Any camping trip can be taken to the next level of fun with some great campfire games for adults.
Whether they involve alcohol or not, don’t be afraid to get a little silly and let loose.
So be prepared to have a great time because you have discovered:
Pssst…we’ve got campfire games for adults that involve alcohol down below. Click here to jump to the drinking games section. Otherwise, any of these games can become a drinking game if you just make a person drink when they lose!
1) Word Association
Players: 2 or more
One player starts by saying a word – any word. The next player has to quickly (within about two seconds) say a word that is related to the first word but doesn’t contain any part of the first word. For example, if the first person said “camping” and the second person say “campfire”, this doesn’t count because they both contain “camp”.
A player is out (or has to drink if you want to make it a drinking game) if he/she takes too long, repeats a word that’s already been used, or says a word that contains part of the previous word (for example, camping and campfire).
Feel free to make this adult themed by starting out with an adult word like “foreplay”
2) Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon
Players: 2 or more
This game is most fun for movie buffs. Supposedly every famous actor in Hollywood can be linked to Kevin Bacon with 6 degrees of separation or less.
The first player starts by naming a famous actor/actress. The next player has to link that actor/actress to someone they have worked with until they get to Kevin Bacon in six links or less.
For example, if the starting actress is Jennifer Lawrence, you can say she was in The Burning Plain with Charlize Theron, who was in Trapped with Kevin Bacon. That’s just two degrees of separation.
3) Whistling Crackers
Requires: Crackers or some similar kind of snack
Players: 3 or more
Each person gets 3 crackers and has to stuff all 3 in their mouth at the same time when the game starts. The first person to whistle wins!
Note – if you don’t have crackers, you can substitute pretty much anything but it’s more fun if it’s something that dries out your mouth and makes it hard to whistle. Also, you can put toppings on the crackers for an added layer of fun.
4) Name the Song
Players: 2 or more
Instruments are allowed but not required. One person sings, hums, or plays a small section of a song. The other player(s) have to guess what song it is. How much fun this game is depends on how challenging the song is to identify. Don’t pick anything too easy…or too hard!
5) I Can Tap This Stick Just Right
Requires: A stick (or something else that you can use to tap)
Players: 4 or more
One person knows how the game is played – so don’t read these instructions out loud to everyone! If you’re the person who knows, you have the stick and start by saying “I can tap this stick just right” then clear your throat. It’s very important to clear your throat first, then tap the stick on the ground or a rock any way you want.
After your turn, pass the stick to the right and the next person has to try to imitate you. They probably won’t clear their throat first, they will be trying to tap the stick just like you did. But unless they clear their throat before they start tapping the stick, you get to tell them they did it wrong and their turn is over. Keep passing the stick around and when it gets to you, you can demonstrate again. If no one gets it, you might want to clear your throat a little louder with a big “Ahem!”
This game gets more fun when a few people start catching on and clearing their throats louder and louder. The last one to figure out the secret loses!
6) Five Facts from Today
Players: 2 or more
Each player must list five facts from their day – for example “Today I drove out here” or “today I drank a cup of coffee”. Keep going around until you can’t remember any more facts from your day!
7) Staring Contest (no laughing!)
Players: 2 (at a time)
Stare intensely into each other’s eyes. Blinking is allowed but smiling or laughing is not. You may make gestures with your hands and your friends can dance or do whatever they want in the background but no contact or touching is allowed. First person to smile or laugh loses.
8) Truth or Dare
Players: 2 or more
The ultimate classic. And it’s not just for teen sleepovers – this can be one of the best campfire games for adults if you’re willing to give it a shot.
It’s best to agree on a penalty for not completing the challenge before you start. It should be pretty harsh so players will want to complete their turns.
When it’s your turn, someone asks you “Truth or Dare?”. You have to choose one. If you choose truth, they can ask you any question they want and you must answer 100% truthfully. If you choose dare, they can dare you to do anything (within reason).
Don’t forget – you must pay the agreed upon penalty when you absolutely cannot complete the dare or just can’t tell the truth about that!
9) Twenty Questions
Players: 2-6
Great game for the car or campfire because it’s entirely verbal!
One player picks a thing (any person, object, animal, etc.) and doesn’t tell anybody what it is. The other players have 20 yes or no questions to guess what it is, including the final question which should be “Is it X?” (where X is the correct thing)
Remember, the questions have to be answerable by either a Yes or a No. For example, you CANNOT ask “What color is it?” but you can ask “Is it red?”
