4 Games for Couples and Friends – That Don’t Require Anything

Looking for some fun games for couples or to play with friends and family? Check out my top four games that almost don’t require any preparation or props!

I love playing games – with friends, family and new acquaintances. And over the past few years especially, I have enjoyed quite a few new games for couples as my fiancé and I play and make up a lot of fun to keep us entertained.

While we do enjoy classic card games or some fun on the Playstation, I prefer something that can be played anywhere and at anytime. And especially during quarantine, we have done our best to play games that can either be played with just the two of us, at a distance or safely. We want to keep entertained, but can’t keep solving puzzles!

Over the years we have “come up with” some games – or rather activities – that require minimal preparation and props. In this guide, I will share four of my current favourites that are all fun and Covid-safe.

4 Games for Couples, Friends and Family

You won’t need much in order to start playing these games. Let’s start with some boardless and cardless games, and end with some fun music games. See my favourite games for couples and groups below!

1. Quiz

What you’ll need: Pen and paper, or a mobile/tablet/laptop
Participants: 2 people or more
Preparation time: 10–30 minutes preparing questions (can be done in advance)
How to win: Answer the most questions correctly

Are you ready to be both a quiz master and champion? While visiting a pub quiz can be super fun, you might end up getting lots of questions that don’t interest you. So instead, it is time to make your own quiz and test your friends and family on the knowledge you have – while also answering their questions.

How to Play the Easy and Virtual-Friendly Quiz

1. Decide how many questions each round/person should have. This will depend on how big of a group you are, but you can for example start with preparing 10 or 25 questions each.
2. Prepare your questions. Write down questions that you already know the answer of or that are at least not totally random for you. You can Google for inspiration but don’t copy lots of questions you wouldn’t know the answer to yourself.
3. Start the quiz! Choose one person in your group who will start asking their questions one by one. And this is where there’s a twist!
4. Answer the questions (out loud) one by one. In this quiz, you won’t write down your answers and hide them from the rest of the group. Nor will you have to shout out your answer first to win. Instead, everyone will answer one by one. See this as an example of how it works:
   1. Person A reads aloud Question 1
   2. Person B (for example sitting on the right of person A) will have to answer the question. No matter if person B knows it or not, s/he will have to give an answer.
   3. Person C (next to person B) now has a choice: Will s/he steal person Bs answer or answer something else?
   4. Continue doing this until everyone has answered (one by one, clockwise). Every person has the option to steal an answer already said or come up with a new answer.
   5. Once everyone has answered Question 1, Person A will note down and let the group know who answered correctly.
   6. Then Person A continues with the quiz: Question 2 will be answered first by Person C, Question 3 will be answered first by Person D and so on.
5. Once the first quiz is done, change the quizmaster and continue!

What makes this quiz so fun

We have found this way of quizzing to be very fun and also working well for virtual hangouts during Covid.

Simply decide who will start asking all their questions and who will start answering. Then follow a pattern and take turns answering first. Then you have to determine, does the person before you know the answer (so you should steal it) or are they just making something up?

2. Category Game

What you’ll need: Nothing!
Participants: 2 people or more
Preparation time: None!
How to win: Keep coming up with answers within the category

Do you like a little brain teaser? Or do you need an idea on how to keep the conversation flowing and eyes away from your mobile screen while on a romantic date? Then try out a category game, one of my favourite games for couples!

I love playing this while out and about and there is a lull in the conversation or you need a little boost. You won’t need any props or preparations. Simply pick a category and start thinking of the next answer.

How to Play the Category Game

1. Choose a category. You can switch up who gets to pick it or pick the first at random (see examples below) and then have the winner pick the next one.
2. Choose who will start and which letter they have to start with. The first person playing will need to say something fitting to the category starting with that letter.
3. Continue the game, following one of these versions:
   1. Stick to the same letter. If you start with category: countries and letter: A, every player has to say a country starting with A until someone can not think of any more countries. That person has then lost the round and you’ll either continue with a new letter within the same category or a new category and letter altogether.
   2. Continue with the last letter of the previous answer. To make things more interesting, you can keep alternating the letters by using this pattern. If player A says Algerie (a country on A), Player B will need to continue with a country starting with E. Player B says Egypt and player C can say Tunisia.
4. Stick to the category until someone loses. You lose by either saying an answer that has already been said or not coming up with a new answer within a reasonable time.
5. Keep playing with other categories. Switch up the categories and who is starting, and also introduce additional rules to make it more interesting. Examples of additional rules: “the answer can not end with A”, “the answer can not be X” etc.

