Yes! Another weekend camping session! Don’t you just love weekends spent with nature? It’s so refreshing. It’s a great way to unwind with your closest friends or family!
Sometimes I feel torn on where to spend my weekend. Should I spend it to rest, binge, and drink a couple of beers on the couch or go out and camp with friends? You know what? You can do both. Camping is not only meant to reconnect with nature, but also to unwind as well.
Personally, camping takes my stress and worries away, and it clears my mind of all things that we people deem as essential but is actually trivial to the core.
A night of drinking in the great outdoors is the normal picture when the sun sets on the campsite. A few barbecues and a great many cans of beer is all you’ll need to have a merry night. Of course, a few drinking card games will break the ice.
I find drinking games as imperative, especially when there are newbies in the camp or whenever I join a camper group where people don’t know each other.
Drinking games fill the void and dead air, making us all feel comfortable and begin talking with each other. Who knows, your fellow camper might even share her whole life story with you! Yeah, it happens.
The 3 Modern Drinking Card Games
1. The Voting Game
What you’ll need
- 1 Voting Game Cards
- 5-10 Players
- Beers, other liquors
- Cups/shot glass
This game is probably best drinking card games for college campers and for older group of women who maintains a close friendship. The card pack contains 200 cards with hilarious questions such as “Who would have the hardest time talking their way out of an insane asylum?” and “Who will be the hardest to recognize in 10 years?”.
Anyone of your girlfriends can unveil one card at a time and after she’s done reading the question, each of you will vote anonymously for a friend who you think best fits the question in a piece of paper. Assign someone who will tally the scores for each person in every round.
The player which gets the highest votes will drink 2 shots and so on. The fun part of the game is when the one that got the highest score start asking each and everyone why they think she fits the question.
Oops! be careful not to offend your friend. This game will definitely crack laughter out of everybody, and also some revelations about your friendship. I just hope that by the end of the night, nobody’s pulling each other’s hairs!
2. Loaded Kings
What you’ll need
Before you can play this game, you’ll need a pack of Loaded Kings playing card. The pack contains 54 waterproof game cards with rules and directions printed at the back. Loaded Kings will guarantee a night of silliness and embarrassment. It’s the ultimate party companion for campers!
For the rules of the game, first you have to lay out all 54 cards on the ground and choose a player to go first. He/she will flip the first card and read the directions which everybody must follow.
The directions in the cards are pretty funny and definitely hard to follow. Also, almost every card will has a “drink” rule. Yes, of course you’ll get drunk by the end of the night.
If you’ve drawn a “king”, you can make the rules. Common rules you can implement that are very hard not to break are “put your chin on the table if you say a curse word”.
Keep it there until someone else curses, then it’s their turn” and “no using the names of anyone in the game”. Like, what? How can you call the next person’s turn if you can’t call her name? Yes, it’s that hard. This game will really test your limits and boy, you’ll be surprised by how long you can keep doing a silly thing.
It’s always fun to be the king because you get to command silly and embarrassing tasks to everyone in the game but I bet it wouldn’t be fun if your friends gang up on you when it’s their turn to be king. It’s just a game after all.
Since you’re the king, the rule-breaker must suffer the consequences. I guess drinking 3-4 consecutive shots or a bottoms up isn’t a form of suffering, eh?
3. Drink-A- Palooza
What you’ll need
- 1 Drink-A-Palooza Board Game
- 2-12 Players
- Beers, other liquors
The Drink-A-Palooza board game claims to be the best drinking game ever, especially for college students. It’s not entirely a card game, just a portion of it.
The thing is, I really love this board game because it brings me back to my college party days and it’s also a refreshing game to play with your fellow campers.
The D-A-P board game combines Beer Pong, Kings Cup, Flip Cup, Quarters and all the college drinking party games into one board game that comes with ping pong balls, spin the bottle, playing deck of cards, dice, six pack game pieces and mini beer bottles.
The board game has a spin in the middle where you can put the beer pong cup on top. The goal of the game is to fill the miniature beer case with six beer bottles that will be rewarded every time you have successfully accomplished the instruction on the grid you landed on. The first one who fills in his beer case will be rewarded with a six-pack of beer, or other liquors that you have.
Choose the first player by moving the spinner. The player will throw a dice and will move his beer bottle forward according to the number of the dice. He/she will perform the action written on the grid where the dice landed.
