Bring your favorite on-screen games to your own living room
Ever wish you could be having as much fun as the characters you watch on TV? Well, now you can.
1- Friends: The Quiz
We all love Friends. We also all love this episode. Spice up your next hang out with a few rounds of The Quiz. Want to do it right? Bet something BIG. If you recall, the put their apartment on the line, so go all out!
- Assign a game master and create two teams.
- Each team will answer 10 questions about players from the other team.
- The team that answers the most questions wins.
- Create question categories on a board. For inspiration, Ross uses “Fears and Pet Peeves”, “Ancient History”, “Literature”, and “It’s all Relative”.
- The game master must create questions about all players and fill up the categories, placing Team 1’s questions about Team 2 in the upper half, and Team 2’s questions about Team 1 in the bottom half.
- Coin toss will decide which team will goes first.
- If there’s a tie, go to Lightening Round, where both teams get 30 seconds to answer as many questions as possible. The team with the most answers wins the game.
2 – New Girl: True American
If you haven’t seen this show (first of all, you must!), then you may not have heard of a crazy game called True American. First things first, let’s be real here: the term game is being used loosely. The show writers admit to creating random rules that don’t make sense for the sake of an outrageous looking game. But, if you take a look at the photo, it looks like a regrettably amazing time. So, we decided to make sense of it all and try it at home.
Before we move on, please note that, by default, this game promotes binge drinking and honestly, injuries. We recommend that you tweak, interpret, and add your own rules to make this game more fun crazy and less end up in the hospital crazy. Also, please don’t drink and drive. It’s not cool.
Alright, here we go.
The Game
- The concept of the game is simple. Eliminate the pawns (drink the beers), and be the first to take down the King (take a sip from the bottle of hard alcohol).
- The floor is molten lava. You can never touch the floor.
- The room is divided into 4 zones, with many sections that represent places, or other odd things.
- Cushions, chairs and other furniture go in and out of the zones so players can travel around.
- You may or may not be in a team. This will depending on how you do during the teaming up section of the game (see below)
- Players go counter clockwise through the zones. The player whose turn it is moves one space. During that turn, the other players must earn their move. This player can pick one of three ways to give the other players a chance to earn their move.
- Use these moves to go to and from the Castle and the zones to grab pawns. If your next move is to by the Castle, you must grab a beer so be strategic with where you go.
- Shout. Shout a lot.
The Set Up
- Place a bottle of hard alcohol in the middle of the room. Then, in formation, place beers all around the bottle. The hard alcohol represents the King, the beers around it are his pawns, soldiers of the secret order. All together, this is referred to as the Castle.
- Set up the zones and assigns sections of the room you’re playing in. Ex.: The Iron Curtain, a specific table is The Tunnel, under which you lower yourself, Ellis Island, etc… (see rules below).
- Determine a junkyard, which is really just a recycling bin set up somewhere in the room to throw empty beer cans in.
- Set up the furniture, get creative with pillows or come up with other ways to navigate the room. Place a trail of chairs from zone to zone.
- Create teams. One player shouts: “1,2,3,Go!” and everyone places a number between 1 and 5 on their forehead. Team up with a player that is holding the same number as you. People without a partner can team up.
- One teams are made, someone starts off the game by shouting “1.2.3.4, JFK!” and making a finger gun on JFK. Right away, everyone replies with FDR! All players grab a pawn and hop onto “dry land” and shotgun their drink. The floor is officially lava and the game has started.
As mentioned before, players move counter clockwise through the zones. The player whose turn it is moves one space automatically. During that turn, the other players must earn their move. This player can pick one of three ways to give the other players a chance to earn their move. Feel free to create some rules.
Moves
- Something in common. List three things (and try to stay on the America theme) that have something in common. If any another player guesses that similarity, they can move.
- Complete the famous quote. Player shouts a famous quote (ex.: “The only thing worse than fear… is fear itself!”). Those who shout “is fear itself” get to move as well.
- Fingers on the forehead (just like in the set up). On his/her turn, a player can shout: “1,2,3,Go!” and everyone puts 1 to 5 fingers on their forehead. Players with the matching number as the main player get to move.
