Games with Groups

I'm a game person. I love games. Board games, card games, game shows.... Pretty much add the word game to something and I'm probably into it. Part of this love may come from my highly competitive side. The other likely just comes from growing up in family that plays games all the time (and is highly competitive.) We play games at pretty much every family get together - holidays, birthdays, barbecues, etc.
As our family size has grown, we are always on the lookout for games that work with a large number of people. Most of the ones we fall back on can be catered to any size and use materials lying around the house. A few are classic card games that are always easy to pick up. If you have games that you play in your family or groups that aren't listed, let me know so I can try 'em out with my people! Here are a few favorites:

1. Bunko
Materials needed: Small gift for every player, five dice per set of four, pen and paper for each group
How to play: My grandma is a saint and buys the gifts for everyone in our family each year, but you could also have people bring their own gifts or bring candy bars.  We have a numbered bag that we are assigned to and take a peek before everything starts to see what we've got. We then break into teams groups of four, typically set up at different tables within the room. (Example: we have about 20 people that play so we have 5 tables set up, each with 5 dice, pen and paper, and four people.) Once everyone is seated one person yells "Go!" We take turns rolling all of the dice at once trying to come up with the number for that round (eg. first round = 1's, 2nd round = 2's, etc.) As long as you get at least one of that round's number, you keep rolling. In the meantime, your partner, the person across from you, is keeping score. Once you roll once without getting that round's number, play passes to your left. That person follows the same roll/keep score pattern as you. Play continues all around the table until someone at your table or ANY table in the room yells "Bunko!" (we change it to "Merry Christmas!" when we play) signifying that one pair of people has tallied 21 of the number for that round. Rolling a yahtzee (all five dice are the chosen number) is also an automatic Bunko. The two people with the highest tally get to each look inside the bag of the person to their left. They can choose to keep their own gift or trade. The winners then rotate to another table, leaving the losers behind. Play continues once everyone is set up with the next number in the series. We like to play up and down for a total of 11 rounds. The final round is the last opportunity for any present swapping. And with items like See's certificates, Taco Time gift cards, movie tickets, etc. people are always strategizing with who they want to sit by in hopes of getting to swap.

2. 100 Names
Materials needed: Pens, paper, scissors, three bowls, a timer
How to play: Cut the paper into small strips, large enough to write names. divide the strips between everyone playing. Each player writes the name of a person (fictional or non-fictional) that the majority of players would know. Then all of the names get thrown into a bowl. We aim for about 100 names but you can add or take from that number depending on how long you want the game to go on. Split into two teams (boys vs. girls is a favorite of ours.)
First Round: Teams take turns having one player stand up and draw names from the central bowl, trying to get their team to guess the name without using rhymes or gestures and only words -think Catch Phrase. Each player gets one minute to describe. At the end of that minute, the successful guesses are thrown into that individual team's bowl. Play resumes with another player from the opposing teams. This continues until all of the names are gone. Each team then counts the number of successful names in their bowl before returning them to the central bowl.
Second Round: Same concept, but this time there are no words. Gestures are the only way to describe the names to your teams. At the end of this round, each team will again tally their successful guesses and add it to their scores.
Third Round: Again, same concept, but this time it's just a single word. No gestures, no long descriptions. One. Word. It sounds impossible, I know, but once you've already been through the names twice, you'll know the names to be looking for and it will massively help as you try to figure out what "dog" the person may be talking about.
At the end of the third and final round, successful guesses are again tallied and added to each team's score. The team with the highest score wins!

3. Holigories
Materials needed: Paper for each player with every letter in the alphabet (printable here), pens, timer
How to play: This game is basically a holiday version of the game Scattergories. In this version, all players have three minutes to write down a word for each letter that ties into that holiday. At the end of three minutes, the group goes through to share what each person came up with. If you have notorious cheaters in your group, trade score cards between one another. Unique answers that the group deems legitimate (solve any disputes with a majority vote) earn a single point. This means if there's another player with your same answer, neither person gets a point. A double word with the letter in question receives 2 points so long as another player doesn't have the same. (Example: C - Candy Cane is worth 2 points.) You can also play so that people who have a word for each letter get an additional 3 points. Once all of the letters have been discussed, people tally their scores and the person with the highest score is the winner!

Happy gaming!