Category Examples and Ideas

1. Geography: Countries, cities, capitals, landmarks
2. Pop culture: Celebrities, actors, musicians, fictional characters, famous people from X, movie titles
3. Brands: Car brands (and/or models), clothing brands, brands in general
4. Food and animals: Animal species or breeds, dishes, edible stuff, things you find in your cupboards, fruits & vegetables
5. Random: Things that float, means of transportation

3. Karaoke Game

What you’ll need: A TV, Spotify/Youtube/Deezer or similar. Some dices/chips/chocolates for “currency”.
Participants: 2 people or more
Preparation time: None!
How to win: Stay smart with your currency for the best songs (no winners)

Karaoke is normally a hoot, but you might not always be able to head to a karaoke bar. If that’s the case, just opt for karaoke at home! With this game, you will be singing and laughing – while keeping an eye on your dices.

The karaoke game is simple but comes with a twist. You won’t be choosing your karaoke songs freely and get all your favourites here.

How to Play the Karaoke Game

1. Give every player 3 currencies. This can be dices, chips, small chocolates or whatever you have at hand. The important thing is that each player has 3 small things that can be used as currency (to request songs).
2. Find a good playlist. On your preferred music app, search for either a Karaoke playlist specifically or something fun that will make for good karaoke songs. This is where you’ll need some tech.
   • Preferably, you should display the lyrics on your TV screen so that everyone can see it. See more regarding recommended apps and programs below.
   • Chromecast: If you have a Chromecast or Apple TV, you should be able to cast the lyrics.
   • Deezer has a lyrics option on most songs.
   • Spotify now offers lyrics.
   • Youtube lets you search for playlists with lyrics.
3. Start the playlist and start singing. You will get to listen and sing to the start of every song. But if you want to listen to it all, you have to submit your currency.
4. Play 30 or 60 seconds of each song. If no one has given their currency within your limit (“bought the song”), skip to the next one. Only listen to the full song whenever someone “buys” it and see as the currency gets used.
5. Sing, skip, sing and enjoy!

It might sound silly to not listen to the full songs but I guarantee you will have a lot of fun and also get a bit competitive when playing like this.

4. DJ / Playlist Game

What you’ll need: Spotify/Youtube/Deezer or similar.
Participants: 2 people or more
Preparation time: None!
How to win: Keep queuing awesome music (no winners)

Do you want to play DJ but also let your friends and family listen to their songs? Easy, make a game out of it!

This game will ensure that everyone is happy with the music playing, and you will also get to discover some new music – and favourites from your friends. While this game won’t work well at a big party (someone will for sure forget to queue the next song) I think it fits well into the games for couples or small groups.

How to play the DJ/Playlist Game

1. Start with a random song. Decide one of you who will get to put on the first song at random using Spotify, Deezer or similar. There are no rules for the first song, so make it a good one!
2. Queue the next song. The game really starts once the first song is playing. Going clockwise, each person will now have to queue the next song while the current song is playing. But of course, the next song can’t be chosen at complete random.
   • Decide on a rule and stick to it. We normally play by the rule that the next song to be queued has to start with the letter that the current song ends on. Ie “Umbrella” by Rihanna is playing, so you can queue “All of me” by John Legend. In this rule, the artist/group does not matter, but you can change it up.
   • Since the song to be queued is dependent on the song currently playing, only one song can be queued at once. In other words, you can’t pass the phone around and make a long queue. The player queuing only has the length of the current song (2-5 minutes) to find and queue the next song.
3. Keep queueing, singing and discovering new songs. You can try to stick to a theme or mood but in the end, you can queue completely free as long as you stick to the rule(s) set.

Bonus rule: If you are with people who speak another language than you and someone queues a song not everyone will understand, the person who queued it will have to live-translate and explain the song.

What will you play next?

There you have it! Four games for couples and friends that are a bit different from your regular table and card games. And the best part of it is that they won’t need almost any preparation or props. These can be enjoyed as cardless drinking games or fun quarantine games for couples.

PS: All these games can easily be made into some fun drinking games for wine lovers.

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