I’ll be spending a few days on the road with one other person. One of us will always be driving, so we can’t do anything that involves hands or extended visual attention. So we’re looking for ideas for games that can be played verbally.
Open to any ideas.
I like the song game:
One player picks a theme or a word (blue, weather, love, etc.) and then everyone rotates, naming songs that fit the category. When the well runs dry, move on.
You can also play the alphabet game: one player picks a category and then you try and come up with things that fit the category in letter order.
Animal, vegetable, mineral
Who am I
The car colour game (each person picks a car colour then someone keeps a tally of cars that go by in that same colour)
Or our personal favourite: name that domestic appliance.
Our car trips are hilarious, as you can tell.
My wife and I will each name an actor or actress at random, and then think of movies in which the first actor co-starred with another actor, and that actor co-starred with someone else, and so on until we arrive at the second actor. Whoever comes up with the shortest (or sometimes longest) chain is the big winner.
For instance, Wesley Snipes and Cary Elwes: Wesley Snipes starred with Charlie Sheen in “Major League,” and Charlie Sheen starred with Cary Elwes in “Hot Shots!”
My friend and I like to take the game “Mind Trap” with us on long trips.
Our favorite family road game was “Cows.”
One group would watch the left side of the road and count the number of cows passed on that side. The other group watched to the right. Whoever had the most cows at the end of trip would win. However, if you passed a cemetery, the team with the cows from the same side of the road as the cemetery would have to “bury” all their cows and start over. The real fun was trying to distract other players on a long ride so they would either miss their cows or your cemetery.
Out of state plates
Slug Bug
Twenty Questions.
Name That Tune, played with a radio or CD player.
Not as fun as it used to be. Too rare to see one nowadays.
I’m very fond of that one.
When we play it, we divide the car into teams of 2+ players. When it’s a team’s turn, one player gets a set amount of time to hum or sing the song related to the theme word and the others have to name it and the band/artist that wrote it.
If they can, the game goes on; if they can’t the opposing teams score one point and a new theme word is chosen.
Be aware that you’ll be smacking yourself in the forehead repeatedly in the days/weeks that follow a game. “Of course ! Blue Moon ! Why didn’t I think of Blue Moon ! It’s on my playlist and everything !”
There’s always te license plate game.
Double blind chess
Good game from Doug Benson, Build-A-Title
Start with a move title, and then build off of it using other movie titles, going back and forth.
So it might go
Godfather
Godfather of the Bride
Godfather of the Bride of Frankenstein
City of Godfather of the Bride of Frankenstein
And so on, until someone can’t continue, and they lose. The fun part is, as long as it’s pronounced the same (or close) you can use parts of the word. So Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and become Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Ventura Pet Detective