Any kinds of parlor games

It is believed that Billiards derives from the Croquet family, with its green table-lining representative of the village green. The game is several centuries old and was originally played on a table with six pockets, Croquet-type hoops, and an upright stick. The balls were pushed rather than struck. Over the years the rules have changed and varied drastically, but in the Billiards Association changed all that by setting standards in the rules of the game.

Common games in the Billiards family are Pool, Pyramid, and Snooker. The general object of the game and its variants is to hit a colored billiard ball into a pocket, clearing the table of all the balls before your opponent.

Pool tables can be very expensive and are purchased in specialty shops and sporting goods stores. It is believed that the earliest table soccer games date back as far as the late s. The first patented Foosball game was registered in , but it wasn't until the latter half of this century that the game really gained widespread popularity. There are two different types of table games: There are table games that are played on a table, like cards and board games but they could just as easily be played on the floor and then there are table games that are the table.

Table games like Foosball and Air Hockey are played on a specially designed table and became popular in the United States as coin-operated arcade games in the early s. In , the first table soccer organization made up of different countries united to form the European Table Soccer Union, which holds an annual championship.

The problem with such a union, however, is that each country has its own table size, ball types, and different playing figures. This makes it difficult to switch successfully from table to table. The United States is the only country that holds a tournament with a large cash prize given to the winner.

This money tournament has brought many other countries to compete in the United States, thus regulating some of the varying rules and playing variants. Sure is a good example of how money is a motivator! The newspaper swordfight proceeds until both parties feel too silly to continue. Fruit Bowl is like musical chairs with a delicious twist. Game participants are assigned one of a handful of fruit categories: apple, banana, strawberry, etc. Everyone takes a seat while one player is left standing.

The last player left standing takes over the job of calling out names. One person sits in the middle of the circle with their eyes closed while people around the perimeter pass along an item.

The player at the center opens their eyes at random moments and the passing stops. The two players switch spots if the guesser succeeds. This version can lead to even more hilarious, and often horrifying results. The first player kicks things off by drawing a head whether human, animal, or mythical on a sheet of paper, then folds it over to cover the creation. After passing it on, the next player draws a torso, the next legs, and so on.

To play Fictionary, one person reads an obscure word from the dictionary while everyone else jots down their made-up definitions. After the person with the dictionary reads the fake definitions out loud along with the real one, players vote on whichever definition they think is true. Fake submissions earn points for each vote they receive and players earn points for guessing the right answer.

If no one guesses correctly, whoever is holding the dictionary gets a point. Nothing spices up a holiday party like a good murder mystery. The murderer covertly winks at the other players in the circle, causing them to drop dead.

Using his or her deductive reasoning skills the detective has three shots to guess which of the players left alive is the murderer. This is not exactly a parlour game in keeping with social distancing rules so maybe save this one for Christmas Photo from Shutterstock. There are half-hearted attempts at cheating, affectionate name-calling, and exaggerated tales of misconduct.

We are loud, lively, and slightly offensive. Whether we only make it through three rounds or complete an entire game, we pack up with some reluctance, grab a Band-Aid or a roll of duct tape, apologize to the neighbors, and resume our mild-mannered ways. Corks may be substituted for spoons—advisable for unruly players if your silverware has pointed or squared ends.

The objectives are to get four of a kind and, most importantly, to have a spoon in hand at the end of every round. The dealer passes one card from the deck at a time, face down, keeping the cards coming as fast as possible. The next player may keep the card or pass it, but must pass a card to the next player, retaining only four cards.

Players continue to pass cards around the circle to the dealer. The first player to collect four of a kind takes a spoon discreetly from the center, but continues to pass cards. As soon as players notice a spoon missing they must obtain one for themselves. A mad grab ensues, leaving one player empty-handed. At the end of each round the player who failed to retrieve a spoon is assigned a letter: S, P, O, etc.