Choosing games by group size

The same game can be a triumph with ten people and a disaster with forty. Before choosing games, count your guests: the number decides almost everything, from whether you need teams to whether anyone will hear the rules. This guide explains what changes at each size and which of our games fit. The game finder on the home page filters by size as well.

Small: 4 to 8 people

Everyone plays every round, turns come quickly and no microphone is needed. Games can be subtler, since players can watch each other's faces. What does not work: games that need a crowd to be funny, or that knock people out, leaving three to watch two.

• Best fits: Raja Mantri Chor Sipahi, Chidiya Ud, Cut the Flour Cake, Straw and Rajma, Cup Pyramid, Don't Say It.
• Play as individuals, or two teams of two to four.
• Plan: small flat and rainy day.

Medium: 9 to 20 people

The ideal size for party games, and the size most games were made for. Two or three teams give everyone a side to cheer. Elimination games work, because a game with fifteen players is over before those who are out get restless.

• Best fits: nearly everything, especially Dog and the Bone, Wrap the Mummy, Wink Detective, Seated Balloon Volleyball, Musical Hats, Hum That Tune.
• For table games with limited equipment, play four at a time while the rest cheer, and keep each heat to a minute.

Large: 21 to 50 people

Now the difficulty is hearing and waiting. Rules must be shown, not told. Any game in which one person plays at a time leaves forty people idle.

• Split into teams of five to eight and play everything as a team contest with a visible score.
• Choose games where all play at once: Fire in the Mountain, Pass the Hoop, Newspaper Tower, Newspaper Dance, Balloon Stomp, Kokla Chhapaki in two circles.
• Or run stations: three games in three corners, teams rotating every ten minutes.
• You will need a whistle and at least one helper per team or station.

Very large: over 50 people

At this size most guests are an audience for most of the time, so choose games that are good to watch, played on a stage or in a cleared circle by a few volunteers.

• Stage games: the Couple Quiz, How Well Do You Know the Bride?, Hum That Tune between two sides, Newspaper Dance with eight couples, Hanging Jalebi heats.
• Whole-crowd moments: a song round where the audience answers, or a lucky draw.
• Stalls: games people can try at any time.
• A microphone, an anchor and a printed timetable are essential.
• Plans: society function, sangeet and mehndi.

Odd numbers and late arrivals

• With an odd number for a pairs game, the odd one out is the judge for that round, then swaps in.
• Late arrivals join the team that is behind.
• If a few guests leave early, re-count the teams; an uneven tug or relay is no fun.

Space matters as much as numbers

Allow, very roughly, an arm's length of clear space round each person for an active game. If you cannot, play seated games. Twenty people in a living room is a seated party; the same twenty on a lawn can run.