Have you had guests over and been so busy preparing for the meal that you don’t have something planned for afterward? Maybe you had a small holiday party that fell flat because there wasn’t much conversation? Well, you needed to play the best non-board game ever: Pictionary Telephone.
Why is this the best party game ever? Because anyone can play and it is LOADS of fun! I have personally used this game at many events and every single time, everyone loves it.
But don’t just take my word for it, give it a try yourself! Here’s how to play:
Pictionary Telephone
Items needed: You will need sheets of blank printer paper, pens or pencils, and scissors (that’s it!).
How to play:
Preparation.
First, find out how many people want to play the game with you. This is where you do your best convincing. Take the sheets of paper and cut them into 6 squares each. Yes, the squares should be this small.
Arrange the players into a circle and hand out paper squares to each player, they will need one paper square for each person that is playing. (So if 10 people are playing, each person should have a stack of 10 squares of paper). Hand out a pen or pencil to each player.
Play.
Now each player should have a stack of square paper and a pen or pencil.
1. To start the game, each player must write on their first piece of paper a phrase or short sentence.
Now, depending on the event, you could request that the phrases be centered on a certain theme (at a Christmas party, say they should be about Christmas… birthday, valentine’s day, etc.). But you do not have to have a theme either, you can simply let each player be creative. Maybe they want to write, “The cow jumped over the moon.” or “I had cereal for breakfast.” Whatever they would like will do! And, sometimes the simplest phrase or sentence turns out the best for the game anyway.
2. After everyone has written their phrase or sentence, all the players must pass their entire stack of paper to the person on their left.
Then that person (who now has their neighbor’s stack of papers), takes the sentence, reads it to themselves, and puts it on the back of the stack of papers. Then, that person now has to draw a picture of what the sentence said on the new, blank piece of paper in the stack.
The less instruction for this part, the better. Let people have fun using their imagination to draw what the other play has written about. And they don’t have to be works of art! Any small cartoon drawing or stick people will work well.
3. After everyone has drawn their picture, each player should pass their stack of paper to the left. Then each player looks at the picture on their new stack of paper and puts the picture to the back of the stack. They now need to write a phrase or sentence of what they thought the picture was.
4. After everyone has written a sentence interpreting the previous picture, they pass the stack of papers again to the left. Then all the players should repeat steps 2 and 3 until the stacks of paper have been passed around the circle and end up back with their original owners (the person who wrote the first sentence).
5. Once everyone has their original stack of paper back in their hands, it’s time to read through the stories that you have just created. Take turns reading and showing the pictures to the group. You may be surprised at how silly and hilarious the stories become! This is the part that makes this the best game ever… everyone will be rolling in laughter at the funny drawings and crazy interpretations of the sentences. It’s always fun to compare the original sentence to the last piece of paper (they will be majorly different!).
6. Try and convince everyone that one time is enough and you don’t need to play again… everyone will want to!
That’s it! That’s really all you have to do. I love this game because there’s zero preparation (you don’t have to have a special board or pieces) and everyone LOVES it. It has never failed me and I will keep playing it with friends and family. Here are a few extra tips to help it run smoothly:
- You may want to number the pieces of paper in each stack, sometimes it can get a little mixed up and this should help.
- Really anyone can play this game, even if they can’t draw well. In my experience, it actually makes it more fun because the stories get rather turned around and crazy that way!
- You may want to use a sand-timer to keep the game moving if you are limited on time. Especially for the drawing turns.
So, are you going to play the best non-board game ever at your next party? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear how it went!
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