Mafia

This game is easy to setup and tear down and is never the same twice. Have everyone sit in a large circle. One person, usually the youth leader, will be the narrator. Eventually, you will choose two mafia members and one super cop. Everyone else will be townspeople. The objective is to kill off the mafia. At the beginning of the game, the narrator has everyone bow his head. The narrator taps twice on the heads of two people in the circle. These two constitute the mafia. The narrator taps once on the head of one person. This person is now the super cop. While all heads are bowed, have the super cop look up at the narrator. The narrator will then point out the two mafia members. The super cop will then bow his head again. While everyone still has his eyes closed, have the two mafia members look up. They will be able to see each other and then will quietly choose their first victim. After they have pointed their victim out to the narrator, they close their eyes. At this point, allow everyone to look up. Tell a story about how the mafia has come to our little town. Make up all kinds of stuff about the car that the victim was driving and how it “looked” like an accident occurred, but upon further inspection, there seems to have been foul play. At some point, let everyone know that the first victim of the mafia is Herbert (one of the townspeople). Herbert must now push his chair back and watch quietly. At this point, the townspeople must try to figure out who the mafia members are and vote to eliminate them. The townspeople can talk, joke, surmise, and basically do whatever they want to do until the narrator calls for the vote. The narrator will choose two of the people whom everyone seems to suspect, and the townspeople will vote on which one should be eliminated. After the townspeople have eliminated someone, everyone bows his head and closes his eyes as once again the mafia chooses their next victim. When everybody opens his eyes again, the narrator continues the story of the mafia in our little town. Again the objective is to kill off both mafia members, but the narrator never says when the first mafia member is dead or whether or not the super cop is dead. The super cop cannot just blurt out that he knows who the mafia is. He must try to influence the conversation so that the mafia members are suspects. Remember the mafia will kill off the super cop if they suspect who it may be. Once both mafia members are dead or the only ones left, the game is over.

Tips and Tricks:

1. Cheating in this game makes it no fun. Encourage your young people to play by the rules and not to cheat, even though it may be easy to do so.
2. The better the narrator does at telling the “story,” the more fun the game is.
3. The narrator can even throw off the townspeople by suspecting motive (i.e., “Notice how the last two kills have been girls . . . hmmm . . . I suspect that the dreaded He-man Woman Hater Mafia has moved into town.” )
4. After your group has played a couple of times, the strategy will really develop.
5. The super cop can be optional if you are playing with a small group or a younger group.

Electricity

The objective of this game is to stay out of the center. Have everyone sit in a circle and hold hands. One person stands in the center. One of the people on the circle says, “I’m sending a message to Johnny.” That person must then send the message by squeezing a hand to his left or to his right. The message continues around the circle until Johnny yells, “Got it!” Johnny then sends a message to somebody else in the circle. The person in the center is trying to observe the message being sent. If he sees it, he will yell out. The person caught sending it or continuing it will then be in the center.

Tips and Tricks:

1. Keep the message going quickly.
2. If the person in the center has missed the passing message several times in a row, allow him to pick someone else for the center.
3. If the same person is caught several times, then you choose somebody else for the center.
4. Have everyone line up according to birthdays to mix up who is holding hands with whom.

Up and Down the River

Up to six players can play, but three to four is best. Use ROOK cards. The object is to decide before your turn how many hands (tricks) you will win. Players get ten points for guessing the right number of their winning hands (tricks) and one point for winning a hand. One player records the “guess” of each player. You can get ten points for guessing zero and getting zero hands. The winner is not necessarily the one who wins the most hands, but the one who guesses right.

Players are dealt one card the first round (two the second round, three the third round, etc.). Someone records each player’s guess—one or zero. Play the cards starting with the person to the left of the dealer. Record points for the players who won or were right in their guess. The color which the first player played must be followed by the other players. If a player does not have that color, he may play any color. One color will be trump (the one turned over on the deck after the cards are dealt), and the lowest trump can beat the highest of any other color. The highest card wins, except when trump card is against a normal card. The highest trump will be the winner.

The person with the most points after the game is over wins. A normal game begins with one card in round one, to ten cards in round ten, and then back to one. For a shorter game, you can play from one to ten, or one to five and then back down.

Spoons

For this game you need ROOK, Phase 10, or Skip Bo cards. You also need one spoon less than the number of players. The game works best with four to six people. The object is to collect four cards of a kind and grab a spoon.

Deal out four cards to each person. The dealer takes the deck of cards and looks at the top card. He can either use the card and discard one from his hand or pass on the original card and keep looking at each card in the deck, one at a time. This continues from person to person, each one looking at the card and then passing it face down, using or discarding it, until someone has four of the same number. When the person has four of one kind, he grabs a spoon signaling to the others to grab one also. The one without a spoon gets a point. The winner is the one without any points. There will always be one spoon less than there are players. Play five or six hands to find a winner. If playing with a larger group, the game can be played with the person left without a spoon being eliminated. Each round will have one less player and one less spoon, culminating with a face-off between the two remaining players.

