How to host a Halloween game night for adults

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, which means the party can run late and nobody needs to explain a costume at work the next morning. But a costume party with no plan usually turns into people standing around the snack table by 9:30. Give the night a structure, a few spooky games and a scoreboard everyone can see, and the same crowd will be shouting at each other over a monster charade at midnight.

Set up teams and a scoreboard before anyone arrives

Teams of three to five work best. For 12 guests, make three teams of four. Mix couples and close friends across teams so nobody plays with the person they came with.

Give teams themed names. The Werewolves, the Witches, the Ghouls. People commit harder to a team with a name.

Pick one scorekeeper. One person, one scoreboard, visible to everyone. Read the totals aloud after every game. A close race keeps a room focused better than any decoration.

Agree the points up front. A simple system: 5 points for winning a game, 3 for second, 1 for everyone else, plus bonus points for a costume vote at the end.

Five games that need no special kit

All you need is paper, pens, a bowl and a timer on your phone.

1. Monster charades. Write famous monsters, horror villains and scary-movie scenes on slips of paper. One player acts, their team guesses, 60 seconds per turn.
2. Haunted Pictionary. Same slips, drawn instead of acted. Use a large pad on a wall so everyone can watch.
3. Name that scream. Play the opening seconds of spooky songs and movie themes from a playlist. First team to shout the title scores.
4. Mummy wrap. One team member per round gets wrapped in toilet paper by the others. Two minutes on the clock; the host judges the best mummy.
5. The final séance quiz. Ten Halloween trivia questions, answers written by each team. Double points for this round, so a trailing team can still win.

Points turn a party into a game night; reading the totals aloud turns it into a rivalry.

Timing for a 3-hour night

• 0:00 to 0:30. Arrival, drinks, costumes. Assign teams as people walk in.
• 0:30 to 1:15. Charades and Pictionary. Fast games to warm the room up.
• 1:15 to 1:45. Food break. Announce the standings before everyone eats.
• 1:45 to 2:30. Name that scream and mummy wrap. The loud, silly part of the night.
• 2:30 to 2:50. The final séance quiz.
• 2:50 to 3:00. Costume vote, final scores, prizes.

Keep each game to 20 to 30 minutes, even if people beg for another round. Stopping on a high keeps energy up for the next one.

Prizes worth playing for

Cheap prizes work if they're specific. A bag of full-size candy bars for the winning team, a plastic trophy spray-painted gold for the best costume and a "most dramatic death" award for charades. Hand out at least one prize to a losing team; it keeps the bottom of the table cheerful.

For more on running scores across a whole evening, see our guide to running a game night scoreboard.

The scorekeeper can run the whole night from one phone with Tableside. Set up a custom game in Score mode, add each team as a player, and enter points round by round as the running totals update. Save your regular crew as a friend group for next time, and share the final scoreboard to the group chat as an image card. It works without an account and is free with no subscription.

Save the slips of paper after the party. Next October, the game night is already half planned.