Charades Game Ideas

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Charades ideas

Every slip in the hat, sorted by category, with notes on which ones suit kids, families and experienced players.

Team Sun, you are up
Ready when you areTap the hat
1:00

    What goes in the hat

    Your own slips

    Turn length

    Game

    Teams

    Space or Enter: got it. Left arrow: pass. Swipe the slip right or left on a phone.

    How these charades ideas were chosen

    People who play a lot of charades say the same thing about word lists: they go stale. One player on a board game forum put it plainly, writing that "all the online generators stink" and asking for ideas that "could require a lot of vigorous acting or creative acting". Reviewers of charades apps complain that the same cards keep coming back in the same order. So the ideas here were written to be acted, not just read. Each one has a clear action or shape, something a person can show with their body and face in under a minute.

    There are 450 ideas in 10 categories. Below you can read every one. Or use the hat above, which draws them at random, keeps time and score, and never repeats a slip in the same game.

    Easy ideas for kids and mixed ages

    Little kids, Animals, Food and drink, and Around the house are the easiest groups. The slips are single objects or creatures a 5 year old knows: a kangaroo, a toaster, an ice cream cone. They work well with a no timer setting and lots of help from the room. For a mixed group, add Actions, which are short everyday scenes like "Opening a stuck jar" or "Putting on a tight sock" that adults enjoy acting as much as children enjoy guessing.

    Medium ideas for teens and adults

    Jobs, Sports and games, Holidays and seasons, and Feelings and moods sit in the middle. A job like "Window cleaner" or a feeling like "Stage fright" needs a small scene rather than a single gesture, which makes the guessing more fun. Holidays and seasons is a good pick around the end of the year: "Ugly sweater", "Hanging stockings", "New Year countdown".

    Hard ideas for experienced players

    Hard phrases are idioms and sayings. "Raining cats and dogs" or "Let the cat out of the bag" can be acted word by word, using the hand signals for the number of words and for "sounds like", or as a whole picture. These are the slips that make a seasoned group work for their points. Use them with a 90 second timer.

    Make the list your own

    The ideas that get the biggest laugh are often the ones no list can give you: your family's running jokes, a teacher's favourite phrase, a holiday you all went on. In the hat, type them into Your own slips and fold them in. If you play the three round bowl game, everyone adds a few slips at the start, and those slips become the whole game.

    Ideas by occasion

    For a birthday party with young children, mix Little kids, Animals and Food and drink, and let everyone guess together. For a family holiday evening, Holidays and seasons and Actions keep grandparents and teenagers in the same game. For a classroom warm up, Jobs and Sports and games give clear, quick actions that a whole class can guess in a few minutes. For an evening with friends who know the game well, pick Feelings and moods and Hard phrases and set a 90 second timer.

    Using these ideas without a phone

    If you prefer paper, copy the slips you like, cut them up and put them in a hat or a bowl. That is how the game was played for most of its history. The how to play guide covers the rules and scoring if you need a quick refresher.

    Every slip in the hat

    Actions (50 slips, easy)

    Animals (50 slips, easy)

    Jobs (50 slips, easy)

    Sports and games (50 slips, medium)

    Around the house (50 slips, easy)

    Feelings and moods (40 slips, medium)

    Little kids (40 slips, easy)

    Food and drink (40 slips, easy)

    Holidays and seasons (40 slips, medium)

    Hard phrases (40 slips, hard)