Kitty party chit games: six games for a bowl of folded chits

Chits are the oldest kitty party game equipment there is: a stack of folded paper, a bowl, and somebody’s handwriting that half the room cannot read. They are also the most flexible. The same bowl runs a lucky draw, a round of dares, a guessing game and the choice of next month’s host. Here are six games that work with a group of eight to twenty, and how to make the chits in a few minutes.

1. Lucky chits

Each member draws one chit. Some are small wins, some are light forfeits, and a few say “better luck next time”.

• Wins: first pick of the sweets, choose the next game, first pick of the prizes at the end, the host pours your tea.
• Forfeits: sing two lines of any old Hindi song, read the news like a TV anchor for 20 seconds, pay a compliment to the person on your right.

Keep the forfeits light. A forfeit that embarrasses someone ends the game early. Roughly half wins and half forfeits, with a couple of blanks, keeps it lively; the ready set below is 16 chits in about that mix. Lucky chits are also the natural way to hand out small prizes when there are more members than Tambola wins.

2. Task chits

One-minute dares, played in turn. The member draws, reads it aloud and does it: walk across the room like a model on a ramp, describe your morning like a cricket commentator, name ten vegetables in 20 seconds, say the months of the year backwards.

Choose tasks anyone can do sitting or standing, with no props and nothing physical that could be awkward for older members. Score them by applause if you like, with a small prize for the best performance.

3. Who am I

Every player gets a chit with a famous name, stuck on her back or her forehead so everyone except her can see it. In turn, each asks one yes-or-no question: “Am I in films?” “Am I alive?” “Am I a cartoon?” When she thinks she knows, she guesses. Right, and she is out with a point; wrong, and she waits for her next turn.

Use names the whole group will know across ages: film stars and their famous characters (Gabbar Singh, Basanti, Mogambo), sports heroes (Sachin Tendulkar, Mary Kom), and cartoons the children made everyone watch (Chhota Bheem, Tom and Jerry). Fifteen minutes is about right for ten players.

4. Icebreaker questions

Pass the bowl. Each member draws a question and answers it: what was the first film you saw in a cinema, which dish could you eat every day for a year, what did you spend your first salary on. It is the gentlest game on this list, and the best one for a month when a new member joins, because everyone learns something without anyone being put on the spot.

5. The next host draw

Write every member’s name on a chit, fold them all the same way and draw one. Most kitties already do this, and it is the chit game where fairness matters most, because hosting costs money and time. The rules that stop arguments, and how to draw the whole year in one go, are in how to pick the next kitty host fairly.

6. The order of turns

The same name chits decide who goes first in anything else: who calls Tambola this month, who picks the theme, the order for dumb charades. Draw them all, one after another, and write down the order.

Making the chits

Handwritten chits have two problems: they take an evening to cut and write, and a sharp-eyed member can recognise a chit by its fold or its handwriting. Printed chits fix both.

The kitty party chits maker has five ready sets, matching the first five games here: 16 lucky chits, 16 tasks, 20 Who am I names, 16 icebreaker questions and a host draw to fill in with your members’ names. Pick one, edit any line or type your own list with one chit per line, and download an A4 or Letter PDF.

• 8 to a page for long tasks, 12 for most sets, 24 for names.
• Fold in half gives every chit a cover half with a label and a dotted fold line, so the words sit inside when folded.
• Every chit has a dashed border to cut along, and spare places on the last page are left blank to write on by hand.

Print at 100% (Actual size), not Fit to page, so the cut lines stay inside the margins.

For the draws, you can skip the paper altogether. Put the list on a phone or the TV and press Draw a chit: one comes up in large type, and no chit comes up twice until you press Start again.

Fitting chit games into the afternoon

A two-hour kitty fits one chit game easily. Lucky chits or task chits suit the start, while the last members arrive; Who am I or questions suit the tea break. Tambola is still the main event for most groups, and the twelve kitty party games guide plans the full afternoon around it. If your Tambola is played for a pot, the Tambola prize calculator splits it into rupees for each win before the first number is called.