Talking Games to Play With Friends

Talking games are very entertaining for people of all ages. They can be played during a family fun night, get-together, at a sleepover or at any party. The best part about these games is that no one is left out, everyone starts laughing and the game serves as a social ice breaker, especially when participants do not know each other that well. Playing talking games with friends enhances your friendships, helps you learn things about one another you never knew and improves your social skills. Instead of staring at a television or computer, try spending time together playing a social-enhancing game to create stronger social bonds.

Participants sit in a circle and a story starter is given to the first player. This is the beginning of a story that can be made interesting by the participants. The first person repeats the starter sentence and adds his own created sentence to the story. The second player must repeat the first sentence and add another sentence to the story. The third player repeats the first and second sentences and must make up another. The story continues in this fashion. When a player forgets a sentence in the story, he loses and must leave the story circle. The winner of the game is the player that can remember all the sentences of the growing story and who finishes the story with an ending sentence.

The famous name game is a very easy-to-understand talking game. Participants form a circle and the first person to start shouts out the name of a famous person -- for example, Johnny Depp. The next player has to state a famous person's name that starts with the following letter from the first letter in the name that was shouted out. In this case it would be a name that starts with a "K" as this is the letter that follows "J" (the starting letter for Johnny Depp.) In this example, a name such as Kate Hudson might be used. The next player would have to come up with a famous person's name that started with an "L" (the letter following "K"), and so the game continues on until a player cannot think of a famous name with the required letter. When this happens that person is “Out” and must step out of the circle and no longer participate in the game. The last person in the circle who can continue stating famous names without repeating any of the names wins.

Truth or dare is one of the most traditional talking games, and even grade-school-aged children learn to play it. All the players sit together and in unison ask the first person 'truth or dare?' If that person picks truth, the group chooses a question that the player must answer. If that person picks dare, then the group dares the person to do something. The dares can be simple activities like “Cluck like a chicken,” or “Stand on one foot for five seconds.” Keep it all in good fun and make sure the dares are not too outrageous or embarrassing.

Each player needs to write three declarations on a piece of paper. Then each person will take a turn and read their three declarations out loud. The rest of the players have to decide which of the declarations is the lie. All other players vote to decide on which is the lie and which statements are true. The player reveals the answer after the vote is declared. Keep score and see which player can hide the most lies.