Card games for parties

Match a noun card to the judge’s adjective and make the best case for your choice.

An adult party game where a judge picks the funniest—or most outrageous—white card for each prompt.

Adult content.

Play cards face down claiming a rank; anyone can call your bluff, and the loser picks up the pile.

Also called I Doubt It or BS.

Each player sees every card but their own; bid on the total of all cards and call when someone overbids.

Each player holds one card and decides whether to swap it with the next player; the lowest card loses a life.

Also known as Ranter-Go-Round or Screw Your Neighbor.

A push-your-luck number game: flip cards for points, but a duplicate busts you and seven unique cards ends the round.

Compete to complete three-panel comic strips with the funniest final card.

Adult humor; check the edition before choosing it for a group.

Flip cards in turn; when shapes match, the two players race to grab the wooden totem in the center.

Follow changing table rules, catch mistakes, and avoid accumulating penalty cards.

A hidden-team bluffing game where ninjas secretly look at, swap, and strike other players.

A single-night hidden-role game: role cards are viewed or swapped in the dark, then everyone votes.

Find three cards where each feature—color, shape, number, shading—is all the same or all different.

Guess the same names over three rounds: first with any words, then with one word, then by miming.

Match color or number, use action cards, and be first to empty your hand.

UNO with double-sided cards: a flip card switches everyone to a harsher dark side.

A judge picks a photo; everyone plays the caption card that makes the best meme.

Adult content in the core game.

A team party game where partners use secret signals to tell each other they have four matching cards.

A hidden-role deduction game where the forensic scientist can only answer with scene tiles while the murderer hides.

Dwarves build tunnels toward gold while hidden saboteurs quietly break tools and lay dead ends.

Resistance members go on missions while hidden spies try to sabotage them; discussion and voting decide who goes.

The Arthurian version of The Resistance: Merlin knows the traitors but must avoid being found by the assassin.

The large-group hidden-role game: villagers hunt werewolves by day while werewolves strike at night.

Needs a moderator.

Pass a critter card face down and lie—or tell the truth—about what it is; collect four of a kind and you lose.

A 20-questions word game with a twist: one player secretly knows the answer and is steering the group.

A tiny bluffing game: hold one card, decide whether to swap, and bet on having the highest—with a twist for the lowest.

Use one card per turn to deduce and eliminate rivals while protecting a strong hand.

Give clues using illustrated cards that resemble the secret character, while the guesser eliminates the rest.

Bluff about the spice and number of each card you play face down; a challenger risks big if you told the truth.

Everyone shares a secret location except the spy, who must bluff through questions and guess where they are.

Everyone knows the secret word except the chameleon, who must blend in while players give one-word clues.

A Finnish bluffing game: play cards face down, announce what they are, and pick up the pile if you are caught lying.

The Russian version of Cheat—“trust, don’t trust”—where you shed cards face down and challenge suspicious claims.

Hidden-role Wild West shootouts where the Sheriff, deputies, outlaws, and a renegade all want different winners.

Secretly choose a character each round—assassin, thief, merchant, and more—to build the most impressive city.

Bluff about hidden influence, challenge rivals, and be the last player still in power.

Teams send coded clues about their secret keywords while the other team tries to intercept the pattern.

Investigators and cultists cut into each other’s face-down cards to find elder signs—or summon Cthulhu.

Also published as Time Bomb; some editions seat more players.

One player is a creature hunting the rest, who are stranded astronauts hiding in places across an alien planet.

Pack goods into a bag, declare them to the sheriff, and bribe or bluff your way past an inspection.

Spymasters give one-word clues so teammates can identify their agents in a grid of words without touching the assassin.

A storyteller gives a clue for an illustrated card; others play their best decoys and everyone guesses the original.

Everyone writes a one-word clue for the guesser, but identical clues are erased before they are seen.

Partners invent secret signals to tell each other when they hold four of a kind—without the other team noticing.

Pitch absurd inventions that solve a prompt using the unlikely object in your hand.

Flip cards until two symbols match, then race to name an example of your opponent’s category before they name yours.

Any two circular cards share exactly one symbol; spot it first in several fast mini-games.

Sold as Spot It! in North America.

Flip cards into a pile and slap doubles, sandwiches, and other patterns faster than everyone else.

Slap rules vary widely from table to table.

Shout and trade sets of commodities simultaneously, cornering the market on wheat, corn, or barley.

Chant the five words as cards flip, and slap the pile when the card matches the word.

Collect sets of cards, and when certain cards appear, throw squishy burritos at other players.

Plant, trade, and harvest beans while managing a hand whose order cannot be rearranged.

Play solitaire-style piles simultaneously while racing to empty your personal Nertz pile.

Play cards that continually change the draw, play, and victory rules.

Use action, counter, and trap cards in a chaotic race to hold exactly ten cards.

A climbing game with a social ladder of seats; lower ranks pay tribute cards to the top every round.

A brutal UNO variant with stacking draw cards and a rule that knocks out anyone holding 25 cards.

The rules keep changing while zombie creepers complicate the shifting goals.

Explore together, then decide when to leave before a repeated hazard ends the round.

BGG lists it under its original title, Diamant.