one to the right at the same moment. 3. The two claps race in opposite directions and cross on the far side of the table, where one player has to clap twice. 4. The clap that gets home first wins for its side of the table. Change the starter and go again. With six: the claps cross at the player opposite the starter, who has the only hard job. Players: 5 to 10. You need: nothing.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions for six to eight people around one table or in one living room. The wording and the player counts are ours, and each game ends with a line on how it plays with six. No game involves alcohol, nothing is staked, and no game asks about anyone's age, body, beliefs or money. Three Rounds From One Hat follows the three-round version of a traditional hat game as described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_%28game%29, read on 10 October 2026; rules vary from house to house. Licence: own work

How it works

Party games for small groups work because everyone can see every face. Bluffing, hot-seat and pass-the-paper games shine at six to eight and fall apart at twenty. Each game here ends with a line on how it plays with six.

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An evening for six to eight

1. While people arrive: A Secret Errand Each, Caught or Completed by Dessert. 2. Before the food: a game from Two small teams. 3. At the table: one of the Quick fillers between courses. 4. After dinner: Seven Answers, One Different Question, then a paper game while the coffee brews.

If the head count changes

Three, four and five players each have a list of their own, and so do ten. Every game here gives its own range, and the fillers stretch to ten.

  • Put paper, slips and pencils on the table before anyone arrives: 22 of the 40 games use paper of some kind.

Questions and answers

What are fun party games for small groups?

Bluffing games, because six people can read each other. Try Seven Answers, One Different Question, One Line Each, One Artist Has No Idea and Out When You Do What Your Label Says.

What small group party games need no supplies?

9 of the 40 need nothing at all, among them Look Up, Lock Eyes, Two Claps Race Around the Table, Talk Around the Secret Subject and Rebuild Their Pose From Memory. No props shows the full set.

How many people is a small group?

On this list it means six to eight: enough for two teams of three or four, and few enough to share one table and one conversation.

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