The grids have rules such as flip your cup, drink a double, play beer pong, steal a beer, make a rule, and many more. It’s really a combination of all the drinking games we’ve enjoyed through college.
When we played this game on one of our camping nights, I always landed on these two – the “beer pong” grid and the “king’s cup” grid. I suck at beer pong so I always have to drink the shot because my opponent always shoots the balls while I can’t even fire one.
Then when I’m half-drunk (no, really drunk), my dice would land on the King’s cup grid where I need to think of awkward dares when I can barely feel my skin because my mind is so clouded with alcohol. Fun times, yeah.
I’m quite sure you’ll have a great time playing this game because it’s very diverse and fun!
The 5 Classic Drinking Card Games Using a 52-card Deck
1. Bluff Pyramid
What you’ll need
The Bluff Pyramid drinking card game is a game for the young and old. It’s a game as old as time. I’ve been playing it with my best friends since my college days. Well, a card game can’t be any modern, isn’t it?
Gather up your fellow campers and form a seat on the ground in a circular formation. First, make a pyramid consisting of five rows. Place one card on the top, two cards on the second row and so on until you’re done with the fifth row.
After constructing the pyramid, distribute the remaining cards in the deck among yourselves. Here’s the fun part: everyone is allowed to look at each other’s card for a quick peek, like maybe about 10 seconds, and then keep your cards to yourselves after the time limit.
The first player should flip the first card on the bottom of the pyramid. Whatever that card is, the player who holds the card similar to the flipped card can tell (or bluff anyone that he/she holds the same card) any person in the circle to drink.
A card in the fifth row will cost a 2-sec straight drink which doubles every row. The one who’s chosen to drink can contest whether the player truly holds the card or not. He/she will call out “bluff”, and the player should flip out the card to show the proof. If the player only bluffs, he/she should drink double (4 sec straight and so on, depending on the row where the card was taken).
On the other hand, if the player isn’t bluffing, the one who called out would drink double. If you’re being safe and choose not to call the player out, you can just take a regular shot. This goes on until all the cards in the pyramid are flipped.
Be sure not to get irritated by your friend’s “bluff” because he/she’s not calling you, it’s just the game. Also, don’t be a KJ like me who doesn’t blurt out a single “bluff” because I just want to take a normal shot. Drink the night away because it’s not everyday that something fun like that happens!
Watch the video below for a detailed tutorial.
2. Suicide
What you’ll need
This is by far the simplest drinking game ever (and a game which leaves no player sober). You can even have 6 or more players in the game.
First, deal out all the cards to every player until the deck’s empty. Then choose the first player who would flip his/her card. Once he/she finds out what the card is, the second player needs to flip next.
If both of them don’t have the same suits (same hearts, spades, clubs, or diamonds), they should match the number of cups/shot glass they’d take to the number in their cards. This will go on until everyone’s cards are all flipped
Tip:
Shuffle the cards properly after every round. My fellow camper who was our dealer at one session didn’t know how to weave the playing cards properly so we ended up having the same set of non-matching cards over again.
You know the rule when you and the one beside you don’t match cards right? Yes, you drink!
I do hope your suits match because you can’t get drunk yet! We have 3 more drinking games to go!
3. Give and Take
What you’ll need
“Give and Take” should be the first drinking game to play if you are with new friends. It’s like a “Truth or Dare” game but you’ll be using cards. It’s less about drinking and more about storytelling and embarrassing your fellow campers. Be prepared to blurt out secrets and embarrassing moments in this game!
First, sit around a table (if you have) or just seat on the ground. Designate one player as the dealer who does the job of handing out four cards to each player and making two rows, 6 cards each (face down).
The dealer will now choose which of the two rows will be the “Truth” or “Dare”. Like the Pyramid game, each card (from left to right or vice versa) will increase in time value, starting from 2 seconds to 12 seconds.
Now, the dealer will flip one card from either row. Any player who matches the card drawn out by the dealer has to answer the Truth or do the Dare (all questions and dares should be agreed upon by the whole group).
If the player doesn’t want to respond to the question or perform the dare, he/she can just drink according to the time value of the drawn card. After the first player’s done, the dealer will now flip the next card from the alternative row.
