Kingdoms (Youth Ministry Game)

The purpose of this game is to form kingdoms. The largest kingdom wins! All you need are materials to make a list so it is super easy. This could be used as a youth group game or even a middle school VBS game.

This is a large group game which requires players to use their memory and to help their “kings”. It works well with 20 or more people. It can be played indoors or outdoors.

Materials

• paper
• pen or pencil

Instructions

1. One person will be the facilitator. He or she will choose a category. For example, animals or Disney characters.
2. Each other person will choose to be something in the category. For example, if the category is “animals” they might choose “fox” or “swan” etc. They do not tell the other players what they have chosen.
3. They each tell the facilitator what they have chosen and the facilitator writes it down along with the player’s name. This might be done in the hallway or across the room, where the other players cannot hear. If the item has already been chosen by another player, they must choose something else.
4. After the facilitator has written down what everyone is, the facilitator reads the list of animals or characters or whatever to the whole group – once and only once. Don’t tell them why this is being done. And don’t tell them who each item in the list represents.
5. The players stand in a circle. Use a random method to determine who goes first.
6. The first player names a thing from the category. The person who chose that thing is now a vassal, and stands behind the player, who is a king. Vassals do not get to guess words themselves, but can suggest them to their king.
7. If the person guesses a thing which is not in the list, nothing happens. There is no penalty, but on the other hand, they don’t get a vassal.
8. If a the thing guessed belongs to somebody who is a king, their entire kingdom (including the king) become vassals of the person who guessed it.
9. Continue in a clockwise direction until everyone is either a king or a vassal. Or you can play until there are only two kingdoms.
10. The largest “kingdom” wins.

Notes

• You need a large enough group that it will be difficult for players to remember everything on the list
• It is easier at first but should become more difficult to remember items
• The facilitator should not read the list again. But, if someone has forgotten the thing they chose, the facilitator can quietly remind them, out of earshot of the others.