Getting together with friends doesn't always need to mean booking a restaurant, heading to a bar or planning something weeks in advance.
Some of the best nights happen at home.
The only problem is deciding what to actually do.
If you've reached the point where “come over and we'll figure something out” inevitably turns into everyone sitting on the sofa scrolling through their phones, it's time for a better plan.
From solving a fictional murder to ridiculous competitions and food challenges, here are 30 fun things to do with friends at home that can turn an ordinary evening into something you'll actually remember.
1. Solve a Murder Mystery
Best for: True crime fans, puzzle lovers and competitive detectives
Instead of watching a crime series together, investigate the crime yourselves.
A cold case murder mystery gives your group an entire fictional investigation to solve.
You might need to examine:
- Police reports
- Suspect interviews
- Witness statements
- Crime scene photographs
- Messages and emails
- Maps
- Receipts
- Other pieces of evidence
Everyone works together to determine what happened and who is responsible.
It's particularly fun with friends because people notice completely different things.
One person becomes obsessed with a suspicious timestamp.
Someone else decides within five minutes that they know exactly who the murderer is.
A third person quietly discovers the clue that proves both of them wrong.
Ink & Clues creates downloadable murder mystery games built around this type of investigation. You can play digitally or print the evidence and spread the entire case across the table.
Add some drinks and snacks and you've got an entire game night ready to go.
2. Host a Blind Taste Test
Choose a food or drink category and buy several different versions.
Crisps, chocolate, cola, cheese, coffee, ice cream or sweets all work well.
Remove the packaging and have everyone taste each option without knowing the brand.
Then rank them.
You might discover that the expensive version everyone swears is superior comes dead last.
For extra competition, award points for correctly identifying each brand.
3. Have a Board Game Tournament
Don't just play one board game.
Create an entire tournament.
Choose several shorter games and award points based on where everyone finishes.
At the end of the night, crown an overall champion.
If your group meets regularly, keep the scoreboard and turn it into an ongoing championship.
The prize can be something meaningful.
Or a terrible homemade trophy that the winner is legally required to display until the next game night.
4. Create a Home Escape Room
Turn part of your home into an escape room.
One person can prepare clues, hide objects and create puzzles beforehand.
Or download a ready-made printable escape game so everyone can participate.
Add a timer and see whether the group can complete the challenge before time runs out.
For maximum authenticity, someone should eventually insist that a completely ordinary household object is definitely part of the puzzle.
5. Host a Themed Dinner Night
Choose a country or theme and build the entire evening around it.
Italian night.
Mexican night.
90s night.
Movie-inspired dinner.
Everyone can bring or prepare something connected to the theme.
Add matching music, drinks and decorations if you want to take it further.
6. Have a Cocktail-Making Competition
Give everyone access to the same ingredients and let them create their own drink.
Then conduct a completely serious judging session.
Score each creation for:
Taste
Appearance
Originality
Name
Alcohol-free cocktails work just as well.
In fact, the naming category will probably be the most competitive regardless.
7. Play a Detective Game
Murder isn't the only mystery worth solving.
Detective games can involve disappearances, thefts, conspiracies and other unexplained events.
Look for a game where everyone works together to examine evidence and build theories.
These are particularly good for smaller groups because everyone can actively contribute rather than waiting for their turn.
8. Host a Trivia Night
Create your own pub quiz without the pub.
Divide into teams or play individually.
Choose categories such as:
- Movies
- Music
- Geography
- History
- Sports
- General knowledge
- Completely useless facts
Have each person prepare one category beforehand so nobody knows all the answers.
For an extra round, include questions specifically about your friendship group.
Those usually cause significantly more arguments than geography.
9. Have a PowerPoint Night
This sounds suspiciously like work.
It isn't.
Everyone prepares a short presentation on absolutely anything they want.
Possible topics:
Which friend would survive longest in a zombie apocalypse?
A scientific ranking of everyone's worst fashion phases
Where everyone in the group will be in 20 years
Conspiracy theories I could probably convince you are true
The less useful the presentation, the better.
10. Try a Printable Mystery Game
If nobody remembered to plan anything beforehand, downloadable games are ideal.
Choose a mystery online, download the files and print them at home.
