We often think of the Victorians as emotionally repressed, socially strict, industrious individuals who were too busy inventing the modern world to have a lot of fun. But the advances they brought to society meant that the upper and middle classes began to have more and more free time. They needed to do something with all that free time, so they turned their inventive minds to the games we play at parties and on family night.
That’s right: the Victorians invented or developed many of the games we still play to this day. Charades, Blind Man’s Bluff, Tiddly Winks and Twenty Questions were all developed in the Victorian era. There are plenty of other Victorian parlour games, however, that seem to have fallen out of favour for some reason.
The games below are Victorian parlour games that really will liven up a party or games night. They’re easy to learn, easy to do, great for groups of just about any size and practically guaranteed to have everyone in fits of giggles by the end.
Are you there, Moriarty?
This game seems a bit violent, but the idea is to get everyone laughing, rather than to hurt one another.
The game is played with two people at a time, whilst everyone else watches on. The two players lay on their stomachs on the floor, far enough away that they have to stretch their arm out fully to hold each other’s hand. One hand will keep hold of their opponent, and the other will have “the weapon”, traditionally a rolled-up newspaper but in fact anything that comes to hand that won’t cause injury.
The first player calls out “are you there, Moriarty?” When the second player is ready, they shout “yes!” The first player will then try to hit “Moriarty” over the head, and “Moriarty” will try to twist out of the way. If the first player misses “Moriarty”, “Moriarty” tries to hit the first player. They continue taking it in turns until someone gets bonked on the head.
Whoever gets hit first will stay on the ground, and someone new will take the other player’s place. The person already on the floor will then call out “are you there, Moriarty?”, and the game continues. The game ends when either one person has been bested by everyone else, or when everyone agrees to end it.
Shadow Buff
To play this, you will first have to hang up a sheet and get a beam from a torch or something similar that can be focussed. Decide who will be the guesser, and have everyone else group up by the sheet. Turn off the lights, and one at a time, each person who is not the guesser will stand in front of the light. The guesser tries to identify who is behind the sheet by their shadow.
The fun really starts when you include props or if you have enough space to move back and forth in front of the light to make your shadow look taller or shorter. This will make it much harder for the guesser.
If the guesser does correctly identify a person, the identified person has to pay a forfeit, like doing a silly dance.
Throwing the Smile
This is one of many games where the object of the game is to not smile or laugh, which of course makes laughing and smiling practically guaranteed.
In this game, everyone stands around with blank faces. One player will smile broadly, and then “wipe” the smile off their face and “throw” it to someone else in the group. That person will put the smile on their own face, then wipe it off and throw it to someone else. Meanwhile, no one else is allowed to smile or laugh. Anyone who does is out, and the game ends when only one person hasn’t smiled or laughed. It’s actually a lot harder than it sounds!
Change Seats!
Every description of this game starts with the warning that it should be played either in a room that has been cleared of breakable things or outside. It can get kind of rowdy!
It starts with a circle of chairs, with one fewer chairs than the number of players. Everyone takes a seat, and the person left standing goes in the middle. That person picks someone in the circle and asks “do you love your neighbour?” If the person answers “no”, the two people sitting on either side of that person have to leap up and try to get into the other’s seat, whilst the person in the middle goes for one of the seats as well.
If the person asked wants to say “yes”, they have to say “yes, but not those…”, and they finish that sentence with a quality many people in the group may share. For example, they could say “yes, but not those with an L in their name” or “yes, but not those wearing brown”. The people whose names have an L or who are wearing brown then have to try to find another seat, along with the person in the middle.
The person left without a seat at the end of this is the new person in the middle. The game ends when everyone is suitably exhausted.
The Sculptor
Like Throwing Smiles, this game aims to prevent smiling and laughing, but it also aims to prevent any movement whatsoever.
One person is the sculptor. He or she will position everyone else into poses that may be hard to hold. Once everyone has been put into position, the sculptor is no longer allowed to touch anyone, but can do anything else to make people laugh, smile or otherwise move. If someone does do that, they are out, and the game ends when only one person is left unmoved.
How? Why? Where? When?
This is a variation on Twenty Questions, where only four set questions can be asked. It begins with one person thinking of the name of an object. Everyone else asks the following questions only once:
– How do you enjoy it?
– Why do you enjoy it?
– Where do you enjoy it?
– When do you enjoy it?
The person being asked must answer honestly, and whoever guesses the right answer first wins. The winner then thinks of an object, and the game continues.
To make it a bit harder, players can think of words with several meanings and homonyms, so they can give answers for the different meanings with each question. For example, the player could think of flower/flour. Then, when asked, they could respond like this:
– How do you enjoy it? By smelling it
– Why do you enjoy it? It’s great for baking
– Where do you enjoy it? In nature
– When do you enjoy it? When it’s given to you
Like most games of this kind, the wrong guesses are usually more fun than the right ones!
These games are definitely different from the ones we normally play, but they should bring a lot of laughs to any gathering you have. Which ones do you think you’ll try at your next party? What are your favourite modern party games?
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