Special rules exist in this game. It’s highly possible that two players hold the card drawn out by the dealer and if this is the case, the two can agree on assigning drinks, questions, and dares to another player in the group.
On the contrary, if no one matches the cards draw, all of the players will have to drink according to the time value of the card. Lastly, Aces are not counted as cards s make sure to remove all Aces before shuffling the deck.
Hey guys, always choose dare because it’s more interactive, especially if you have newbies in your group. But if you want to play matchmaker, get the whole group to gang up and ask steamy and tell-all Truth questions to shy lovers and probable couples. Who knows, you might pair up strangers-turned-lovers that will thank you later.
4. Indian Poker
What you’ll need
Well, this is one is a simple game and I guarantee that you won’t be so drunk after this game because it is a pretty fast one, especially if a lot of players are joining.
Do you still remember the value of the cards in a standard deck? An Ace card has the highest, followed by the King, Queen, Jack and the 2-10 cards.
Firstly, gather yourselves in a circle and distribute the cards (face down) evenly according to the number of players. Next, each player will draw out one card without looking at it and stick or hold it against their foreheads.
Everyone will see the value of each player’s cards except the player. The goal is to have the highest card which is an Ace in every round. Now the player will have to decide whether to push or not in the round based on his/her instinct and also based on the reactions of the other players. Obviously, it’s best to put up a poker face to give the players a hard time deciding, which is more fun.
After one minute, the players will decide whether to push or fold. Once all of you made a decision, put your cards face up the ground. The player with the highest value wins.
Those who didn’t push and had a lower value card than the winning card will drink two shots and sadly, those who possess cards that have a higher value than the winner will drink the value of their card. On the contrary, those who pushed but lost also drink the value of their card minus the value of the winner’s cards.
This game is really an instinct-based one. It’s super hard except if you have mind-reading powers.I hope you can still do the math even if you’re a bit tipsy!
5. The Dealer’s Game
What you’ll need
Our last game will probably take the whole night, especially if you have a large group of players. Most importantly, this game will ensure that there are no sober players left, except if they’re clairvoyants.
So, you need to choose a dealer first. The dealer will shuffle the cards, and the game begins with the player on the left on the dealer. The dealer will draw a card and let the first player guess the suit (hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs) of the card.
If the player guesses correctly, the dealer drinks a shot and passes the guess to the next player. Otherwise, the guesser chugs one shot.
After the guesser drinks, he/she is allowed two more chances to guess the value of the next two cards. If he/she’s right on the next guess, the dealer drinks. Consequently, if the guesser’s incorrect, he/she’ll take another shot.
On the third guess, the guesser will decide whether the third card has a lower or higher value than the second card. If he/she guesses correctly, the dealer (unfortunately) drinks another shot and in the case that he/she’s wrong again, it will be his/her turn to be the dealer! Finish all cards to end the guessing game.
You’d really wish not to be the dealer in this game. It’s very rare that a person can guess a specific suit or number you know. We played this once and my boyfriend back then (my husband now) was chosen by the group to be the dealer and boy, it was a tragic night.
For every round we play, the dealer’s lucky enough if we can guess one suit or number, because for a minute or two, he was spared from drinking. I have never seen anyone so wasted in my entire life than my dealer boyfriend that fateful night.
Read More: Tent Tarps and Tent Footprints: The Better Choice and A Guide On Making Your Own
Conclusion
Drinking card games will really provide a camping night with a lot of laughs, embarrassing moments, and secret revelations. They never get old! Also, they’re very helpful in breaking the ice between strangers and putting each other at ease.
Drinking card games is a good bonding activity for campers, students, and adults. Of course, you can always substitute non-liquor beverages if you’re not a drinker. But hey, there’s always a first time for everything, right?
The most important thing to bear in mind: Drink moderately. You don’t want to get up the following morning with the sun shining brightly at your face, sporting a severe headache and vomiting, do you?
Have you played drinking card games while camping outdoors? What games have you tried? Is it dun? Did you get so drunk? Share your experiences below!
Why don’t you share this article to help our fellow campers have fun on their camping night?
I’m Cindy, a free-spirited outdoor enthusiast. Since childhood, Our family frequently goes on weekend camps and my father, who was a skilled hunter, used to teach my siblings and me valuable things about wildlife survival. I made this blog to share my knowledge, experiences, and tips.