Within minutes, your kitchen table can be covered in evidence from a fictional crime.
There's no delivery to wait for and no complicated setup.
It's an easy way to turn a spontaneous evening into a proper activity.
11. Have a Cooking Challenge
Split into teams and give everyone the same set of ingredients.
Then set a time limit.
Each team has to create the best dish possible.
You can make the challenge harder by including one unusual ingredient that everyone must use.
At the end, taste everything and choose a winner.
Whether anyone should actually eat the losing dishes is optional.
12. Play Who Knows Who Best?
Write questions about members of the group.
Who is most likely to move abroad?
Who takes the longest to reply to messages?
Who would survive longest alone in the wilderness?
Who is most likely to accidentally become famous?
Everyone answers anonymously before revealing the results.
This can be wholesome.
It can also reveal information your friendship group was not emotionally prepared to receive.
13. Have a Movie Marathon With Rules
Watching movies isn't particularly original.
Adding rules makes it better.
Choose a trilogy, franchise, actor or genre.
Then create bingo cards containing things likely to happen.
Someone says the title of the movie.
A character dramatically walks away from an explosion.
Someone makes an obviously terrible decision.
First person to complete a row wins.
14. Try a Drawing Challenge
Everyone receives the same subject and a limited amount of time to draw it.
The problem?
Nobody is allowed to see anyone else's drawing until the timer ends.
Possible challenges include:
Draw another person in the group.
Create a movie poster.
Draw your dream house.
Redesign a famous logo from memory.
Artistic ability is absolutely not required.
Arguably, it makes the game worse.
15. Host a Murder Mystery Party
Want something more theatrical than a detective investigation?
Host a traditional murder mystery party.
Assign each guest a character and let everyone become part of the story.
Costumes aren't essential, but they're strongly encouraged if your friends are willing to commit.
This works particularly well for birthdays and larger gatherings where people want something more interactive than a normal party.
16. Create a Photo Challenge
Make a list of photographs everyone needs to take around the house or neighbourhood.
For example:
Something that looks expensive.
The most dramatic portrait possible.
A photo that could be an album cover.
Something that looks like evidence from a crime scene.
The worst possible dating profile picture.
Give everyone 30 minutes.
Then return and vote on the winners.
17. Play Guess the Song
Create a playlist and play only the first few seconds of each song.
The first person to correctly name the song and artist gets the point.
Choose music from different decades to make things fair.
Or deliberately choose songs from the years when your group first became friends.
That version tends to turn into nostalgia very quickly.
18. Have a Video Game Tournament
Choose games that are quick to learn so everyone has a chance.
Racing games, fighting games, sports games and party games are ideal.
Create a bracket and play until only one champion remains.
If one person owns the console and has 3,000 hours in the chosen game, they should probably receive some kind of handicap.
For the sake of friendship.
19. Make Your Own Pizza
Prepare pizza dough and put a selection of toppings on the table.
Everyone creates their own.
You can simply eat them.
Or, naturally, turn the entire thing into a competition.
Categories might include best-looking pizza, best flavour and most questionable topping combination.
20. Create a Mini Olympics
Invent several ridiculous events that can be performed at home.
Sock basketball.
Paper aeroplane distance.
Longest coin spin.
Cup stacking.
Blindfolded drawing.
Guessing the weight of random objects.
Keep score throughout the evening and award medals at the end.
The more seriously everyone treats it, the funnier it becomes.
21. Try a Puzzle Race
Buy two copies of the same small jigsaw puzzle and divide into teams.
Start simultaneously.
First team to finish wins.
Alternatively, give everyone the same logic puzzles or brain teasers and see who solves them fastest.
This becomes surprisingly intense surprisingly quickly.
22. Have a No-Phone Night
Put everyone's phone in a box.
That's the activity.
Well, almost.
Combine it with dinner, games, drinks or just conversation.
The rule is simply that nobody checks their phone for the evening.
You may discover that your friends are actually quite interesting when the internet isn't available.
23. Make a Friendship Time Capsule
Ask everyone to bring or write something representing your lives right now.
Add photographs, predictions, notes and memories from the group.
Write letters to your future selves.
