Game night is the cheapest good night out, and you do not even have to go out. With a little planning it beats another evening of scrolling, and it scales from four friends to a full house.
Pick games for the crowd, not for you
- Warm-up games take five minutes to explain and twenty to play. Party word games and simple card games work well while people arrive.
- A main event that everybody can learn in ten minutes. Save the three-hour strategy epic for a smaller group that asked for it.
- Team games are the answer when the group mixes enthusiasts and first-timers.
Food and setup
Choose food that does not leave fingers greasy on the cards: wraps, bite-size snacks, bowls of popcorn on a separate table. Good light and enough chairs matter more than decorations. Put the rules of each game on the table so nobody has to ask twice.
Poker night, done right
Many game nights end with a few hands of poker. A few simple house rules keep it friendly:
- Use a proper chip set and agree the value of each colour before the first hand.
- Keep the buy-in small, the same for everybody, and decided in advance. Plenty of groups play for nothing but pride.
- Explain the hand rankings to newcomers and leave a printed list on the table.
- Agree a finish time. The last hand is announced, not discovered at 3 a.m.
Rules on private card games for money vary from place to place, and a game where the host takes no cut is usually treated very differently from a commercial one; check what applies where you live. If your group gets hooked, the story of how poker became a TV sport, in How Television Turned Poker Into a Spectator Sport, makes for good table talk.
The real secret
A good host keeps an eye on the quietest person at the table. If they are having fun, everybody is.
