Guide to Hosting a Fun Game Night

fun game night

A game night can be a great excuse to get your friends together or a way to get the family bond to increase. However, it should be clarified that while fun and exciting game nights can be positive, there are snags you can run into that might leave some people in a sour mood. Provided below are several points to consider when it comes to hosting a successful game night.

Consider Your Guests

While family game nights are a matter of satisfying the family unit, game nights with friends have a wrinkle in that, not every personality may mesh well at the game table. For example, if you know some people to be hyper-competitive and super argumentative when the board games come out, you may want to offer those parties a separate game to play so that they do not upset the players who are more casual with their fun and mainly showed up to do something social with others. If you are doing something bold like holding a party for your entire dorm, complex, or neighborhood block, you will want to have multiple games available for guests to pick from and break off into table groups.

Location and Time

Location is relatively easy to figure out. If you just want to hold a family game night, it makes sense to hold it at your home. If you are inviting friends over, it is best to pick a time, date, and location that accounts for everyone’s schedules and travel distances. If you are holding the event in the evening, what with it being a game night, you may want to have your game night serve double duty as the major activity of a sleepover. Lastly, make sure you have enough space for everyone to park their cars.

Consider the Food That You Will Provide

While snacks are a given for these sorts of events, you may also want to account for a proper meal for everyone to enjoy. A proper meal can be just the thing to satisfy your players, especially if the games to be played tend to take up multiple hours to finish even a single playthrough. While this may be obvious to point out, it is still worth reminding: make sure that each of your guests’ dietary issues and observances has been taken into account: you do not want to invite several Jewish or Muslim friends over when your main dish is going to be pepperoni pizza nor offer fondue when some of your guests happen to be lactose intolerant.

Consider Your Games

If you already have a games library that accounts for a robust number of players, ages, and completion times, you probably already have a pretty good chance to satisfy everyone who will be attending. However, you should also consider some other variables that may come into play. For example, if some of your guests have difficulties using their arms, a game like Jenga, which is highly dependent upon a player’s dexterity, would be a poor choice for the night’s activities. By this same token, a game that encourages a lot of communication might be a horrible choice if any of your players happen to be nonverbal individuals. If you happen to have a diverse arrangement of friends with their quirks, you may even want to consider investing in one or more customized board games.

Abide by Good Hygiene

The world has changed since 2020 and you do not want to scare or sicken your guests. When inviting friends or even relative strangers over for a game night, consider providing disposable masks and hand sanitizer so that infection is minimized. While you could certainly just ask for everyone to provide proof of vaccination, not everyone is open to having to prevent papers to have a good time. As an aside, if you have board games that use many cards, there are dedicated sleeves you can purchase for those cards.

So if you ever wanted to host a nice game night, you now have a solid rock of ideas. Consider who you’re inviting, what they will eat, when the games will begin, the types of games to play, and make sure people can be hygienic during play.