Shutterstock / Jacob Lund
- You can’t play Beer Pong all night, so here are some lesser-known alternatives
- These games are fun, get you drunk, let you learn people’s secrets, and more
- More cool stuff here
When it comes to drinking games, there are the staples we all know and love. The classics! I’m talking about games like beer pong, flip cup, Kings Cup, and Asshole. So yeah, the classics, kid!
However, you never want to limit yourself and conversely, you want to open yourself up to new experiences. The classics are classics for a reason but you need to switch it up everyone in a while. Baby, it’s time for you to expand what drinking games you and your friends play during a wild night of good-time drinking.
Confidence
Lucky for you, this is one of the most straightforward games that will get you good and hammered in a matter of minutes. In other words, start off your night with this game.
What You Need:
- Alcohol
- A large cup
- A coin
Rules: This one is simple. Gather up a few people and get in some sort of circle or seating arrangement where you can pass the coin easily to the next person. It’s best if the cup is in the middle of a table, but it doesn’t really matter. Whenever it’s your turn, pour a certain amount of your drink into the cup based on how confident you are feeling. Then, flip a coin and call it in the air. If you are correct, it’s the next person’s turn. However, if you’re wrong, you have to chug what’s in the cup.
Paranoia
This is a great game that you might want to play later in the night. You know, after people have already had a bit to drink. Why? You might not get to drink that much and at the end of the night, that might be for the best. But the amount of drinking aside, it’s just a fun game to play to learn about people’s secrets and opinions.
What You Need:
- Alcohol
- Secrets
Rules: Everyone sits in a circle. One person whispers a “who” question (i.e. who in the room has the most sex?) into the ear of the person to their right. The person that the question is whispered to has to answer it out loud. The catch is that nobody in the circle knows what the original question was that the person was answering. If the person whose name was said (let’s use “Amanda” as an example) wants to find out what the question was, then “Amanda” must take a drink. If she chooses not to drink, then everyone in the circle gets to hear the question, but whispered so that “Amanda” doesn’t hear it.
Cheers to the Governor
Cheers to the Governor is a great game to play if you want to play through a game fairly quickly, want to see your friends lose, and loudly toast, “Cheers to the Governor.”
What You Need:
- Alcohol
- Vocal Chords
Rules: You start all counting in a circle from 1-21. The numbers 7 and 14 have to switch places. Once you get to 21, the person whose turn it is has to say “Cheers to the Governor” and everyone drinks. Then, the Governor (the position rotates around the circle) makes a new rule, such as instead of saying “five” you have to say “Fergalicious” or “When you count, you take a drink as well.” The game repeats rounds, adding new rules each time. If someone makes a mistake while counting, they have to take a drink and start the counter over. This game is best played when it’s done quickly, and people can think of fun rules to abide by quickly as well.
Beer Ball
If Beer Pong is your go-to drinking game, you should try out this slight variation. It’s a little harder, but it gets you drunk nonetheless.
What You Need:
- Alcohol (preferably in a can or bottle)
- A table
- Ping pong balls
Rules: Stand across from your opponent and place your bottle/can/cup on the edge of the table that you are standing on. Throw a ping-pong ball at your opponent’s drink. If you hit it, grab your drink and start chugging. Your opponent has to run after the ball, grab it, and touch it to the table to make you stop. The first person to finish their drink(s) is the winner. This game can be played in teams of two as well, but instead of placing your drinks in the middle of the table, place them in the corners of the table.
Jenga
An adult version of a children’s classic. It requires a little bit of preparation beforehand, but once you get that out of the way it’s a great time.
What You Need:
- Alcohol
- A marker
- A Jenga set.
Rules: Start off by writing rules and challenges on the Jenga pieces, then build a Jenga tower. When a piece is pulled, read the rule on the piece that has been pulled. The challenge/rule must be read allowed and completed immediately if required. Some examples are: take a drink every time a piece is pulled, pull two pieces per turn, finish your drink, take a shot, pretty much whatever you want them to be. Whoever knocks over the tower has to finish their drink.
