When a group of people get together, ice breaker games are an excellent way to get everyone familiar with everyone else as soon as possible. As the name implies, you want to break the ice and get over the uncomfortable silence or awkward “Hi how are you” or “who do you know here”, and get into something that flows and is interesting.

Even those who think they know everyone well may be in for some surprises when you use more meaningful ice breaker games for adults questions. With a range of questions in mind, you can easily skip past the generic hello’s or warm-up questions and up the ante on the conversations quite quickly. You set the bar high for deeper conversations and keep the attention of the fast thinkers too.

At corporate events they can be quite basic and friendly being careful not to assume or offend, but as you get to know each other you want to go from “what is their favourite movie” to “why is it their favourite movie”, or deeper still, “what emotion does it evoke or trigger in you”.

Just like dating, you don’t want the questions to be too much too quick, or be over-assumptive, but there is nothing worse than polite chit-chat that goes on for too long or struggles to get off the ground. In general you want them to be open-ended questions allowing the respondent the chance to open up and share. You don’t want to be too presumptive though on heavy questions, or make it seem like an inquisition. It’s a skill to develop like many others but it takes time, and that why we created some questions for you and put them into a game to make them less formal.

We’ve also compiled some general ideas below, but the best solution is to buy a questions game like ours and either play the cards as an organised game, or select a few to memorise and use when suitable, or use the cards as the intermediary. “I found these cards and it said its a great way to get to know someone .. do you want to give it a go?”. Who could resist and then you are off and running.

We all know good questions elicit good answers and start off the deeper conversations and connection, but how to start. Well below are some basic ideas that are free and quick, but you’ll also see reference to our game where we’ve done all the work for you, and created a list of questions and provided the excuse for you to open them up.

If you don’t have questions, or question cards, then think about some of these as options:

1. Ask the group to go around in a circle, say their names and where they are from, then state why they’re here, what they want out of it and something random people may not know about them (sport, hobby, job, interest etc.)
2. Split everyone to team up into small groups for a personal scavenger hunt where they talk to each other to find things like “find someone who has an unique hobby” or “find the person who has traveled overseas the most recently”. This challenges people to start talking quickly and while the topics will be tightly focussed, the connection is made and further conversations often ensue in the next break
3. Have 4-6 people form a group and start sentences but leave out a key piece of information that the next person can follow e.g. Person one says “My favourite place to live is ___” and next person answers with their thought being “Boston because of the winters but I’d be equally happy to live in ___” and the next person says “California because I’m a surfer and if I wasn’t doing that I’d be ___” and the next person answers something like “I’d be at home creating a new video game ..”. It’s a challenge to get people talking and working together, and leaving some person clues for follow up conversations later.
4. Play word games. There are a number of word games that a group can play to get to know each other. For example, someone names a location and the next person must name a location that starts with the last letter of the previous spot. For example, if the first person said “Sweden,” then the next person would need to name a location that started with the letter “n” and so on. Another word game would involve “linking,” so the first person would say something like “blue,” and the next person would have to come up with a related word like “ocean,” or “sky,” and so on around the group.
5. Buy our game and deal each person a card to answer themselves, OR one person selects the top card, asks the question and each person answers. Once done the next person takes the next card and complete until everyone has had a turn. There are many ways to play listed in the instructions, but the best thing is that the questions are worked out for you so you just have to work out who starts and who goes next.

In some cases, you may want to break the ice when you are having a conversation one-on-one. Here are some ice breaker examples for these situations:

Ask your partner who they would have dinner with if they could have dinner with anyone in the world.

• Ask the person you are trying to start a conversation with if he or she has children or pets. People usually love to talk about their kids or their pets!
• Ask your conversation partner where they would travel if they could go anywhere in the world.
• Ask where your conversation partner’s favorite place is that he or she has already visited.
• Ask what type of animal your partner would be and why.

When looking for ice breakers for one-on-one scenarios, it is best to ask opened-ended questions that give people a chance to talk and to share something about themselves. Everyone appreciates people who are good listeners and who want to listen to what they have to say.

How Much Do You Use

A fun adult icebreaker game, this game can provide plenty of laughs.

1. Have the participants sit in a circle and tell them that you are going to pass around a roll of toilet paper.
2. Invite players to “take as much as they will need to get the job done.”
3. After every one has had a good laugh over the amount of paper they took, tell them that for every piece of toilet paper they ripped off, they must tell the group one thing about themselves.

Crazy Questions and Answers

An adult icebreaker game that can take quite a bit of time, Crazy Questions and Answers is perfect if the party is slow to start or bogs down halfway through.

You will need two index cards for each adult that will participate. If you collect and keep the carOn half of the cards, write as many questions as you have adults, and on the other half, write answers from our list.

