Slightly less humiliating was "The Laughing Game." One person began by saying, "Ha"; the next, "Ha-ha"; and so on around, while all tried not to actually laugh. Whoever succumbed was eliminated as the "Ha" repetitions continued to increase around. Other games entailed silly postures: "Statues," for example, where everyone had to suddenly freeze in some extreme position, and whoever laughed or broke the pose was eliminated; and "The Sculptor," in which one player arranged the others as peculiarly as possible, toward the same goal. What we called Simon Says was then named "O’Grady Says." A game known as "Change" involved various objects--large, small, heavy, light-- to equal the number of the participants. The players began by standing in a circle, each holding one item. Someone appointed to give commands said "Go," and players had to begin passing anything they held to their right, while also taking whatever was handed to them. When told "Change," they had to pass objects to the left. To add confusion, several items were deliberately, simultaneously routed in the opposite direction. Whoever dropped something or passed it the wrong way was "out"--but all objects remained, making them harder to pass along smoothly.

Still popular today, "Charades" was played by the Victorians. One player from each team of guests drew a card on which was written the name of an object, person, book, movie, etc. (to make the game more authentic, you can limit the names of people, books and objects to those that were popular during the 19th century). The player had to act out what was written on the card within a specified amount of time, while his or her team members made guesses. Points were awarded for the correct guesses, and each team rotated until all of the cards were drawn.

"Hot Boiled Beans" was another game in which one guest was sent out and an object hidden. When he returned, the guests shouted, "Hot boiled beans and bacon for supper." Guided by other players saying this meal was becoming cold, hot, even perhaps burned (if he was very near it), he searched for the article. In "Hunt the Thimble," a small item was hidden in plain view while all guests were out of the room. Upon returning, each guests was to sit down silently as soon as she spotted the item. The last person left searching had to pay a forfeit. Other old games such as "Hare and Hound" and "The Wolf and the Lambs" gave players license to chase or grab each other as they broke out of more controlled rows or circles.

One of the oldest word games is "Grandmother's Trunk," where one guest began: "My Grandmother keeps (a word beginning with 'a') in her trunk." The next player continued: "My Grandmother keeps (the 'a' word) and (another with 'b') in her trunk," and so on, the list growing as the sentence continued around, making it a memory as well as alphabet game. There were also many round games substituting a sound or phrase for some recurring number or letter. Players had to anticipate the approach of the designated letter or (harder) multiples of the number -- and, the faster the game was played, the easier it was to fumble... and forfeit. Also known as "The Minister's Cat". In this one, one guest begins with: "The minister's cat is (beginning with 'a' and so forth.)