The college experience constitutes special moments for everyone who goes through college. It is made special by your experiences, the people you meet, and the places you visit. This is the era where a student gets a chance to reinvent themselves and establish their own identity, as there is a lot of freedom in college.

One of the prominent college traditions that happens worldwide in different colleges is the party life. College students are known to have an active party life, mostly on the weekends. With these parties, it is normal to have students play drinking games to keep them engaged.

Different locations may have different sets of drinking games. However, some are common to almost every location with college students. This article will highlight some of the best popular drinking games and how they are played.

The evolution of drinking games

You may think that drinking games were invented in the 21st century. If so, you are not alone. Though drinking games are mostly common among the youth, the games have been around for a long time. Ancient Greek and Roman youth played these games at symposiums and banquets. The difference to what today’s games look like is the terms played for. In those ancient days, the games included reciting riddles and poetry recitation, while today, the games include card games and board games.

Another difference would be that today’s games are more creative and have some involvement with technology. With time, a lot of things get better and more advanced. This is the case with the evolution of drinking games. Over the years, they have become more creative, engaging, and fun.

Game 1: Literary libations

This category of drinking games involves literature-themed questions and drinks based on renowned authors or books, thus the name. With these games, there is always a twist; different people from different locations have a set of rules that may differ from others. However, the most common way this game is played is as follows:

  • The game master prepares a set of literary questions, more like trivia questions
  • Drinks are prepared and named; for each drink, a particular book or even an author is named to make the game interesting.
  • The game master asks the questions to each individual or team (depending on the decided arrangement). With each correct answer, the winners get to choose a drink for the other team or a specific individual to take. For a wrong answer, a punishment may be agreed upon, or they get to be chosen for a drink by the other opponents.
  • The process is recursive till the game expectations are met.

The rewards and punishment are not fixed and can be adjusted to the players’ agreement as long as they are literary-themed.

Game 2: Historical hops

As the name suggests, this college drinking game involves historical questions. The drink of the game, in this case, is beer. Several beers are selected for the game, all representing a historical period or event. As mentioned for the literary libations, the historical hops, too, are not fixed in terms of the rewards and punishment, tantalizing your creativity buds. The following steps characterize the game:

  • The game master comes up with historical questions, which could be multiple choice, descriptive, or true or false quizzes.
  • The beers are labeled based on a specific historical event or period.
  • The questions are then asked, and for the correct answer, the individual gets to pick the beer of their choice.
  • For a wrong answer, the individual is penalized based on what is decided; the punishment, too, has a historical element to it; this is to ensure that the game’s theme is followed.
  • The game continues until everyone is allowed to play or the set expectations are met.

This game is particularly enjoyable to people who love history and strive to refresh their memories while having fun concurrently.

Game 3: Philosophical Pints

The name again suggests what the game is all about. The game involves philosophical questions meant to spark conversations on matters of philosophy while having fun. The drinks in this game are in the form of pints, approximately 473 ml.
The following are the general basis of the game:

  • The quiz master prepares philosophical questions and quizzes. The questions should be good enough and conducive to conducting philosophical conversations.
  • The drinks are then selected based on the theme of philosophy. The purpose of this game is not to get people to choose the right answers. Instead, the game is meant to help those in the game to express their opinions on philosophy-themed topics and concerns.
  • All while enjoying a drink
  • To make it more enjoyable or memorable, there could be breaks from the discussions where the participants give toast to random things.
  • Once the philosophical questions and consequent discussions are done, the game can be declared over

This is a calm drinking game that fosters conversations and helpful philosophical conversations.

Game 4: Artistic ales

In college, you meet a lot of like-minded people. Most of the drinking games mentioned above are common in that the participants are people with the same interests. The artistic ales are not any different. This game is categorized by the art-related questions being asked while enjoying drinks. The general way this game is as follows:

  • The game master asks art-themed questions that are conversation starters and help participants express their opinions on selected topics.
  • The drink selection is based on artistic concepts to keep the game interesting.
  • With every correct answer, the individual or the team earns a drink of their choice. Besides getting the individuals to enjoy the drinks, the game aims to strike meaningful conversations about art among the students.
  • The turns are alternated till all the questions are covered or the set targets in the game are reached.

Hosting a sophisticated game night

Every so often, college students may find themselves in a situation where they are to host a game night. Hosting has been made a bit bearable with today’s many game inventions and technology developments.

Curating and sending invites

Sending invitations would be the first step. It could be an invitation by word of mouth or an online curated invitation. The time, location, and theme of the game night should be indicated in the invitation. Sending out invitations is unnecessary, but it already makes the game night interesting.

Purchase of drinks

The next thing that will be done in preparation is buying drinks, alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic drinks. Food is also necessary for a game night, especially if alcohol is involved. Therefore, one could prepare a few snacks and bitings for the guests.

The location where the game night will be hosted should be well set up. The host should decorate the room depending on the night’s theme and ensure that the room is aesthetic and screams ambiance.

Games setup

The most important part of hosting would be to set up the games. The host should ensure enough game categories for the night and that the games are engaging and promise a fun and successful night.

In as much as games are fun, students should also have great performance in class. Cases where a student is rushing to buy research papers at the last hour because of mixed priorities should be non-existent.

Other than the above-mentioned games, several other party games, like beer pong, could be played.

1. Kings Cup

Games like King’s Cup involve a lot of alcohol intake and should be played responsibly. Kings Cup is a frat game characterized by spreading a deck of cards around a big cup (the King’s Cup). The cup consists of small portions of alcohol from each player’s drinks.

The cards that surround the cup all have a specific assignment or rule that should be performed. Some common assignments include:

  • The player who picked the card should take a drink
  • Female players to take a drink
  • Select a drinking buddy such that anytime they drink, you also have to drink
  • The player that picks a card is given the role of choosing a category, like names of animals; the other players will then provide different names to the category.

The penalty for a player who draws the last King card is, in most cases, to drink up the remaining contents of the King’s cup. This player is termed as the loser.

2. Card and board games

Card and board games are common at college parties, especially in casual settings.
Poker is one of the card games you’ll find being played at college parties worldwide. It varies greatly, and people from different world sections play it differently.

Scrabble is simply a board game for constructing English words using letter tiles.
Monopoly is another frequently played board game. It is a college dice game that constitutes matters in real estate: buying property, renting houses, and selling property. A player rolls the dice, moves the number of steps on the board, and performs the assignment they land on.

3. Truth or dare

This game should ring a bell to almost everyone since it is a classic game night and party game. It is a simple game with simple rules. During each player’s turn, the player is expected to choose either truth or dare. If they choose “truth,” they are asked a question by another player, which they must truthfully answer. When a player goes with “dare,” they are challenged to do something of the other player’s choosing.

The dares range from mild to intense challenges that may be uncomfortable to others. If the challenges are not completed, or the truth questions are not answered, the players must take a decided amount of alcohol. It is always important to give consent and know and respect boundaries when playing this game so that it doesn’t lead to it being a regrettable drinking sex game as it has happened in the past for some students.

Conclusion

While telling students that “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is common, they should not take the play too seriously. Students should have a balance between schoolwork and extra-curricular activities during their college days (keep in mind that video games addiction may cause academic failure) . They should participate in these games responsibly, and at the same time, they should focus on their academics.

The games are all fun, but another vital thing to remember is that no one should force you to do something you are uncomfortable with.