10) Assassin (a.k.a. Gotcha)
Players: 6 or more but more is better
This is one of my favorite campfire games for adults!
One person gets designated as the neutral moderator called “Mr. Green”. Mr. Green chooses who is the assassin and lets the assassin know it discreetly. This can be accomplished by whispering in each person’s ear, one at a time, either “you are a player” or “you are the assassin”. That way no one knows who is the assassin, they only know their own role.
After the assassin is designated, everyone goes and mingles with each other – this can be one on one or in small groups but it’s important that everyone makes eye contact as they talk to each other. The assassin “kills” someone of their choice by winking at them when they make eye contact. After the assassin has walked away and gone to talk to someone else, the killed person acts out a dramatic death.
If you think you know who the assassin is, you can accuse that person but be careful! If you’re wrong, you die. The game is over when the assassin is correctly accused or it’s just the assassin and one other person left. A good assassin will be the person you least expect…could even be your best friend.
11) Who’s Afraid of the Dark?
Players: 2 or more
This is the scariest of the campfire games for adults. It’s essentially hide and seek for adults, but the goal is not for the seeker to find the person hiding, the goal is for the hider to scare the living bajesus out of the seeker! Choose to play with or without flashlights (depending on how brave you are!)
Disclamer: OutMoreUSA.com does not advocate running through the forest in the dark and is not responsible for any injuries that may occur when playing this game or any other game.
12) Mafia (a.k.a. Werewolf)
Requires: a deck of cards
Players: 6-16
Mafia is extremely fun but by far the most complicated campfire games for adults. As such, I will direct you to the full instructions and not write them out here.
Click here to get the full instructions for mafia.
13) Telephone
Players: 6 or more
This is a classic game you may already be familiar with but don’t forget how much fun it can be…even for adults!
Everyone stands in a line or circle, just far away enough from each other that they can’t hear something whispered into the next person’s ears. The first person comes up with a phrase, sentence, or question and whispers it to the next person. That person whispers to the next and so on and so on until the last person repeats the phrase out loud for everyone to hear and the first person repeats the original phrase. It has no doubt been morphed into something hilarious!
Good Phrases for Telephone
You can use whatever phrase, sentence, or question you want but here are some ideas to get you going:
- A guppy in a shark tank
- Candy crunching coconut lovers
- I’d love eating toasted cheese and tuna sandwiches.
- The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog and says hello to the cat.
- A dog named Moose ran loose through the spruce forest chasing a goose.
- Jokers, jesters, and jugglers jingled, jumped, and jigged for the King of Jordan.
Variation of Telephone
For Large Groups – If you have a very large group, you can split them up into smaller groups of 6-12. Pick one representative from the group to start and take them away from their groups to give them the starting phrase. Each group will then complete their own game of telephone using the same phrase and at the end, everyone gets to hear the different phrases that come out of each group! The group with the phrase most similar to the starting phrase wins.
Rumors – a fun variation on the game of telephone is to allow each person to purposefully change one or two words in the phrase that they heard. They can’t change the phrase completely but if they are clever and change to something similar to the original, hilarity may ensue!
For Kids – it might be too difficult for younger kids to repeat long, complicated sentences. Instead, try single words that are kind of long like anticipation, proposition, incredible, or courageous.
14) Fruits
Players: 5 or more
All players decide on one fruit for themselves (can be any fruit). When it’s your turn, say another player’s fruit three times before they can say it once.
If you want to turn it in to a drinking game: you drink if someone says your fruit three times before you say it once, or you drink on your turn if you fail to say someone else’s fruit three times before they say it once.
After a few rounds, everyone can switch fruits to keep the game fresh.
Campfire Games for Adults: Drinking Games
15) Sticks and Bottles
Requires: a frisbee, two sticks or poles, and two beer bottles
Players: 2 or more (more is better)
The bottles should be able to sit on top of the sticks or poles so you might need some thick sticks if trying to use those. Stand the two sticks up by digging little holes and burying them or hammering them into the ground about 20 feet apart. Carefully balance a beer bottle on each one.
Divide into two teams and each team stands by one of the poles. Each team takes turns throwing the frisbee at the opposite bottle, trying to knock it off. You get 3 points for hitting the bottle and knocking it off and two points if you hit the stick and knock the bottle off. BUT the opposing team can get one defensive point if they catch the bottle before it hits the ground.
