Not every group wants a quiz. Two formats work on phones with nothing to prepare: a dare deck you pass around the room, and a photo that starts as an 8-pixel mosaic and sharpens until somebody names it. Neither needs questions written, neither needs a host running scores.
Below is how each one plays, 14 cards you can lift into a deck, and 12 photo sets that get a reaction.
A dare deck you pass around
Everyone joins from the lobby, host included, because there is no host role once it starts. The roster locks when you begin, so nobody joins halfway. On your turn you draw a card, do what it says, and tap to pass. No scoring, no judging, no arguments about whether that counted.
Mia does their best catwalk strut across the room (loser takes a sip).
A card is one dare, and it can carry a reward or a penalty if you want stakes. Add both and it reads as a challenge worth attempting, leave them blank and it is a straight dare. The {player} token drops a random player's name into the card when it is drawn, which is how a deck stays sharp for the fifth game: the card is different every time because the name is.
Twenty-five cards is the right size for six people. The deck emptying ends the game, which is the cleanest ending a party game gets, and you can trim the deck in the lobby if the room is smaller.
14 cards to start a deck
The reward or penalty is optional. Cards with a name in them pick a random player at draw time.
- 1.
Do your best impression of {player} until someone guesses who it is.
Reward: They drink
- 2.
Show the last photo in your camera roll.
Reward: Skip it and drink twice
- 3.
Read your most recent text message out in a newsreader voice.
- 4.
Name five countries beginning with B in ten seconds.
Reward: Pick someone to drink
- 5.
Speak only in questions until your next turn.
Reward: Drink every time you slip
- 6.
Swap seats with {player} and keep their accent for one round.
- 7.
Give {player} a genuine compliment. No jokes, no getting out of it.
- 8.
Hold a plank until the next person draws a card.
Reward: Everyone else drinks if you break
- 9.
Ten press-ups, or hand this card to {player}.
- 10.
Call the last person in your recent calls and wish them happy birthday.
- 11.
Everyone who has been on a plane this year drinks.
- 12.
Play the first five seconds of a song. First person to name the artist picks who drinks.
- 13.
Keep one hand behind your back until someone notices and calls it.
Reward: They drink if nobody spots it
- 14.
Let {player} choose your next drink.
Write the deck for the actual room
A deck that works with five close friends is the wrong deck for a work party or a mixed-age birthday, and you find out one card too late. Build a second deck for those rooms: same format, dares that involve doing something silly rather than revealing something.
Deck themes worth building
- House party: the general-purpose deck, mostly dares, some drinking.
- Sober: same energy, rewards are picking the next song or handing out a forfeit.
- The couple: for an engagement party, dares aimed at the two of them.
- Work social: nothing personal, nothing physical, all silly.
- New Year: predictions, resolutions, one dare each about the year just gone.
- Road trip: cards that can be done sitting down in a car.
A photo that sharpens until someone gets it
Each round opens one photo as an 8-pixel mosaic, then sharpens through four stages to 64 pixels on the long edge. Players type a guess on their phones, six guesses each, and the blockier the image still is when someone names it, the more it pays. The full photo goes up at the end of the round, which is the moment the room reacts.
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3Stages advance on your say-so, or on a 5, 10 or 15 second clock if you want it to run itself. Host-paced is better with a live room, because the right moment to sharpen is when the guessing stops, not when a timer says so.
This is the format for people who do not like trivia. Nobody is being tested, the answer is usually something they already know, and the game is really about who spots it first.
12 photo sets that get a reaction
Twelve to sixteen images is a full round.
- 1.
The group chat's worst photos
Why it works: People recognise the night before they recognise the picture
- 2.
Everyone's childhood photos, collected in advance
Why it works: The guess is a person in the room, which no trivia round can match
- 3.
Places you have all been together
Why it works: The pub, the office kitchen, the flat with the bad sofa
- 4.
Album covers
Why it works: Famous shapes and colours, so the 8-pixel stage is genuinely playable
- 5.
Everyone's pets
Why it works: Guaranteed reaction, zero preparation, works with any age
- 6.
Film stills
Why it works: One frame most people have seen a hundred times
- 7.
Landmarks at an odd angle
Why it works: The angle is the difficulty, not the landmark
- 8.
Logos with the wordmark cropped out
Why it works: Things people see daily and have never actually looked at
- 9.
The team's desks or home setups
Why it works: An office round where everyone is in it
- 10.
Everyone's fridge, taken that morning
Why it works: Cheap to collect and funnier than it has any right to be
- 11.
Photos from the group holiday
Why it works: Turns a shared album into a round with a scoreboard
- 12.
Famous paintings
Why it works: Colour blocks survive the pixelation, so they resolve slowly and fairly
Pixelated is a Plus format on PardyTime, because every round is a photo you upload rather than a question you type.
Which one to run, and when
The dare deck is a starter. It works while people are still arriving, it needs no attention, and it puts the room in the mood for something with rules. The photo game is the main event, and it wants everyone sitting down looking at the same screen.
Run them in that order and you get a whole evening out of two things you did not have to write. Both are built the same way on PardyTime: make the deck or upload the photos, host from your phone, and players join with a code.