There’s this old game I was taught to play at Christmas called wet biscuit.

Essentially everyone sits in a circle around a cup of water and people take turns adding coasters under it, until the glass eventually spills

In my experience the most popular and fun “party games” are boardgames such as Top Ten, Time’s Up, Hot & Cold or Codenames (more or less in that order). They work best for 6 to 10 players. Though I don’t think they shine in a highly competitive tournament setting.

Randomness exists in all of these games but I consider it very balanced/smoothed out so it shouldn’t really affect the outcome. Not all of the games I mentioned have permanent teams, but that can easily be changed with house rules.

The Jackbox Party Packs are good for groups up to 8. Sometimes 10, sometimes 6, its game to game dependant.

“Werewolf” type games can be expanded to larger groups, its a social deduction and bluffing game where players are slowly eliminated and in turn vote out other players they deem the hidden enemy

For bigger groups: Wavelength, Telestrations, Just One, The Game
For smaller groups: Mysterium, codenames, jackbox party pack

Everyone is John

Board games like:

• Wits & Wagers
• Say Anything
• Hues and Cues
• Codenames
• Scattergories
• Racko

Spaceteam

Codenames

Twister

TLDR; Use poker decks to clone 3 sets of Love Letter

I’ll recommend some boardgames.

Once you go over 7-8 players, the options are greatly reduced. The available genres become (mostly) limited to social deduction

Social deduction, all about trying to figure out other peoples cards. And lying, lots of lying.

• Love letter, 6 players, 20 cards, ~13 tokens, for points
• Avalon, 7-10 players, ~30cards, tracking mat/paper
• Secret Hitler, 7-10 players, ~30 cards, tracking mat/paper, has a print-at-home version.
• Ultimate werewolf/vampire/etc, ~10-12 players, ~13-15 cards, phone app (for narration, free)

*None of the above are very good for playing as teams (i.e. two ppl taking a single player spot)

Group Games games that do well with teams

• Codenames, various versions.
• Forbidden Island/Dessert/Sky - co-op game for various number of players

As a special mention, Challengers is a board game that allows you to create simple yet fun card drafting tournaments. There are two editions, each allows you up to 8 players, and if you have both they can be combined into 16ppl tournaments

For your numbers, you’d need to buy 2-3 copies of the same game. Not ideal, even if you have the budget.

I’d say, print yourself three copies of Love Letters, you can find the cards online, or just play with 2-3 poker decks. Its the best game in my library, simple yet deep. We’ve been playing it at least once a week for 3 years now. I’ve even managed to play once with a mob of disinterested teens ;)

Pterodactyl is one of my favorite stupid games to play.

You just sit in a circle and see if you can make the person next to you to laugh while you say “pterodactyl” with your lips curled over your teeth so you look kinda like a pterodactyl.

Randomness is often desirable in party games because otherwise it’s usually a small number of people who are competitive and the rest are bored/quit.

The one where you stick a piece of paper on your forehead you have to guess what is written by asking yes/no questions to someone sitting in front of you.

Drink More Glurp!

Card games. We used to have card nights every week back in the 70s. One of the most fun games was something called Racing Demon. Each player has a full pack and all play at the same time. We would have 15 people sitting on the floor in a circle, all screaming. It gets CRAZY. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerts There are hundreds of card games, with a huge range of skill required. There are a lot of trick-taking games similar to bridge where you play with a partner - euchre, whist, 500. All you need is a few packs of playing cards. (Everyone brought their own pack for Racing Demon, lol.)

Towerfall and Mario Kart are fantastic for couch gaming