16) The Alphabet Game – Drinking Version
Players: 2 or more
Start by choosing a broad theme, for example TV shows. The first person names a TV show starting with the letter A, like American Dad. The next person has to repeat that show and add one starting with B, so they could say “American Dad, the Bachelorette”. The next person has to repeat the first two and add one starting with C, and so on and so on.
Once someone forgets an item on the list, they have to take a drink and their turn is over. Keep going around until no one can complete the list or you get to Z (you won’t get that far, haha).
17) True Story
Requires: One Dice
On your turn, roll the dice in a hidden location so no one can see it but you. If it’s an even number, you have to tell a true story about yourself. If it’s an odd number, you have to make up a story. Each of the other players has to guess whether the story is true or false. Those who get it wrong, have to drink. If everyone can tell correctly that it’s true or a lie, YOU drink!
Fun Twist: The person to your right gets to choose the topic of the story.
Fun Twist #2: Everyone chooses a topic for the stories beforehand and you put them all in a hat. You have to pull a topic from the hat when it’s your turn for your story.
18) Never Have I Ever
Players: 2 or more
This classic drinking game is perfect for the campfire and a great way to really get to know your camping mates!
One person starts by saying “Never have I ever…” and then says something they have never done (for example, “Never have I ever been to Las Vegas”).
If you have done the thing (for example, you have been to Las Vegas), you take a drink. It’s fun to see who drinks and who doesn’t.
Word of caution: this game can get personal real quick!
19) G’day Bruce
Players: 3 or more
This is one of those campfire games for adults that seems easy…until you play. This one is all about sequence and it’s easy to screw it up so pay attention!
Players stand in a circle and everyone in the beginning is named Bruce. The first player turns to the second player (can go either direction) and says in their best Aussie accent “G’day Bruce”. The second player must respond with “G’day Bruce”. The first player then suggests to the second player “Say g’day to Bruce, Bruce”. The second player then turns to the third and the goes through the same sequence of “G’day Bruce”, response, suggest saying G’day to the next player.
Pretty simple right? It’s harder than it sounds and only gets more complicated.
If this exact sequence is messed up in any way, the person who made the mistake takes a big drink and is now named “Sheila”. Everyone must address or refer to this person (male or female) as Sheila in the sequences. So if there is a “Sheila” two people ahead of you, don’t forget to suggest “Say g’day to Sheila, Bruce” to the next person when it’s you’re turn.
Once the name Sheila is taken, the next people to make mistakes are named Wombat, Kangaroo, and Crocodile. The last person to remain “Bruce” wins!
20) If You Know What I Mean
Players: 3 or more
One player chooses a scene for two or more of the other players to act out. For example, you’re two waiters in a fancy restaurant. You can try out different numbers of actors to see what’s most fun.
The actors take turn saying lines in a conversation relevant to that scene, but each line ends in “if you know what I mean” AND should have a sexual innuendo (be generous and use your imagination). For example, if you’re two waiters you can say “I wouldn’t mind taking her order, if you know what I mean!”
The first person to run out of things to say or says something that cannot be construed as sexual has to drink.
21) 21
Players: 3 or more
Players stand in a circle and one person starts by choosing the direction the game will go (left or right). They start by saying “1” and the next person proceeds with “2”, then the next player says “3”, etc.
This is where it gets tricky: each person can choose to say one, two, or three of the next numbers in order (they must keep the order).
If only one number is spoken, the play continues in the same direction. If two numbers are spoken, the play reverses directions. And if three numbers are spoken, the play continues in the same direction but skips a person.
Remember, the numbers still have to be spoken in sequence (1,2,3,4, etc.). A player who speaks out of turn or hesitates too long not knowing it is their turn has to drink and then starts the next round.
For example, you have four players standing in this order: players A, B, C and D. Player A starts by saying “one”, then player B says “two”, but then player C decides to get tricky says “three, four”. At this point, the play should change directions and player B should continue at “five”. If player B hesitates too long they drink and if player D says anything, they drink.
It’s harder the faster you go and the more you’ve had to drink!
Final Thoughts
Campfire games for adults can turn a normal evening around the fire into a raucous night full of memories. If you didn’t find a game here that you love, there’s probably not a game out there for you. Please drink responsibly if you try any of these drinking games but have a ton of fun!
Headed out with a group and want to impress with an amazing dinner? You’ve got to try this Garlic Butter Shrimp and Veggie Foil Dinner
Headed to the beach for a camping trip? Check out The 19 Best Beach Camping Tips, Tricks, and Hacks for an Awesome Trip
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