The first game only requires a large table big enough to seat all the players, or a large area of cleared floor space. The second game only requires a pack of cards.
Coloured Circles
Seat all the players around the table or on the floor in a circle. Assign everyone a colour. It can be quite straightforward (as in red, blue, green, orange, purple). However, if there is a large number of players it will need to be more specific (peach, mint green, crimson, jade). Ensure everyone is sure of their own colour and everyone else's. Then select someone to be the narrator (this changes quickly throughout the game so it is simply someone with whom the game can begin).
- Begin the game by everyone tapping out a rhythm by gently slapping the table or clapping hands if players are sitting on the floor. When the rhythm is even and at a moderate pace the narrator begins. On each beat the narrator says "table", but on the third beat he says the colour of the person sitting to his left.
- If he gets it right the player to his left becomes the narrator and must quickly pick up the beat, say "table" for two beats and then the name the colour of the person sitting to his left. If the narrator gets the colour wrong the narrator becomes a "blank" and the player to their left picks up the beat. Players must then remember to skip blanks and call out the colour assigned to the person to the left of the blank.
- As play goes round it becomes harder to remember who has become a blank and so needs to be skipped over while at the same time remembering what your own colour is.
- The last person left a colour rather than a blank wins.
Ninety-nine
- Decide who will deal. Deal each player four cards. Place the remaining cards face down on the table.
- The player to the dealer's left places one of their cards face up on the table. This is the start of the Ninety-nine pack. The player picks a new card from the face-down pile and play passes to the left.
- The second player now places one of their cards on the top of the Ninety-nine pile and announces the new total. All picture cards count as 10 and most other cards are their face value. Play continues on to the next player.
However, all is not as it seems. There are trick cards involved that shake the game up. Trick cards are as follows:
- Ace - automatically brings the total to 99.
- 4 - reverses the direction of play
- 6 - is a 'pass' card - nothing is added to the total and play simply passes to the next player
- 10 - subtracts 10 from the score.
If a player cannot play a card without taking the total beyond 99, they are out of the game. The winner is the last person to stay in the game.
After more ideas? Check out Party Games.
