The best after-dinner games are those that suit the mood at each stage of the evening. Conversation cards work well while guests are still eating, while Two Truths and a Lie is perfect once everyone has settled in. Celebrity trivia and Kiss, Marry, Kill — one of the many party games explained on gamerules, are ideal when the wine and conversation are flowing. Who Am I? makes an energetic finale, encouraging everyone to leave their seats before the evening draws to a close.
Most guides give you a list of forty games and tell you to start playing. In reality, timing is everything, which is why the games below appear in a carefully considered order.
Why the running order matters more than the games themselves
A game that is brilliant at 11pm may feel painfully slow at 8.30pm. Similarly, an activity that works well once people have been chatting for twenty minutes can fall flat among guests who have only just met. A game involving plenty of movement is also unlikely to be welcomed immediately after the main course.
The best approach is to build momentum gradually. Start with something that requires minimal effort and almost no explanation. Then move on to a game that encourages guests to tease, question and learn more about one another. Finish with something that gets everyone out of their seats.
The secret is to stop while people are still enjoying themselves and before anyone notices that the evening is nearly over.
Try to keep each game to a single round instead of continuing until everyone loses interest. For a group of six to eight people, twenty minutes per game is usually enough.
Conversation cards: the opener that does not feel like a game
Conversation cards are an ideal starting point because they demand very little from the guests. One person reads a question, someone answers, and the rest of the table joins in. There are no winners or losers, making them especially suitable for people who are still getting to know one another.
TableTopics Original is a reliable choice for a mixed group. It contains 135 questions in a compact cube that can be placed in the middle of the table, with prompts covering subjects such as whether you would rather age forwards or backwards from your current point in life. A dedicated Dinner Party Edition is also available.
We’re Not Really Strangers goes deeper and controls the pace particularly well. Created by Koreen Odiney, the original set contains 150 cards divided into three levels — Perception, Connection and Reflection — alongside wild cards, a notepad and pencils. It works best with two to six players.
The three-level format makes it easy to manage the tone of the conversation. You can remain at Level 1 when playing with guests who do not yet know one another well, then move forward once the table feels ready. For something slower and more reflective, The School of Life’s 100 Questions is a good choice for a small group interested in debating ideas.
One final tip: place the conversation cards on the table at the beginning of the meal rather than producing them only when the conversation starts to fade. A game introduced as a last resort will almost always feel like one.
Two Truths and a Lie: the first proper game of the evening
Two Truths and a Lie requires no preparation, making it an excellent game to play immediately after the main course, when nobody is particularly keen to move.
Each player shares three statements about themselves. Two must be true and one must be false. The rest of the table then votes on which statement they believe is the lie. Once the answer has been revealed, the next person takes their turn.
What hosts often forget is that the discussion can be more entertaining than the guessing itself. Encourage guests to ask follow-up questions about the two true statements after the lie has been revealed. This will often produce a more interesting conversation than the game alone.
That is the real purpose of a good dinner party game: to create talking points that have nothing to do with work or small talk.
For a more experienced group, introduce a theme to make the game more challenging. You might ask everyone to base their statements on holidays, food or childhood experiences, preventing guests from relying on the same familiar party anecdotes.
Celebrity trivia: the game that resets the energy
By this point in the evening, the table should be warmed up and ready for a game that allows guests to show off their knowledge. Celebrity trivia works particularly well because its range of subjects gives almost everyone an opportunity to contribute.
Play it as a quick-fire round rather than a full-scale quiz. Prepare twenty questions, divide the guests into teams of two or three, provide paper for their answers and enforce a strict no-phones rule.
Use a mixture of categories so that different generations and interests are represented. You might include one round each on music, film, sport and celebrity gossip.
Keep the scoring relaxed. Announce the winning team, raise a toast and move on. A short trivia game that turns into a forty-minute dispute over the leaderboard will quickly drain the energy from the room.
Kiss, Marry, Kill: how to play without ruining the mood
Kiss, Marry, Kill marks the point at which the conversation can move from polite to playful. It is also the game most likely to go wrong if it is not handled carefully.
The rules are simple. One player names three real or fictional people. Another player must decide which person they would kiss, which they would marry and which they would kill. They can then explain their reasoning.
The explanations are usually more entertaining than the choices themselves. There is no scoring, and the game can end once everyone has had a turn. For more information about the rules, prompts and possible variations, this guide to playing Kiss, Marry, Kill explores the game in greater detail.
Several variations can make the game feel less awkward. The easiest way to soften it is to replace “kill” with “ghost”, borrowing a term from modern dating culture. Alternatively, use “hug, roast and block”.
Another option is “adopt, evict and befriend”, which removes the romantic element entirely and is more suitable for families, colleagues or mixed groups.
The most useful variations are those that prevent the game from becoming uncomfortably personal. Three rules should help.
First, do not choose anyone in the room or name a guest’s partner, former partner or colleague. Secondly, select names from a specific category, such as historical figures, film villains or 1990s pop stars, rather than choosing people at random. Finally, give every player one free pass so that nobody feels pressured to answer or explain a choice.
These boundaries keep the game within everyone’s comfort zone. A player who feels trapped or embarrassed is likely to withdraw from the game altogether.
If you are playing with a mixed group and are unsure what everyone will find acceptable, use fictional characters only. Choosing between three Disney princesses can generate just as much playful debate without creating unnecessary tension.
Who Am I?: the finale that gets everyone out of their seats
Who Am I? is the only game on this list that naturally breaks up the seating plan, making it an ideal finale. By the end of the evening, encouraging guests to stand up and move around can transform the atmosphere from a formal dinner into a more relaxed party.
Each player writes the name of a famous person or character on a sticky note and attaches it to the forehead of the person on their left without allowing them to see it.
Players then take turns asking the table yes-or-no questions to discover their identity. A “yes” earns another question, while a “no” passes the turn to the next player. Participants can guess their identity during their turn, but an incorrect guess ends that turn.
Two simple rules make a significant difference. First, choose names that everyone at the table is likely to recognise. Nobody wants to spend half an hour trying to identify an obscure internet personality known by only one guest. Secondly, check the room for mirrors and reflective surfaces. It sounds obvious, but an accidental reflection can ruin the game immediately.
For a larger group, allow guests to move around the room and ask questions individually rather than taking turns around the table. This makes the final part of the evening feel less like a structured dinner and more like a party.
Knowing when to stop
One of the most important hosting skills is knowing when to end a game.
It is always better to finish one round earlier than expected and allow the conversation to continue naturally than to keep playing until someone checks their phone.
Announce the final round before it begins so that the ending is not open to negotiation. Once it is over, put the cards and sticky notes away and let the conversation take over. After all, that is what the games were there to encourage in the first place.
Which of these games would survive your own dinner party, and which one would your friends refuse to play?
