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3 Drinking games for your 21st birthday

wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock
wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock

21st birthdays are sacred days that mark the true beginning of adulthood and more importantly when you can buy your own alcohol and drink legally. Here are three drinking games that will get the party started the right way.

Scavenger Hunt

This game is specifically fun for a 21st birthday since it requires a little more effort than most drinking games. It guarantees adventure and a night full of crazy stories. It’s pretty easy and can take as much or as little time as you want!

What you will need:

  1. Several players (the more players, the more fun!)
  2. Shots
  3. A list of all the players (so no one is forgotten!)

The aim of the game is for the birthday person to find all the players throughout the course of the night. Each participant should be somewhere different and decide whether they want the birthday person to take a shot or do a dare when they are found. The birthday person will then around on a scavenger hunt looking for all the people who are playing and whenever they are found, they have to do what that person has chosen. Either way, the game is a wild ride and the right way to start out the 21st year of life!

A variation on this could be the party guests split into several groups and you have a list of separate people or things to find and take a picture with. It gets the most interesting when the list of things and people to find is personalized and has references to other wild memories or inside jokes!

Birthday Trivia

This is a great game to be festive and truly fits a birthday celebration. It is simple and can bring out some interesting secrets or stories about the birthday person!

What you will need:

  1. Pens and paper
  2. Shots
  3. Several players

This can be done either in teams or individually. Each player writes down facts or stories about the birthday person in the form of a question and multiple-choice answers. The birthday person then reads them out and everyone has to answer what they think is the truth. The losing team or individuals take a shot and the birthday person may have some explaining to do!

Kings/ Circle of Death

This one does not specifically have to be done at a 21st birthday, because it’s that most classic of drinking games, but it’s most fun with a lot of people and is a good way to get people excited and ready for the night. The main difference between Kings and Circle of Death is how the cards are set up, but other than that they are the same!

What you will need:

  1. At least 4 players
  2. A deck of cards
  3. Drinks (Most people play with beer but you can do mixed drinks or shots as well!)

If you are playing kings, on each turn, a player picks a card face down and does whatever action it corresponds to. Circle of Death is a little more complicated. Spread the cards out face down in a circle around a drink and pick one up on each turn, without breaking the circle. Whoever breaks the circle has to drink whatever is in the middle.

These are the actions for each card but they can be personalized as well:

  • Ace: Waterfall – Everyone starts drinking and no one stops until the person before them does
  • 2: You – Whoever drew the card chooses someone to drink
  • 3: Me – Whoever drew the card drinks
  • 4: Floor – Everyone touches the floor and the one drinks
  • 5: Guys – Guys drink
  • 6: Chicks – Girls drink
  • 7: Seven Up – Everyone raises their drink for a toast and the last one drinks
  • 8: Mate – Pick a person to drink with
  • 9: Rhyme – Say a phrase and everyone else must say a phrase that rhymes with the first one. The first one to hesitate or mess up drinks.
  • 10: Categories – Pick a category and say something from that category. The first one to hesitate drinks.
  • Jack: Never have I ever – The player who draws the card says a “never have I ever ” (something they have never done). Whoever has done it drinks.
  • Queen: Questions – The person who drew the card asks someone else a question, and they then turn and ask someone else a question without answering it. This continues until someone loses by either failing to ask a question or by answering the question they were asked.
  • King: Ruler – Create a rule that everyone must follow until the next King is drawn

Have an awesome and memorable night with these drinking games! Be careful not to get too carried away and drink responsibly!

Yeah, right.

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