Canadian Spoons

This is just a different version of Spoons. Get far away from the spoons, and receive a letter (S-P-O-O-N-S), instead of eliminating one, each time you miss a spoon. Because spoons are worth points, everyone wants to get the most valuable ones.

Killer Uno

Play regular UNO with the following additions to the rules. If playing with all these rules is confusing, choose a couple of them to spice up your game.

1. If someone plays a card that is identical to one that any player has in his hand, he can immediately play his card (out of turn) if he beats the person whose turn it would be normally. Play then continues from the person that played the card.
2. All cards can be played out of turn as above, including the Skip and Reverse. Reverses can get to be confusing, but fun, if many are played in rapid succession. Sometimes a time-out needs to be called just to figure out whose turn it is and which way the play is going, clockwise or counterclockwise.
3. If someone plays a ZERO, each player must surrender his cards to the person on his left. This can be bad when someone was down to one card and then suddenly finds himself with a whole fistful!
4. All of the special cards can be “collective.” (For example, if the player before you plays a Draw Two, you can also play a Draw Two. The person after you must draw four cards or play a Draw Two of his own.)
5. If someone plays a SEVEN, he can choose to trade cards with any other player.

Speed Cootie

Pair up teens and give each one a paper with the cootie diagram. Each pair has a dice and takes turns rolling. The number a person rolls determines what part of the cootie he draws, but he must roll a one in order to start drawing. After drawing the body of the cootie, he draws the parts as he rolls the number for them. When he gets all the parts drawn on his cootie, he should yell, “Cootie.” When someone yells, “Cootie,” everyone changes partners. After all the squares on the sheet have been used, tally your score. Score each cootie drawn by the numbers rolled to draw them. For example, each leg is worth 6 points.

Namogory

Split your group into teams of three or four and give each team a Namogory sheet. Have a category (i.e., power tools) at the top of the column and have the teams write in that category, each item beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. Limit the time to one minute or less. Have the teams compare their lists. Score a point for each item beginning with a letter that no one else used. If both teams have an item beginning with the same letter (i.e., buzz saw, band saw), neither team gets a point for that letter.

Spoon Pit

Play with regular Pit rules; but instead of ringing the bell when you get all your cards, grab a spoon.

Dutch Blitz

Order a deck from CBD. Play with as few as four or pair people up to play up to eight. You can use Uno or other cards if you have marked the decks to know who started with the cards.

Personal Preference

You can get this game off eBay. You’ll need to begin by deleting the objectionable cards from the deck. Then take four cards with one item on each card. Divide into four teams. One person orders the cards (items) from one to four according to his personal preference. Each team guesses that person’s preferences and uses markers to show their team’s guesses—Positive: two points if right, one point if wrong; Not Sure: one point if right, 0 points if wrong. Moods game board may work well for Personal Preference.

Who’s the Most Like __?

This game is Personal Preference for a large group. Ask questions.

Splash Ball

Works like hot potato (can buy at Target or Toys R Us) but has a water balloon inside that will pop.

Oreo Cookie Sculpting

Use toothpicks and popsicle sticks—give twenty minutes to create a sculpture.

Play Dough Launch

Collect a spoon, mouse trap, tape—the goal is to see who can shoot the play dough the farthest. Have one-minute test times to see whose launches the farthest. After a minute is up, teens can go back to constructing.

Popcorn Relay

Have a bowl filled with popcorn. Kids use a spoon and race to fill up another bowl of popcorn.

Mad Gab

Purchase at a store that sells board games

Ice Cream Relay

Roll six, and go eat ice cream until someone else on your team rolls a six and comes to take your place.

Hot Potato

Baby food hot potato—you have to eat the baby food if you are the one holding it at the end. A variation is to use fruit as your hot potato.

Sculptionary

Using Pictionary cards and play dough, use “all Play” category and give each sculptor one chance to pass. Start with a ball and a log of play dough. (Thematic Sculptionary—relate to the season/theme)

Eat That Thing

Place food in a paper bag. Two teams dicker: “I can eat it in so many bites.”
“I can eat it in . . .”

Spell My Feet

Players have their shoes and socks off and have to spell a word with their feet

Crack the Whip

Form a line holding hands, and try to whip off the person at the end. See which team can whip their end person off the fastest.

Two-Base Tag

Each team has just one base. You are safe when you are on base. Score one point each time you run from your base around the other person’s base and back to yours. Whoever from the other team steps off the base after you can tag you out—no boundaries. After you’re tagged, you’re out. Time limit is about twenty minutes.

Sock Dodge Ball

If you get hit by sock/towel, (can also use tea towels) you kneel. If you catch the sock or towel, you are back in.

Nylon Wrestling

Cut the tops off nylons and put a tennis ball in the toes. Two players each pull a nylon leg over their heads and circle their heads to get tennis balls going around in circles, trying to snag the nylon on the other guy’s head and pull it off. The first one to pull the other one’s nylon off is the winner.

Dizzy Izzy Relay

Designate a spot twenty-five yards out. One person from each team runs to the designated spot, puts his forehead on the bat with the other end on the ground, and spins three times each way before running back.