Word games and acting games for parties
Describe it, act it, draw it, guess it. All 10 are free, play on a single phone that gets passed around, and need no download or account.
Every game in this group is a variation on one problem: get the word out of your head and into someone else’s without saying it. You can describe it, act it, draw it, spell it or ban the five words that would make it easy. The mechanic is old and it is undefeated, which is why the same handful of games have run family Christmases for fifty years.
What normally goes wrong is administration. Somebody has to write prompts on scraps of paper, somebody has to be the timekeeper, and somebody always argues about whether that counted. The phone takes all three jobs: it deals prompts nobody at the table has written, runs the countdown with an audible buzzer, and keeps the score so the teams cannot quietly re-remember it.
These 10 games split neatly by how loud you want the room. Charades, Taboo, Fishbowl and Draw It are two-team games built for eight or more people. Heads Up is the one where the phone goes on your forehead and everybody shouts at once. Categories, Word Scramble, Spelling Bee, Hangman and Word Bomb are quieter and work down to two players.
All 10 games in this collection
Heads Up
Heads Up is a fast-paced guessing game for 2–20 players where one player holds a phone against their forehead showing a word they cannot see, their friends shout clues, and the holder tilts the phone down to score or up to pass before the timer runs out.
Charades
Charades is a team acting game for 4–20 players in which one player silently acts out a word or phrase — no speaking, mouthing, or pointing at objects — while their teammates try to guess it before a timer expires.
Taboo
Taboo is a team word game for 4–20 players in which a clue-giver describes a target word to their teammates without using that word or any of five closely related forbidden words listed on the card.
Categories
Categories is a Scattergories-style writing game for 2–12 players in which a random letter and six categories are dealt, players have 90 seconds to write one answer per category starting with that letter, and only answers nobody else wrote score a point.
Fishbowl
Fishbowl is a team party game for 4–20 players in which one bowl of names is played through three consecutive rounds — open description, then a single word, then silent charades — with the same names reappearing every round and the team that guesses the most winning.
Draw It
Draw It is a team drawing game for 4–20 players in which one player draws a secret prompt on a phone screen while their own team shouts guesses against a timer, scoring more for harder prompts and for guesses that land in the first half of the clock.
Word Scramble
Word Scramble is a pass-and-play word game in which each player is shown the letters of a hidden word in a jumbled order and has a fixed number of seconds to tap them back into the right sequence.
Spelling Bee
Spelling Bee is a pass-and-play word game in which one player reads a word aloud from the phone — with its definition and an example sentence available on request — and another player spells it out loud, with a wrong spelling costing them either the round or their place in the game.
Hangman
Hangman is a word-guessing game in which one word is hidden behind blank tiles and players take turns guessing single letters, with every wrong guess adding a piece to a drawing and a limited number of wrong guesses before the word is lost.
Word Bomb
Word Bomb is a pass-and-play party game for 3–12 players in which a phone showing a word prompt is physically passed around a circle on a hidden random fuse, and whoever is holding it when the fuse runs out loses a life, with the last player still holding lives winning.
Frequently asked questions
Which of these works best with two teams?
Charades, Taboo, Fishbowl and Draw It are all built for it — the phone tracks whose turn it is, which team is up and what the running score is. Fishbowl is the most ambitious: the same set of names is played three times, first by describing, then in one word, then acting only.
Do we need pens, paper or a whiteboard?
No. Draw It uses your finger on the screen instead of a pen, Categories collects answers verbally with a scoring assistant, and every prompt list is already on the device. There is nothing to write out in advance.
Can we play with only two or three people?
Yes, though pick carefully. Heads Up, Categories, Word Scramble, Spelling Bee, Hangman and Word Bomb all work from two. Charades, Taboo, Fishbowl and Draw It want four or more, because they need two teams to be a contest.
Are these games family-friendly?
Yes, and you can lock it in. The global content level filters every prompt in every game at once, so setting it to Family means the cards a ten-year-old sees are the cards everyone sees. Charades, Draw It and Spelling Bee are safe at any setting.
How long does a game take?
A single round is one to two minutes. A full game of Charades or Taboo with two teams runs about twenty minutes, Fishbowl closer to thirty because of its three passes, and Heads Up, Word Scramble or Hangman are ten-minute games you can stop at any point.
Looking for something else?
Social deduction7 games
Secret roles, straight faces, and accusations.
Trivia & puzzles12 games
Quiz questions, riddles, maths and brain-teasers.
Talk & confess8 games
Dilemmas, confessions and pointing fingers.
Creative3 games
Bluff, debate, and build stories together.
Challenges3 games
Timers, tongue twisters and sixty-second madness.
Large groups33 games
Games that get better the more people turn up.
2 players23 games
Games that work when there are only two of you.