In addition to moves, throughout the True American episodes, there are some random rules that do not serve any purpose or help players advance, but it makes you drink or laugh, which we love.
Additional Rules
- The Junkyard rule: When a player finishes their beer, they yell “All trash belongs…”. Players with an empty beer can complete the sentence by yelling “in the junk yard!”. Then, everyone throws their empty beer can in a predetermined junkyard, aka a big garbage placed in the room. These players can now move one spot.
- The JFK rule: If someone yells “JFK” at any point during the game, all players must chug the rest of their beer.
- The Howard Dean rule: When a player shouts: “Howard Dean Scream!”, everyone points from the floor to the ceiling while screaming and then drink their beer.
- Add predetermined rules at assigned spots in the room. Ex.: on the sofa, spin counter clockwise when landing on it.
- The Iron Curtain rule : When a player decides to make his move the finger on forehead move, he/she can yell “Iron Curtain!”, at which point, another player with the same number held up on their forehead as them must go behind the iron curtain with the player and kiss.
- The Plague rule: during any turn, a player can put a blanket around their back. If someone notices, they can shout “The Plague! Scatter!” and all players have 3 seconds to head to a different part of the room.
- The Ellis Island rule: Once on the island, you can assign who gets to drink which type of beer by calling them George or Bill.
- The U.S.A rule: When a player yells “U.S.A!”, the other teams shouts back “I am not a crook!” and have to move one space.
- The Gettysburg rule: a player can grab a broom or pillow and yell “Gettysburg!” at which point players with empty beer cans can throw them at you for 5 seconds to try to make you fall into the lava.
- Play the Clinton version of the game: pick a player to be your intern. Assign rules and zones that involve taking off an article of clothing
Rules We Didn’t Include, But Feel Free To Try
- Assign a President and Vice President.
- An additional crazy zone.
3 – The Office: Office Olympics
Games are not only reserved for Friday nights at home. Play this game at, well you guessed it, the office. Before you play, don’t forget the decorations. Banners, Yogourt metals, doves, etc… Set the mood.
That’s what she said.
- You can’t start the office olympics without an opening ceremony. Light a candle and prepare that speech.
- Set up stations around the office, where players will compete.
- Game #1: Flonkertin. Strap boots to boxes and race
- Game #2: Who can eat the most M&Ms?
- Game #3: Throw stuff into a far away mug (paper clips, paper balls, etc…)
- Game #4: Hateball. Flick a paper football (paper triangle) into posts
- Game #5: Dunderball. Think of this as version of dodgeball, but on the wall and across a divider.
- Game #6: Who’s coming out of the elevator next? That one is pretty self explanatory.
- Create as many new games as you wish.
- Don’t forget the closing ceremonies!
4 – One Tree Hill: Dare Night
Okay, so this show has been over for years and you might not have even watched it. But, my teenage-self watched it for you and now I get to report back on this epic episode called Dare Night. One of the characters organized a spontaneous night, handing out invitations and envelops filled with dares. Every player had to do the dare on their card, and, for bonus points, the added level of difficulty found on the the flip side of the card. It looked like a night of full of fun, intrigue, pushing boundaries and one that you wouldn’t forget.
- It’s all about the invitations. You can mimic the episode and keep the entire night very mystery and just set a date and time on these invitations. Before you knock this step off, think less wedding invites and more secret society vibes.
- Although each dares is assigned to one player only, create 2 teams. It can be guys vs. girls. The team with the most points at the end of the night wins.
- Points = dares accomplished. You must take a photo or video of each dare in action to prove you have accomplished them.
- Give the group a deadline. Dares must be accomplished by midnight on the show.
5 – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Chardee MacDennis
This game is also known as The Game of Games. In short, it’s a mashup of all their favorite games. You can stop here and create your own game of games with all of your favorites. If not, let’s keep going. This game has a lot of guidelines, so bear with us. It’s SO worth it.
The point of the game: race through level 1 to level 3. First team to finish Level 3 wins. Level 1 is all about the mind. Puzzles, Trivia and artistry. Level 2 is all about the body. Physical challenge, pain and endurance. Level 3 is all about spirit. Emotional battery, public humiliation. You need a certain amount of cards to move onto the next level.