1. Stack the cards in two piles, one for questions and one for answers.
2. The first player chooses a question and reads it aloud.
3. The next player chooses an answer and reads it aloud. These two cards are set aside.
4. Continue the game until all the questions have been asked and answered.
5. ds, you can use this game multiple times.

Scavenger Hunt

Put an adult twist on this well-known game.

1. Group the participants into teams of up to five.
2. Provide them with a list of items to find.
3. Choose items that can be found in the immediate areas or on-line. For example: a book, a digital photo of a pet, a pair of she, a picture of a child, a recording of a dog barking, and the address of a coffee shop in your area.
4. Tell participants to use the many types of technology that adults carry on a daily basis – cell phones, PDAs, laptops, etc. The team that finds the most items wins the game.

Pick a Straw

Good for any size group, you can vary the questions used to cover a variety of topics, groups, and situations.

1. Before the group arrives, count out straws or popsicle sticks, one for each participant. If you decide to use this game at the last minute, no problem. You can simply use

notes or small slips of paper.

1. Place them in a bowl, box, or bag after marking 20% of them, i.e. two for every ten.
2. Have each member of the group draw a straw and, if the one they draw is marked, they answer the question.

How Game Are You?™ ORIGINAL EDITION

This How Game Are You?™ Original EDITION includes 150 thought provoking questions for friends and family, date nights, workplace ice-breakers or road trips. Three levels of question allow you to pick the right tone for the players and you can play short or long games and everyone’s a winner due to increased fun together, understanding and connection.

This is an easy game anyone can play. Just select a card, ask a question and yourself or the other player answers. New thoughts and conversations arise and communication goes from “how are you”, to “who are you”. Suitable for friends, family, workplace, couples, date nights, road trips and as icebreakers for new acquaintances.

So there you go, the best ice breaker games for adults. We hope we’ve helped you determine the game you want and if it’s a good card game you are after, then go grab a copy of our How Game Are You?™ ORIGINAL EDITION game to help take your trip filled with conversation, learning and fun.

View the full details here or Buy Now for quick delivery direct from our website or through Amazon (US) and Amazon (AU).

All too often, we find ourselves glued to our smartphones and gadgets socializing online instead of face-to-face, and the latter is by far a more rewarding experience and better investment of your time to build your relationship. Conversation games are games that require only conversational ability.

Breaking out some new conversation topics or original thoughts can be challenging. Likewise you might have good ideas, but they follow a similar pattern around the kids, or parents or work. It’s fresh new conversations that usually bring the best insights so how can you do this? 

For groups you can foster real conversations by hosting an afternoon tea, dinner gathering or a small party and say that you are trying to meet a challenge and have a gathering 100% free of mobile phones – just people talking. Start with maybe 3 friends and work up if it appeals. Add in a couple of prepared questions or ask people to bring along a topic for discussion.

An alternative to doing the hard work yourself is looking at the different pre-made conversation games to find what suits your audience and let the games begin. This style of conversation game can often be played almost anywhere, with almost anyone and even if the conversation topics ended up a little trivial at first, conversation on this often starts to take things in another direction. Sometimes these games are called conversation starters, and that’s exactly where to begin. 

Here are a few conversation games to consider:

Famous Game ( a non-card or board game more suited to movie buffs)

Almost everyone loves to talk about their favorite movie stars or musicians. In the famous game, one player mentions a famous person and a second player mentions another famous person that has some sort of connection to the first. Another player must then guess the connection.

It could be that they are two actors who played roles in the same film, it could be that they both used to date or were married to the same person, and so on.

This is a fun and light-hearted way to break the ice at social gatherings and gets everyone talking and laughing.

Two Truths and a Lie (a non-card or board game more suited to new friends or new couples) 

In this game, each player takes turns telling the other players three random things about themselves. Two of the things will be true and one will be something completely made up. The other players will guess which of these things is false.

This is a great game for learning new things about people you’ve recently met, and you may even learn a few surprises about friends you’ve known for a long time.

Twenty Questions (the original question game and more suited to patient players working through the mental options)

This is a spoken parlor game designed in the early 1900’s which encourages deductive reasoning and creativity through questions. It originated in the United States and was played widely, escalating to popularity during the late 1940s when it became the format for a successful weekly radio quiz program.

In this deductive question game, one player is chosen to be the answerer. That person chooses a subject (object) but does not reveal this to the others. All other players are questioners. They each take turns asking a question which can be answered with a simple “Yes” or “No.”

The answerer answers each question in turn and lying is not allowed in the game. If a questioner guesses the correct answer, that questioner wins and becomes the answerer for the next round. If 20 questions are asked without a correct guess, then the answerer has stumped the questioners and gets to be the answerer for another round.

