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Paper Games to Play at a Picnic

Picnics are a way to spend time with friends and family and enjoy the outdoors. Sometimes you want to play a game rather than sitting and observing nature or catching up with old friends. Paper games work well at a picnic because they require few pieces, little set-up time and are inexpensive.

Tic-Tac-Toe
- Tic-Tac-Toe, also known as Three Across, requires only a pen and paper. Two players compete on a three-by-three grid. One player takes X and the other takes O. Each player takes turns writing her letter down in one of the nine spaces. The first to get a row of three across, from left to right, top to bottom or diagonally, wins. You can always play the game on any even grid and make it four or five across for a trickier, longer-lasting game.
Hangman
- Hangman works with two or more players. One player serves as the word master and thinks of a word or phrase. He writes down spaces for each letter of the word, with spaces between words. Players take turns guessing letters. If the letter is in the word, the word master fills the letter into the spaces. If the letter isn't in the word, the word master draws one part of the "hang man's body." Once the word master draws a complete body of a head, torso, arms and legs, the players lose and the word master wins. The players win by guessing the correct words.
Fortune Teller
- In the fortune teller game, players create a device that tells fortunes. Players fold one paper sheet into the fortune-telling contraption, then ask other people to chose from a few options to get to their fortune. You can locate instructions for making the fortune teller contraption in the Resources section.
MASH
- MASH, Mansion Apartment Shack House, is another silly fortune-telling game. To play, you first write MASH on the top of a piece of paper. You then create a series of categories such as husband, job, honeymoon, car and city. One player fills each section in with four choices. The MASH master draws a series of lines until the other player tells her to stop. The master then counts the lines and uses this number to score. To score, you count to the acquired number and cross answers out. If your number was five, you cross out every fifth answer until you have one result in each category. At the end, the MASH master tells the other player his future. One MASH variation allows the master to choose the fourth answer in each category, often leaving the other player with unsavory choices such as a future career as a garbage man.

Party Games