• Nothing makes a party better than playing cool games.party image by TAlex from Fotolia.com
  
  Hosting a house party involves a myriad of details from food and drink to entertaining, but every detail is aimed at one goal: helping your guests have a great time. And having a great time is what house party games are all about. Whether your guests are outgoing or shy, a wallflower or the life of the party, these games will help involve them all, creating an environment where new friendships begin and old ones can grow.
  
  

Secret Identity

• Write the names of famous people or fictional characters on index cards. Give your guests a card and have them each tape their name to their backs. Next, players must address the others as if the others are the people or characters listed on their backs without mentioning them by name. The goal for players is to guess their "secret" identity based upon how they're spoken to. When everyone has guessed their secret identity, the game is over.
  
  

Charades

• Make index cards with a phrase, movie, song title or celebrity on each one, shuffle the cards and separate the players into two teams. Each player in turn must draw a card and then act it out in front of the group, with the teams competing to see who can correctly identify what's on the card first. No speaking by the actor is allowed. Common gestures include using fingers to identify the number of words, with fingers tapped onto the arm to indicate the number of syllables in a word.
  
  

Lip-Syncing Contest

• Choose a list of songs that your guests will know as your playlist. Invite each in turn to stand up in front of the group to "sing" and play a song from your list on CD. The "singer" must act as if she's actually singing for a crowd while lip-syncing the song you've chosen. Have the group choose the best performance after everyone's had a chance to perform. (Real singing with a karaoke machine also makes for hilarious fun.)
  
  

Killer

• Make enough slips of paper so that you have one to give each player. On one of the pieces, write the word "Killer," then mix them up and hand them out. With all of the players sitting in a circle facing one another, the killer must "kill" each of the other players with a wink without being caught. The winner is either the player who catches the killer, or the killer himself if no one catches him before being "killed."
  
  

Three Things About Me

• Give players a slip of paper and a pencil, and have them write three items on it. Two of the items should be a true statement about themselves, while one is a lie. Next, go around the room, with each player in turn reading off her three things while the others try to guess which of the items is the lie.
  
  

Take Over the Boat

• Divide the group into two teams, and have players write their names on a slip of paper. Next, mix the names together and have each player draw a new name from a hat. Ask two members from each team to sit in the "boat"---a row of four chairs set apart from the others. Beginning with one player from the boat, he or she calls out a name, and is replaced on the boat by the person holding that name. That person then calls out the next name and so on, until one team controls the entire boat.