I grew up playing pig, then learned the spoons variety. I think I like spoons better, for I have punched myself in the face trying to pig quickly.
My family plays a game called “Famous People in a Hat” where everyone gets 10 slips of paper in which you write a name of a famous person on each, fold it up, and put it in the hat. Then you pair up. The hat is passed around from one group to the next. Each group gets a minute in which one person has to give clues as to who the person on the slip is while the other person has to guess. You go around the room like that; when it gets to a pair for the second time, the person who guesses now gives clues. You go around until you run out of names. Which ever group has the most names wins.
Hrm, for a really uncomplicated game, it sure is hard to explain. But, believe me, hilarity will ensue.
Get your players together, and hand them a pen and pieces of paper. Everyone writes down the names of three celebrities on three slips of paper. (“Celebrities” in this case refers to any person, living, dead, fictional, or real, that you have a reasonable expectation that the other players have heard of.)
All slips of paper are dumped into a hat, and the players are divided into teams of two.
In each round, one player of a team draws names from the hat and has to get the other player to guess the names; their partner only gets one guess at the name, and if they’re wrong, a new name is drawn. If they’re right, they keep the slip and immediately draw a new one. You have 60 seconds to try and get as many names correctly guessed as possible. After time is up, incorrect guess go back into the hat, and the hat is passed to the next team. This goes on until every name in the hat has been guessed, which ends the round and a team scores 1 point for every correct guess they’ve made.
On round 1, you can do anything except speak the actual name on the slip of paper.
On round 2, you may speak a single word, but make whatever gestures, pantomime, etc., you need.
At the risk of a slight hijack, that link shows way more roles than I’ve ever played with. With my friends, it’s usually just mafia members, the detective, guardian angels, and citizens. What does everyone else play with?
We play with just werewolves, the Seer, the moderator, and townsfolk. We may add a few of the more exotic ones next time, now that most of our friends have the hang of the basic version.
My family plays that game…but only while actually on a camping trip, coincidentally.
Other “guess the rules” games we play while camping:
Silly Sally: person in the know says something like “Silly Sally likes rubber…but not plastic.” Or “Silly Sally likes freezers, but not refrigerators”.
Silly Sally likes words with double letters.
The Scissors Game requires more than one person in the know, who pass around a pair of scissors, and each time they pass they say “I receive them open (or closed)…and I pass them open (or closed).”
Nothing to do with the scissors…it’s whether the speaker’s legs are crossed or uncrossed.