Then seal everything in a box and agree on when you're allowed to open it.
Five years is ambitious.
One year is significantly safer if nobody in the group can be trusted.
24. Have a Karaoke Night
You don't need a karaoke bar.
Find instrumental versions of songs, connect a microphone if you have one and turn your living room into a deeply questionable concert venue.
Create categories or challenges:
Best performance.
Best duet.
Most dramatic performance.
Song nobody expected you to know.
Actual singing ability should have almost no influence on the final score.
25. Play Two Truths and a Lie
Everyone writes down three statements about themselves.
Two are true.
One is false.
The rest of the group has to identify the lie.
This works particularly well with friends who have known each other for years because everyone assumes they already know everything.
They usually don't.
26. Have a Mystery Box Cooking Challenge
One person chooses a collection of ingredients.
Nobody else knows what they are beforehand.
Reveal the ingredients and divide into teams.
Everyone must create something using the mystery ingredients.
You can add basic pantry ingredients, but every mystery item has to appear somewhere in the final dish.
This is either a great evening or the origin story of the worst meal you've ever eaten.
27. Create a Scavenger Hunt
Hide clues around the house and make each one lead to the next.
You can incorporate puzzles, riddles and inside jokes from your friendship group.
Have a small prize waiting at the end.
This takes more preparation than most activities on this list, but it can be brilliant for birthdays or special occasions.
28. Host a Gameshow Night
Recreate simple versions of television game shows at home.
Trivia.
Guessing games.
Word games.
Physical challenges.
Divide everyone into teams and have one person act as host.
You can even create ridiculous prizes for the winners.
The cheaper and more useless the prizes are, the more prestigious they become.
29. Create a Bucket List Together
Sit down and make a list of things your group wants to do together.
Trips.
Restaurants.
Festivals.
Challenges.
Places to visit.
Completely unrealistic adventures.
Try to reach at least 30 ideas.
Then choose one of the realistic ones and actually put a date in the calendar.
Otherwise, congratulations: you've simply created another list.
30. Let Chance Decide the Night
Write different activities on pieces of paper and put them in a bowl.
Murder mystery.
Cocktail competition.
Board game tournament.
Karaoke.
Cooking challenge.
Trivia.
Movie bingo.
Video game tournament.
Draw one.
That's what you're doing.
No 45-minute group discussion.
No “I don't mind, what do you want to do?”
The bowl has made its decision.
What Can You Do With Friends at Home?
The best activities don't necessarily require expensive equipment or complicated planning.
Usually, you just need something that gets everyone involved.
If your group is competitive, create a tournament.
If everyone loves food, run a cooking challenge or blind taste test.
If you want something ridiculous, organise a mini Olympics or PowerPoint night.
And if your friends love mysteries, true crime or escape rooms, put a fictional crime investigation in the middle of the table and see what happens.
The important thing is choosing something where you're doing something together, rather than simply being in the same room.
What Are Some Fun Things to Do With Friends at Night?
For an evening at home, activities that can become the main event work particularly well.
A murder mystery, trivia tournament, themed dinner, escape game or cocktail competition can easily fill several hours.
If you're meeting after dinner, choose something that requires less preparation, such as a printable game, blind taste test or card tournament.
And if you're planning the evening at the last minute, digital and printable games are particularly useful because you can get started immediately.
What Are the Best Games to Play With Friends at Home?
That depends on the group.
For larger groups, party games, trivia and murder mystery parties work well.
For smaller groups, cooperative detective games and cold case mysteries allow everyone to participate.
If your group loves competition, board games and tournaments are obvious choices.
But if you've played the same games countless times, try something where nobody already knows how to win.
An unsolved murder tends to level the playing field.
Turn Your Next Night With Friends Into an Investigation
If your group spends more time choosing what to do than actually doing it, we've got another option.
Open a murder case.
With Ink & Clues, you and your friends become the investigators in a fictional crime.
You'll examine police reports, suspect interviews, photographs, messages and evidence.
Compare alibis.
Find contradictions.
Build your theories.
Then decide who you think is responsible.
You can download the case instantly and either investigate digitally or print the evidence at home.
All you need are some friends and a willingness to accuse fictional strangers of terrible crimes.