- Create two teams. Take a team photo. Go all out and get it printed and framed for the next night of Chardee MacDennis.
- Teams must also create mini dolls (aka game pieces). This is important because winner gets to destroy the other team’s game pieces.
- Cards for each level must be created prior to the game. See below for inspiration on card content.
- Wether you’re playing with your own favorite games or the ones from the show, you must create a rule book for people to refer to during the game, as no one is allowed to ask questions once the game is started. If a player asks a question, their team must drink for 5 seconds.
- You can only consume wine during Level 1, beer during Level 2 and hard alcohol during Level 3.
- If you spill your drink, your team must chug the other team’s drinks.
- There is a 15 minute time limit to the game (with some pausing the clock, such as 3 time outs, a half time, post level breaks).
- If there is no winner after the 15 minute buzzer, teams must flip a coin to determine the winner.
- Cheating is allowed in this game. Don’t get caught though! If you get caught cheating, the opposite team gets to automatically advance to the next level, or if you’re on a higher level than them, they come to your level.
Before the game starts, set the timer to 2 minutes for the Ritual of Sportsmanship. This is basically a 2 minute window where everyone is nice to each other, drinks wine and eats cheese. Once the timer goes off, smash your cups and start yelling to psych up for the game. This is referred to as the “Maui Dance”.
Level 1: The Mind Level
- Fill up your cups with wine.
- In this level, you must win 3 cards to advance to Level 2.
- Open the Level 1 box containing the Mind cards: Trivia cards, Artistry cards, Puzzle cards and a few Chance cards.
- Trivia cards: this doesn’t have to be regular trivia. It can be dumb, related to the friend group, etc… Team has a chance to answer. If they answer correctly, the other team drinks. If they answer incorrectly, the other team gets a chance to steal.
- Artistry cards: these cards can be an “all play” cards, which means that both teams race to finish first. Ex.: “All play. The artist from your team must draw the clue from the card by tracing it teammate’s back”.
- Puzzle cards: to be honest, the show didn’t give any example of this, so it’s on you to figure it out.
- Chance cards: like in Monopoly, set a good or bad rule on this card. Ex.: “Take the money from everyone’s pocket”.
Between levels, there is a 5 post level break, where the timer is paused, all rules are off and people can be civilized again. Once this break is done, you must do the Maui Dance again to get psyched up and then let the clock continue.
Level 2: The Body Level
- Fill up your cups with beer.
- There is no cursing during Level 2.
- In this level, if you curse or ask a question, the other team gets to count the 5 seconds as your team drinks.
- In this level, you only must win 2 cards to advance to Level 3.
- Open the Level 2 box containing the Body cards: Physical Challenge cards, Pain and Endurance cards and a few Chance cards.
- Physical Challenge cards: in the show, the card drawn is The Great Gobble (aka hungry hippo). They place a lot of grapes on a tabletop and players must use their mouth to accumulate the most grapes without swallowing them, for an entire minute. Player with the most grapes wins the card.
- Pain and Endurance: for this card, they do a flinch test. Feel free to create your own types of pain and endurance cards but stay safe!
- Chance cards: same concept as Level 1.
If two teams are on different levels, they draw a card from their level box. If this card requires them to go head to head with the other team, both teams participate but only the team at that level can win that card. If they get beat, they just lose and it is now the other team’s turn to draw a card from their level box.
Level 3: The Soul Level
- Fill up your cups with hard alcohol.
- In this level, you must win 2 cards to win.
- Open the Level 3 box containing the Soul cards: Emotional Battery cards, Public Humiliation cards, and a few Chance cards.
- Emotional Battery cards: these cards revolve around roasting a player for 2 minutes without the player flinching, reacting or feeling hurt.
- Public Humiliation cards: although there are no example of this on the show, the explanation is definitely in the name.
- Chance cards: you know the drill by now.
If this felt like a lot of reading, check out the show’s episode and see these games in action.
We can’t wait to see you guys playing this at home so make sure to send some photos our way @wilder.games.