Hobbies And Interests
Themes
When having a party for a particular holiday or celebration, you can infuse the theme of the occasion into the game of Charades. For instance, if you are throwing a Halloween party, have the players come up with Halloween-related ideas, such as scary movies, books and songs. Or, act out scary creatures such as ghosts, werewolves and zombies. Use a theme that's broad enough so players don't have a problem coming up with relevant ideas.
Pull Ideas Out of a Hat
Though you can play Charades by coming up with ideas on your own, you may find that the game becomes more challenging and fun if players have to pull out pre-written ideas from a hat. Have neutral members at the party write down ideas and put them in a hat. When it comes time for a player to step up and perform a Charade, he will then pick an idea from the hat and be forced to act it out. With this variation on the game, players have to use more ingenuity to win.
Teams
If you have enough party members, you can put players into evenly numbered teams that compete against each other. Once a player goes up to act out a charade, both teams can try to guess the answer, or the team whose player is acting the charade out can guess while the other team remains quiet. Use a timer to put even more pressure on the "actor." Teams win a point if they guess the answer; if they don't guess correctly, the other team gets two turns in a row.
Mystery Pairs
This version of the game adds a mystery element to Charades. Place two copies of each idea in a hat. All players choose an idea and start to act it out when you say "Go." The object of the game is to locate the person who has the same charade idea as you. When a player believes he has found his pair, based solely on what the other person acts out, the two sit down until everyone else has found their matches. The players who matched correctly get points for winning the round.