We’re having Game Night at the Godless Perverts Social Club, at Wicked Grounds in SF on Tuesday, January 3. Our game nights in San Francisco are among our most popular events, and we’re doing something different this time! We usually do tabletop games at our game nights — but we did parlor games once in our Oakland location, and people have asked for more of it. So on January 3, we’re doing parlor games!

We’ve compiled a list of games that can be played sitting in one place, with no equipment other than paper and pen (which we’ll provide). And some games don’t even need that! Just people, words, and brains. Scroll to the end of this announcement to see a list of games, with brief summaries — or just click here. And if you have favorites that aren’t listed, please let us know!

The Social Club will be on Tuesday, January 3, 7-9 pm, at Wicked Grounds, 289 8th St. in San Francisco (near Civic Center BART). Wicked Grounds has beverages, light snacks, full meals, and kickass milkshakes. If you want to attend and can’t afford cafe coffee prices, Wicked Grounds customers have bought beverages “for the wall,” so anyone who wants to can hang out there without worrying about cost.

Community is one of the reasons we started Godless Perverts. There are few enough places to land when you decide that you’re an atheist; far fewer if you’re also LGBT, queer, kinky, poly, trans, or are just interested in sexuality. And the sex-positive/ alt-sex/ whatever- you- want- to- call- it community isn’t always the most welcoming place for non-believers. So please join us! Hang out with other nonbelievers and chat about sex, sexuality, gender, atheism, religion, science, social justice, pop culture, and more. All orientations, genders, and kinks (or lack thereof) are welcome.

Godless Perverts presents and promotes a positive view of sexuality without religion, by and for sex-positive atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other non-believers, through performance events, panel discussions, social gatherings, media productions, and other appropriate outlets. Our events and media productions present depictions, explorations, and celebrations of godless sexualities — including positive, traumatic, and complex experiences — focusing on the intersections of sexuality with atheism, materialism, skepticism, and science, as well as critical, questioning, mocking, or blasphemous views of sex and religion.

Godless Perverts is committed to feminism, diversity, inclusivity, and social justice. We seek to create safe and welcoming environments for all non-believers and believing allies who are respectful of the mission, and are committed to taking positive action to achieve this. Please let the moderators or other people in charge of any event know if you encounter harassment, racism, misogyny, transphobia, or other problems at our events.

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PARLOR GAMES

Two Truths and a Lie. Each player says three things about themselves, two truths and one lie. The other players guess/vote on which one is the lie. If you feel like scoring, each guesser gets one point for each correct guess, and the guessee gets one point for each person they fooled.

Telephone. The classic, and a good game for skeptics. One person whispers a short phrase to the next person, who then whispers what they heard to the next. The last person says the sentence they heard out loud.

Don’t Get Me Started. Each player in turn is given a topic to rant about, presumably a pretty innocuous one, and then makes up a complaining rant about it.

Questions. Players have a conversation in which all the statements are questions. (Example: “Would you like to play Questions?” “How do you play Questions?” “You mean you’ve never played Questions before?”) No statements, rhetorical questions, or repetitions of previous questions.

Outright Lie. Players pass a small object around the circle (or simply identify an object) and make up incredible stories about it. Example: “This necklace was buried in my grandmother’s yard in a sealed envelope from an anonymous lover.” If you want to keep score, the players vote on the best story.

If You Were A Tree… Each player in turn thinks of a famous person. Other players try to guess who they’re thinking of by asking questions like, “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” “If you were a food item…” “If you were a building…”

Boticelli. Sort of like Twenty Questions. Each player in turn thinks of a famous person (alive or dead) who all the other players will be familiar with. They say the first initial of that person’s last name (e.g., if you’d picked Boticelli, you’d say, “I’m a B.”). The other players get a chance to ask a yes-or-no narrowing down question, by making guesses that might stump the “judge.” (Example: “Were you a catcher for the Cincinnati Reds?” If the “judge” says, “No, I am not Johnny Bench,” they don’t get a yes-or-no narrowing down question. If the “judge” doesn’t know who the guesser is asking about, the guesser gets a yes-or-no narrowing down question (like, “Are you alive?” “Are you in the arts?” “Are you a woman?”) Once the field has been narrowed, stumping questions have to fit the narrowed field (i.e., once it’s been determined that the person is alive, guessers can’t ask stumping questions about dead people).

Primes. Good for people who like numbers. Players go around in a circle counting off the numbers starting with 2 (2, 3, 4…) — except instead of saying the number, they replace any prime number with a word, and any composite number with the words of the primes it’s made of. So the first player might say “Plum” for 2, the next might say “Gem” for 3, the next would say “Plum Plum” for 4, the next might say “Dogs” for 5, the next would say “Plum Gem” for 6…

And of course, there are various variations on group storytelling.

If paper and pens are a workable option, some other options are:

Dictionary. Each player in turn picks an obscure word from the dictionary. Other players make up definitions. All definitions including the real one are read out loud. Players guess which one is the real one. If you feel like scoring, players gets one point for everyone who guessed their fake definition, and the “judge” gets one point for every wrong guess.

Telephone Pictionary. Each player starts with a piece of paper and a pencil. At the top of the paper, each player writes a sentence. Then they pass the papers to their left. The next player “draws” the sentence a la Pictionary, then folds the paper so only the drawing is visible and passes it to their left. The next player looks at the drawing and writes a sentence that they think the drawing represents. This continues until all players have their original paper back, and players read the garbles sentences out loud.

Story Train. Each player writes a sentence and passes it on to the next player, who does the same, folding the previous sentence over so each new player can only read one previous sentence. When everyone’s written on every paper, the pieces are read out loud.

Exquisite Corpse. Each player writes down a word, folds the paper, and passes it to the next player, who then writes another word and repeats. All players choosing words that are in the same part of speech at the same time (i.e., all sentences will end up in the structure “adjective, noun, verb, adjective, noun.”) Sentences are read out loud.

Various “who wrote this?” guessing games. All players write the answer to some question (“what’s your favorite animal?” “what was the first piece of music you bought with your own money?”), the papers are mixed up, and players guess who wrote what. Alternatively, each player writes a fact about themselves, the papers are mixed up, and players guess who wrote what.