Buffalo
This isn’t a game you sit down and play, but it is a challenge that you an issue to your friends over the course of the night to make things a little more interesting. It works great in bars, or huge house parties where you can’t really sit down and talk to your group of friends.
What You Need:
- Alcohol
- Not an actual buffalo
Rules: Throughout the course of the night, you can approach anyone who is playing the game and say “Buffalo.” If the person has their drink in their dominant hand, they have to finish their drink on the spot no questions asked. If “Buffalo” is called and the person is holding their drink in their offhand, the person that called it has to chug their drink. If someone uses the excuse “I’m ambidextrous,” they have to chug their drink, pour a second, chug that, and get called a bitch for the rest of the night.
Pizza Box
This is another game that is only as fun as the rules that you make up for the game. If you’re with a particularly creative group of people, this is a great game to play. Every party worth going to has a pizza ordered at some point through the night, so finding a pizza box shouldn’t be an issue.
What You Need:
- Alcohol
- A pizza box (duh)
- A marker
- A coin
Rules: Rip off the lid of the pizza box, then take turns flipping a quarter into the top of the box. The first flip each person takes, they have to write their name in a circle on the pizza box, wherever the quarter lands. The following times that someone flips the coin, wherever it lands, draw a shape, and inside the shape write a rule or action. If you land inside an already drawn shape, drink, and do whatever it says to do.
Fuck You
A great game to play if you and your friends love to chug alcohol and have a lot of built-up animosity towards each other.
What You Need:
- Alcohol
- A deck of cards
- Animosity
Rules: 5 Cards are dealt to every player. Flip a card over from the remaining deck. Let’s say it’s a 7. Dave has a 7 and wants to see Rebecca get drunk asap, so he says “Fuck you, Rebecca” and plays his 7. Rebecca now has to start drinking her beer, while the person to her left, Vince, starts a countdown from 7 (because that’s the card that was played.) This count goes all the way around the circle until you reach 1, but you can count as slow or fast as you want. If Rebecca finishes her drink before the group is done counting, then the group has to chug their drinks while Rebecca counts down from 7.
A second rule to remember is that if Dave were to play a 7 and say “Fuck you, Rebecca” but Vince has a 7 as well and he wants to see Robert get drunk, he can reroute the “Fuck you” and launch it over to Robert by saying “Fuck you, Robert.”
Rock Paper Drink
I don’t want to take all the credit for coming up with this game… just most of it. Everyone has played the game Rock, Paper, Scissors before, so this is a great game that you can pick up on the spot if you need an excuse to drink quickly.
What You Need:
- Alcohol
- Hands
Rules: Stand in a circle. Two people start playing rock paper scissors. Whoever loses the round has to take a drink, and play the next person in the circle. If they lose to everyone in the circle, they have to finish their drink, no matter how full it is. If two people tie, you add one gulp for every round that they tie. If they tie 5 times, they both have to finish their drink, pour a new one, and play with each other again until there is a winner.
Pyramids
It’s best that you play this game with someone who already has, if everyone you are with is already incredibly intoxicated. You can’t necessarily pick it up right away, as it might take a little bit of time to explain, but it’s worth it in the end. Lots of fun and risk-taking are to be had with this game.
What You Need:
- Alcohol
- Cards
- A table
Rules: Lay out the cards face down in a 5-4-3-2-1 pattern so it looks like a pyramid. Give each player 4 cards, which they have 10 seconds to memorize and place down in front of them. They also have to remember the order of their cards. Turn the first card up in the row of 5. Players can issue one drink if they have the card of if they pretend to have the card. The person issued the drink must decide whether to take a drink of call cheat. If the player does not have the card and is found to be cheating, he must drink x2 the drinks issued to the player. If he does have the card, the other player drinks x2. The number of drinks issued goes up by 1 every row.
For example: If you are in the 3rd row, let’s say the cards 7-2-9 are on the table. If you have a 7 you can issue a drink to Bill. If Bill thinks you are lying, he can call cheat. If he is wrong, he has to take 6 drinks/gulps. If he’s right and you are cheating, then you have to take 6 drinks/gulps. However, Bill doesn’t have to call you a cheater. If he’d rather not risk it, he can just accept his fate and take a drink.
Enjoy!