There is nothing worse than an awkward silence! Often in social situations where people don’t know each other, it can be difficult to think of conversation games to help break the ice and start the conversation flowing.
Likewise, if you are hosting an event that brings people together who haven’t met before, it can be a great idea to have some conversation games in your back pocket to get everyone talking. Never feel anxious about engagement again, with our list of fun ways to get the conversation started!
1. Would you rather…
Both incredibly simple, and often hilariously funny, ‘would you rather’ can be adapted to the event or group accordingly.
Examples include:
- Would you rather have hands for feet or feet for hands?
- Would you rather be invisible or be able to fly?
2. Two truths and one lie
This is a great way to get to know new people, as well as a fun and interesting conversation game. You tell the group two truths and one lie, and then they need to try and guess which is the untruth!
The game can be as serious or silly as you like and is appropriate for the setting. For example; my real name is Sarah, I have four dogs, and I speak three fluent languages.
Alternatively, you can make this more amusing by including the most outrageous facts about yourself, and one that isn’t true!
3. Twenty questions
An old game, but definitely a great conversation game! The ‘asker’ thinks of a famous person, an object or a food type (or any other category you might like to choose), and the ‘guesser’ has twenty questions to ask to help them identify what they are thinking of.
The answers must all be yes or no, so they need to think carefully about asking the right questions. Either the guesser can be one person, or people can partner or team up – whoever guesses correctly is then the new asker.
4. Connections
This is among those great games that are easy for anybody to play and help start a conversation too. You can start with a famous person, or any object or word you think of. The next person must name one other person or object with a direct relation.
The game can also be played with first and last letters. For example, the first person thinks of a football, the next a famous football player. The person after that might name a stadium, and the next player the city in which it is located. This could swiftly move on to food the area is famous for or a landmark.
You can also play with letters; by naming a capital city or a country for example, with the next person having to name somewhere within the same category beginning with the last letter of the previous word.
5. This or that
A quick and simple conversation game, which can quickly turn into a heated debate as people start to uncover each other’s preferences!
This or that can be used for any area of life – examples of this or that questions could include:
- Dogs or cats?
- Football or rugby?
- Christmas or thanksgiving?
- Run or cycle?
- Netflix or Amazon?
- Lasagna or pizza?
6. Just a minute
Conversation games like this one are both challenging and fun! Each person takes it in turns and is given a topic to talk about by the rest of the group.
The challenge is then to speak about that topic for a minute, without any longer than a natural pause (the group can decide how long this is!). It sounds like an easy and simple game until you are given a subject to speak about which you know nothing about!
This is very funny, and everybody can take part; not only will you find out what subjects the other people know all about, but everybody is in the same boat and anybody can participate.
7. Fact or fiction
This conversation game is best played using facts plucked from the top of your head. It is meant to be a good conversation starter rather than a general knowledge test, but if you are planning an event it never hurts to have some examples ready to get things started!
Each person takes it in turns either to recite the most interesting fact they know, and the group or the next player needs to decide whether it is fact or fiction. There are all sorts of silly, unusual and interesting facts, and you can quickly find out who has a very good poker face.
8. The craziest thing…
Everyone likes telling a story, and this is another conversation game that is guaranteed to help everyone get to know one another a little better.
You can select the conversation subject, and each person takes it in turns to recite the ‘craziest thing…’.
Examples include:
- The craziest thing I have ever eaten
- The craziest thing I have ever worn
- The craziest thing I have ever seen
- The craziest place I have ever been
This is a fun game and picking a subject such as food ensures that everybody has a story to share!
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