Fact Frenzy Chances Are

by Ian Strife
(Hanover, PA, York Country)

If you've ever been to a get together or a gathering with multiple people that didn't know each other or weren't close, you've seen what the effects can be.

A group of people unfamiliar with each other can quickly turn to awkward silences and an early end to your social event. A good ice breaking game can be the answer to this problem, however.

Any special game that brings others together while helping them learn about each other turns an awkward, stilted party into a time that anyone and everyone will enjoy. There are many games that can fit this description, but Fact Frenzy is one such game.

Fact Frenzy is a simple game that can spice any get together up and last for hours. To start, every participant takes a sheet of paper and writes ten facts about themselves onto it.

Once this is finished, the next step is to pass the papers out and make sure that nobody receives their own back.

Each player will memorize their facts and then speak to the other players. Your goal is to find each person that wrote down their page, and in turn, receive your own page back.

Through asking questions and speaking to others, you can judge who the owner of each page was. You may not directly ask anyone if the paper you hold is theirs. But through questioning, you can determine it and find the answers.

Once this game is through, you'll have a room of people that enjoy each other’s company and know each other more closely. For another version of this game to play, you can cut the facts up into ten separate pieces.

This can extend the game and give each player ten times the amount of talking and searching to do. This way, the game can form an even stronger bond.

Icebreaker Game - Adjectivervention

by Sarah
(Nashville, TN, USA)

Adjectivervention Needed: Small object that can fit in palm of hand, music that can be started and stopped on something such as an MP3 player. At least three people. A person is “it”. They face a wall (or at least do not face towards the circle).

Everyone else sits in a circle on the floor. They have an object (small enough to hold in the palm of their hand such as a ball, key, poker chip, game piece etc.) to pass around.

The “it” person plays a song on their mp3 player or boom box. Everyone else passes the object around quickly. Then the “it” person stops the music and immediately turns around to face the circle. But, before the “it” person turns around, everyone puts their hands behind their backs quickly (this includes the person with the object).

The “it” person tries to guess who has the object. He/she guesses one time and the guessed person brings their hands in front of them showing if they had the object or not. If the person guessed has the object, then the “it” person and person guessed get a pass for that round.

The “it” person then gets to pick anyone in the circle to be it next (but the person with the object because they have immunity). If the person guessed does not have the object then Adjectivervention is in play.

The person in the circle gets to ask the “it” person a question. For example they may say: Name a time something embarrassing happened. The “it” person must answer the question.

The fun part of the game is that “embarrassing” is only one of many words the person can come up with to fill in the blank. For example, someone may ask Name a time something intelligent, funny, happy, distinctive, creative, musical, intense etc. happened.

The person who asked the question then switches places with the “it” person. The game repeats several times until each person has been “it” one time.

Question ball

(Photo from geralt via Pixabay)
Question ball is a great icebreaker game to introduce large groups of people to each other who are just meeting for the first time. The idea is to take a ball – like a beach ball or lightweight soccer ball, and write different questions in each spot or section of it.

Questions can range from simple things like, “Where did you grow up?” to fun things like your favorite ice cream flavor or “If you were animal, which one would you be?”

After the questions are written on the ball, the group would sit around in a circle. Someone would throw the ball to a member of the group and wherever their hand caught the ball would determine the question they’d answer.

Then that person would throw the ball to another in the group until everyone has answered a random question. This game is a lot of fun because the questions aren’t known before and everyone gets a chance to play.

It’s a way to find out really unique facts about one another and takes out the more boring introductions of large groups that often consist of, “Tell us your name, where you’re from, and one thing about yourself.”

If anyone else out there is like me, then you know that the hardest time to come up with something interesting about yourself is when you’re put on the spot! I sometimes will get nervous and say, “Ummm… my name is Mary, I’m from Wisconsin, and my favorite color is blue.”

That’s hardly interesting at all and tells very little about me! Question ball eliminates that and can make people laugh. It might spark conversation, such as asking someone WHY they would choose to be a certain animal, or say the question was about travel, “What did you do while you were in France? Do you have family there? What did you like most about your trip?”

The possibilities are endless! Overall, Question ball is a great game to play at parties because it’s different, helps people feel more relaxed when meeting for the first time and can open up conversation for people to get to know each other better.

I recommend it to anyone looking to liven up a team meeting or party!

The Pillow Game

(Photo from ndanger)
Everyone sits in a circle. Going around the circle, everyone introduces themselves by saying their names and an adjective that starts with the same letter.

For example, a person named Andy could say, “Adventurous Andy.” Once everyone has made the introductions, a volunteer stands in the center with a pillow. Someone calls out another person's name and adjective.

The person in the middle makes a beeline in that person's direction. To prevent being hit with the pillow, that person must call out another name and adjective. The person in the middle changes directions and then attempts to hit the new target with the pillow.

This continues until the person being charged at is unable to come up with someone else's name and adjective before being hit with the pillow. When this happens, that person will stand up, take the pillow, and go to the middle.

The person previously in the middle will sit down in the circle. This activity shall be repeated until everyone has had a chance to go into the middle. By the end of that, everyone will certainly know each other's names.

Another good activity is Would You Rather. In this game, each person has a chance to present two scenarios, usually choosing ones that are particularly undesirable. The others in the game each share which scenario they would choose and why.

This can be repeated as long as it remains fun, making sure everyone gets to present a scenario. Another version of this involves picturing the perfect person to be with, but he or she has one fatal flaw.

The object is to see how glaring a flaw one could overlook to be with a person who is otherwise perfect. These are good games for people teenage and up, whereas the pillow game could be played by anyone older than four or five.

Icebreaker Game Breaker Ball

by James Smith
(Orange Beach, Alabama, USA)

(Photo from Andrew Malone)
I call my icebreaker, breaker ball. It is not super detailed and only requires a small amount of time to prepare.

The game starts with a regular beach volleyball. You can use a mini/smaller ball due to being inside. Grab a sharpie and write different questions on the ball (or wait until everyone gets there and let them choose).

Now if this is an adult party you can add different drinking games or rules the person has to follow until someone else lets them off or you set a short time limit.

Some of the things I use are:

• beer or wine?


• chocolate or vanilla?


• Doggie or missionary?
  Beach or mountains?


• Mac or PC?


• Hometown?


• Longest relationship?


• Favorite food?


• Favorite football team?


• Coke or Pepsi?

The games or rules could be but not limited to no cursing, no use of proper names, no pointing, Woman have to drink, Men have to drink, double tap your drink every time you take a swig or face finishing.

Whatever game or question you can think of will do. You could even have 2 balls throwing around one with questions and one with games/rules. It really is up to you and your guests.

Anyways once all the things you want on the ball are written down, you throw it at somebody for them to catch. Where ever a specified finger lands, that is the questions they have to answer or action they have to do.

I usually chose the right thumb. I usually do this with groups of friends from my side and my wife's side who do not know each other well. This allows them to get to know each other, have a few drinks, and have fun while doing it.

My name is James Smith and my wife is Mary Smith. We play this game in Orange Beach, Alabama especially on beach party nights.