Would You Rather (more suited as light-hearted fun than deep conversations)

This is a game of rhetoric and can be quite fun as it gets the imagination going. This game could involve very light-hearted questions or more serious questions that really get the players thinking. Which way you go with the questions will depend on the ages of those playing.

Players take turns posing imaginary scenarios to the other players and they have to choose the scenario they would rather have play out. The questions can even be about things that aren’t currently possible, such as “Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?”

Each question and answer opens the door to further conversation, as many times other players will want to know why a certain player answered the way that they did.

How Game Are You? Couples Intimacy Edition (more suited to couples or very close friends)

This is a couples specific game – for one couple, 2 or very close friends (not necessarily romantic interests but open to share their views/experiences). It’s a respectful adult board game designed to expand a couples connection and intimate relationship through fun real-life conversations and topics covering general knowledge, relationship questions, sex and emotional intimacy.

This is the perfect experience to take your relationship up another level.There is a mixture of trivia for ice-breakers, and questions where the more open and honest you are, usually the more place you earn on the board. You play around 36 questions per game and it really gets the couple talking, sharing and learning about the world and more so each other.

Truth or Dare (more suited to groups or as a drinking style game)

The game of candid confessions and daring deeds, this game uses questions as facts and challenges. A classic game is given a new twist, with answers to pop culture questions determining who has to answer the truth or act out a dare.

Truth or Dare uses questions as facts and challenges. Be the first player to get rid of all Truth or Dare cards in your hand. Answer pop culture trivia questions correctly in order to force your opponent to tell the truth. If you answer the question incorrectly, you will be subjected to an outrageous dare.

To win the game, you might have to lick another player’s arm, run around the block howling like a coyote, or stand on your head? Play Truth or Dare to find out how far you will go to win!

Never Have I Ever (more suited to open-minded and sometimes thick-skinned people).

Questions here are designed to tease out information you might not normally share or have considered e.g “Never Have I Ever… put gum under a table” and the respondent has to admit “yes” or “no”  The questions add a degree of challenge and discovery between the players, but it can also be a bit confronting.

Never Have I Ever presents the BEST opportunity to learn hilarious facts about the people you THOUGHT you knew. It’s fast, fun, and perfect for your next game night.

Conversation can ensue afterwards on an answer you gave, but the game is more suited to just fun and laughter with twists and turns on how you expected people to answer. 

So we hope we’ve helped you determine the style of game you want, and have also been able to direct you to the best conversation game for you. 

If it’s a couples game you are after, then go grab a copy of our How Game Are You?™ Intimacy Edition game to help take your conversations and fun to a whole new level.  View full details here or Buy Now  for quick delivery direct or through Amazon (US) and Amazon (AU).

A saving money game can help set you up for saving and then investing success. When money is tight, often the first step os to just look for even more ways to save money. It is important to follow the basics like prioritizing debt paydown first, putting 10% of all money aside for this or saving, living more frugally etc., but often the missing link is your money mindset, and a saving money game is the perfect way to break the pattern of barely getting by financially to the abundance path. It is so important to make saving money a priority and create a plan that sits well with you, but also take away the emotional shackles.

Your own financial psychology plays an over-riding part and it’s worth looking into beliefs you may have  that make saving/spending easy or hard? Many times people win major lottery prizes and within years are back to struggling because they didn’t look at their money patterns and so they ended up exactly where they emotionally thought they should be.

If in your formative years from parents or your own observations you decided that ‘Money is always hard to get’, or ‘Easy come easy go’, or ‘always forgoe todays temptations to create tomorrow’s treasures’, they will each support or hijack your money efforts. To be effective you need the right mental attitude, as well as the right physical skills. For this reason we created a Money Game to help uncover some of your beliefs, that of your partner or friends too, and become more confident in the fact that you are the master of your own money saving game of life and therefore your financial freedom, but it definitely needs a well considered understanding of your emotion part in the process, and after dealing with that, adding on the good physical saving (and investing) habits.

Here is an overview of the money saving game and also a summary on the key ways to save money on a tight budget:

1. Saving money game 

The ‘Couples Money Edition’ is a fun, educational and enjoyable way to learn, share and bring out topics to discuss well after the game is over.

You learn about money, get comfortable with the terminology no matter what your current level, understand you and your partner’s money patterns or biases and open ways to communicate further and make a meaningful change towards an easier and more fruitful financial future. There are over 150 cards and follow up tasks and it ends up a really fun way to learn and explore.

While this game is in final testing and manufacture, we recently launched our ‘Couples Intimacy Edition’ game to help couples communicate and learn about their relationship beliefs, and the Money Game will follow in the coming months.

