Pen And Paper Games: 18 For A Waiting Room Or A Rainy Day

A pen and the back of an envelope is a full games cupboard. These get you through a train delay, a waiting room, a restaurant with slow service or a power cut.

Rules included, because half of these are played slightly wrong by everyone.

Two-player classics

• Boxes (dots and boxes): a grid of dots, players take turns drawing one line between two adjacent dots. Complete a square and you write your initial in it and go again. Most boxes wins. The chain strategy is where it gets genuinely clever.
• Battleships: two 10x10 grids each, one for your fleet and one for your shots. Ships of 5, 4, 3, 3 and 2 squares, placed straight, no diagonals. Call coordinates in turn, hit or miss, sink all five to win.
• Sprouts: start with a few dots. Draw a line between two dots (or a dot to itself) and place a new dot on it. No line may cross another, and no dot may have more than three lines. Last player able to move wins.
• Noughts and crosses, and its better big brother Gomoku - five in a row on a large grid.
• Racetrack: draw a track, move a dot by vector each turn, crash and you lose turns. Brilliant and almost forgotten.

Group games on paper

• Consequences: everyone writes a line - a man's name, a woman's name, where they met, what he said, what she said, what happened next, what the world said - folding the paper each time and passing it on. Read them all out at the end.
• Picture consequences: draw a head, fold, pass, draw a body, fold, pass, draw the legs.
• Categories (also Scattergories): a random letter, then everyone fills in a grid of categories - country, food, animal, name, film. Unique answers score, duplicates don't.
• Fortunately unfortunately, written down.
• The story chain, one line each on a passed sheet.

Better than hangman

• Word ladder: turn one word into another, changing one letter at a time, each step a real word.
• Word squares: fill a 5x5 grid so it reads as words across and down.
• Wordle on paper - one person picks a five-letter word and marks each guess with ticks and circles.
• Ghost: build a word letter by letter without completing one. Whoever finishes a word gets a letter of G-H-O-S-T.
• Anagram duels: swap ten-letter words, most real words found in two minutes wins.
• If you do play hangman, draw a snowman or a flower instead of a gallows - which is what most schools do now, and it's not a bad instinct.

Drawing games

• Squiggle: one person draws a random squiggle, the other has to turn it into something.
• Blind portraits - draw the person opposite without looking at the paper.
• Pictionary with a written word list.
• Exquisite corpse, which is picture consequences with a better name.
• The one-line drawing challenge: never lift the pen.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• Squared paper makes boxes and battleships far easier.
• Consequences is the one to teach a whole table.
• Keep a pen in the bag. It's a full games cupboard.

Where to shop next

• Traditional British party games explained
• Victorian and vintage parlour games
• Church hall and village fete games
• Wartime and 1950s party games
• Irish, Scottish and Welsh party games
• Seaside and beach games
• Clapping games and skipping rhymes
• Card games your nan taught you
• Dice games explained
• Playground games we all played
• Board games hub
• Kids' party games by age
• Nostalgic quiz questions
• Free feel good tools
• Shop cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What are the rules of boxes or dots and boxes?

Draw a grid of dots. Players alternately draw one horizontal or vertical line between two adjacent dots. Completing a square wins it - write your initial inside and take another turn immediately. Most squares wins.

How do you play battleships on paper?

Each player draws two 10x10 grids and places ships of 5, 4, 3, 3 and 2 squares on the first, straight and without diagonals. Take turns calling coordinates; your opponent says hit or miss and you track shots on the second grid. Sink all five ships to win.

How do you play consequences?

Each person writes one line of a story on a sheet - a man's name, a woman's name, where they met, what he said, what she said, what happened, what the world said - folding the paper over and passing it on each time. Unfold and read them out at the end.

What can you play instead of hangman?

Word ladders, Ghost, paper Wordle and anagram duels all use the same word skills. If you want the drawing element, draw a snowman or a flower a piece at a time instead of a gallows.

What is sprouts?

Start with a few dots. Each turn, draw a curve joining two dots, or a dot to itself, and add a new dot on that line. Lines can't cross and no dot may have more than three lines running into it. The last player able to make a legal move wins.

Do you sell games?

No - we make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. Every game here needs a pack of cards, some dice, a pencil or nothing at all, and the only products on this page are our own cards.