1. Sit in a circle. Pick a starting player and a direction, clockwise.
2. The starting player says "fuzzy duck." The next player says "fuzzy duck." It goes around exactly like that.
3. On your turn, instead of the phrase, you may say "does he?" That reverses the direction of play and changes the phrase to "ducky fuzz."
4. Play now continues the other way with every player saying "ducky fuzz" until someone says "does he?" again, which reverses direction and switches the phrase back to "fuzzy duck."
5. You cannot reverse a reversal. If the player before you just said "does he?", you must say the phrase.
6. Say the wrong phrase, mangle it, hesitate more than about two seconds, or reverse when you are not allowed to, and you take one sip. Then restart from the player who fumbled.
7. Sober version: three fumbles and you are out of the round, last player standing wins. It runs better than the drinking version and everybody knows it.
8. Anyone may pass on a sip or sit out a round without explaining, and nobody asks.

House rule: Bitch Love rule: laugh at your own fumble and you start the next round, first word, whole table watching. Nobody has ever survived that with their dignity.

1. One player is the Wordmaster. They pick a real word, no proper nouns, at least six letters, and announce only its first letter.
2. Everyone else is a Guesser. A Guesser who thinks of any word starting with the revealed letters gives a clue for that word out loud. Describe it, never say it.
3. Any other Guesser who thinks they have identified the clued word says "contact."
4. The Wordmaster then has ten seconds to block by naming the clued word out loud. If the Wordmaster gets it, the clue is dead and play moves on.
5. If the Wordmaster fails to block, the two Guessers count down from three and say their word at the same time. Same word and the Wordmaster reveals the next letter of the secret word. Different words and nothing happens, so someone else clues.
6. Guessers win the moment anyone names the secret word outright. If the room stalls for ten minutes with no new letter, the Wordmaster wins and picks again.
7. Whoever cracks the word takes the Wordmaster chair for the next round.
8. No drinking in this one. It is scored on ego alone, which is enough.

House rule: If two Guessers connect on a word the Wordmaster has never heard of, the Wordmaster reveals two letters instead of one and takes the loss quietly.

1. Pick a Wordmaster. They think of a word, keep it to themselves, and announce only the first letter.
2. Anyone else who thinks of a word starting with that letter gives a clue for it out loud, without saying the word. Example, for D: "Is it something a bartender does at closing?"
3. If another guesser thinks they have the same word, they say "Contact." The two of them count down from three and say their word at the same time.
4. The Wordmaster can break a contact by naming the clued word before the count reaches zero. If they do, the clue is dead and play moves on.
5. If the contact survives and both guessers say the same word, the Wordmaster must reveal the next letter of the secret word.
6. Keep going, letter by letter. A guesser can also just name the whole word at any point and end the round.
7. Rotate the Wordmaster each round. Someone who never gets a word out has still contributed by heckling.
8. Drinking is optional: the Wordmaster takes a sip each time a letter is pried loose, capped at three sips per round. Play it dry with water, soda, or coffee and the game is exactly as good.

House rule: A clue may reference someone at the table only if it is true and they would happily repeat it in public. Anyone referenced sits out the clue-giving for that round and is allowed to look smug about it.

1. The Dealer finds an obscure word in the dictionary, says it aloud, and spells it. If anyone already knows it, pick another word.
2. Everyone else writes a fake definition on a slip. The Dealer copies the real one, shortened to about the same length and tone so it does not stand out.
3. The Dealer collects the slips, shuffles them, and reads every definition aloud in a flat voice. No performing.
4. Going around the table, each player votes for the definition they think is real. You cannot vote for your own.
5. Score it: one point to a writer for each vote their fake collects, two points to anyone who picks the real definition, three points to the Dealer if nobody finds it.
6. Pass the dictionary left and play again. First to 10 points wins.
7. Drinking is optional: take a sip when you vote for a lie, one sip maximum per round. Non-drinkers keep the same rule with anything in a glass, and the scoring is unchanged either way.

House rule: Any definition that makes the whole table laugh is retired to a running list on the back of a napkin. At the end of the night the list gets read out as a single dictionary entry and the author has to defend it.

1. Before you start, everyone writes three topics on scraps and folds them into a hat. "My worst job." "Pigeons." "The correct way to load a dishwasher."
2. Pick a Chairperson for the round. They hold the timer, they rule on challenges, and they do not speak on a topic while chairing.
3. A player draws a topic and talks for sixty seconds without hesitation, repetition of any significant word, or deviation from the topic. Words in the topic itself may be repeated freely.
4. Anyone may challenge mid-speech by knocking on the table and naming the offense. The Chairperson rules on it, fast. If the challenge stands, the challenger takes the topic and whatever time is left. If it does not, the speaker carries on.
5. One point per upheld challenge, and one point to whoever is talking when the timer runs out.
6. Rotate the Chairperson every round so nobody builds a grudge. Play five rounds, or until someone gets ugly about the dishwasher.
7. Drinking is optional: a sip for the speaker each time a challenge is upheld against them, one sip maximum per round. It plays exactly the same with a soft drink and no one will notice.

House rule: The Chairperson's ruling is final and does not have to be fair. The Chairperson may also ban one word for the entire round, chosen after the topic is drawn.

1. Sit in a circle. The first player says any letter. Each player after adds one letter to the end of the string.
2. You are building toward a real word of four letters or more, and you are trying not to be the one who completes it. Proper nouns do not count.
3. Complete a word of four or more letters and you lose the round.
4. You may add a letter with nothing in mind. That is allowed and encouraged, but it leaves you exposed.
5. Any player may challenge the person who just went. The challenged player has to name a real word the current string can still become. If they cannot, they lose the round. If they can, the challenger loses it.
6. Whoever loses a round takes a letter: G, then H, then O, S, T. Spell GHOST and you are out, though you keep refereeing and heckling.
7. Last player standing wins. The phone settles any dispute and the phone is never wrong.
8. Drinking is optional: one sip when you take a letter, which is five sips across an entire game at most. With water or a soft drink the game is identical, because the pressure was never coming from the alcohol.

House rule: Anyone who is out has to read every remaining string aloud in the voice of a late-night radio host. The voice does not change once chosen, no matter how long the game runs.

1. Pick two suspects. Anyone can decline and nobody has to explain why. The rest are detectives.
2. The detectives name a fictional, petty crime. "Who took the last of the lemons." "Who put a fork in the microwave." Never anything a real person at the table actually did.
3. The suspects leave the room for three minutes and build a full alibi together: where they were, who they were with, what they ate, what was on the radio, who paid.
4. While they are gone, the detectives write ten questions. Detail questions beat clever ones. "Which of you sat facing the door."
5. Bring one suspect back and ask all ten. Then swap, with the first suspect out of earshot, and ask the exact same ten in the same order.
6. Compare the answers. Each contradiction is one point to the detectives. Four points convicts.
7. Convicted or not, the suspects pick the next pair. Play until the questions get too good.
8. Drinking is optional: the suspects take a sip for each contradiction, capped at two per round. It runs the same on soda, and sober suspects tell a much better story, which is the entire point.

House rule: The detectives get one Reasonable Doubt token per night. Spend it and a convicted suspect walks free, but the person who spent it has to explain the alternative theory of the crime in full, out loud, without laughing.