You can get an early taste by adding your details to our early access form for How Game are You? Money Edition cards, or just subscribe for our updates and as soon as the full game is ready we’ll let you know and give you an early-bird discount.

Once you have your money mind sorted, the rest of these topics will be much easier to achieve and will be the result of focussed choice, rather than just vulnerable will-power.

2. Find a way to cut back on big expenses

Look at your overall budget. Like checking if your car payment is too much or finding a cheaper place to live that is still nice. These options may be the last steps you take as you look for ways to increase your savings and can help you save a good amount of money on your bills each month.

The lower you keep these costs, the easier it will be to stick to your budget. If you do decide to sell your car, be sure that you know how to handle it correctly and that you buy a reliable inexpensive car. 

3. Work on paying off your debt

High-interest debt, like credit cards, can eat up your monthly income. Taking steps to pay off your credit cards as quickly as possible will free up additional money in your budget and make it possible for you to do more things with your money. If you want to be more comfortable and save getting rid of your debt is an important step.

4. Look at your food bill

This is another good way to save money on a tight budget. Many of these changes will also benefit your waistline, though it may take a bit longer for you to prepare your food each day. The best thing you can do is to stop eating out.

If you are eating out every day, you can easily save more than $50 a week or even more if you are eating out at more great establishments. If you rarely eat out, you can save money by cutting the convenience foods and cooking your own food.

5. Change Your tselevision ervice

One of the easiest ways to find extra money to put towards saving money is to cancel your cable bill. You may want to cancel everything entirely, but if that does not appeal to you consider using Netflix or Hulu to get your television fix. The combined services cost about $16.00 a month, and you can put the extra savings in the bank each month.

6. Taking advantage of online deals

It is important to budget money for entertainment costs, but you can save money on these costs by taking advantage of online deals that you can get through Amazon Local, LivingSocial or Groupon.

The trick is to buy the ones that you know you will use and to stop once you have hit your limit for the month. You can score some great deals on everything but need to be careful that you do not end up spending more than you planned once you are there.

7. Switch to cash for your daily expenses

While it may not be practical to pay your rent or utility bills in cash, switching to cash for entertainment expenses and your grocery bill can help you cut back on your spending. It not only helps to have a hard limit on your spending but will also help you determine the best way to use the money that you do have since you will be prioritizing the money you spend shopping.

8. Cut every expense category a little bit

When you are on a tight budget, you may have already cut all the extra from the budget that you can manage. This would have no gym memberships, no cable television, and very little entertainment. But when you are just getting by, you still need to save money each month.

Find ways to save $5 to $10 per category in your budget and put that money toward your savings or emergency fund. You can often save another $5 per week at the grocery store by dropping one item from your list.

If you conserve fuel, you may be able to cut back on the amount you spend on gas each month. Adjust your thermostat so that you are not paying as much in heating and cooling costs.

SUMMARY.

So there you have it. Work on the mind first and discover your empowering and limiting money beliefs, then refocus that energy using the physical skills of money saving and investing. We wish you well on your journey and hope you’ve subscribed to get early access to the Money Game when it’s first available.

Are you the sort that will either avoid the money topic, or talk about anything else before you consider talking with your partner about finances? Don’t worry, it’s very common but you pay the price long term.

Perhaps the reason is because money symbolizes different things to different people. Power, control, security, or love, for instance. Perhaps you know you need to change something but are just avoiding it, only to find out the problem usually grows over time.

Money issues are the driving force in most divorces. But you can live happy, financially speaking, if you work at not letting financial issues come between you and your partner.

Here are some tips for talking with your partner about finances:

1. If your relationship is the priority, you’ll both have to be willing to negotiate. Share your feelings, experiences, and hopes about money. Discuss how you dealt with money with family and past relationships, what it meant to you when you were young. Volunteer your own feelings and it may encourage your partner to do the same. It’s about sharing and honesty, not about solutions at this stage.

2. If you’ve always been independent, it may be hard for you to be managed financially. Be honest with yourself about how you feel. You may feel fear about risking your hard-earned money, or resentment if your partners spending habits are not good. You must be honest with yourself and know where you stand and be honest in talking with your partner about finances

3. Its best to talk openly about a lack of trust and deal with it, or find solutions or set expectations together and then be happily proven wrong. This is a first conversation and it might take a few conversations or a few attempts over a year to test ideas but your relationship will be stronger once you learnt how to navigate the money issues, than be disappointed or harbour resentment.

4. Don’t wait until a financial issue arises to raise the subject but find a good time to talk in a safe time for all parties. The goal is to have a calm, relaxed discussion when there’s no money issue at hand. It’s about disclosure, learning, developing a common understanding and workable goals, either 100% as a couple or individually contributing to a pool for the relationship and maybe managing the excess each other has personally.

5. If you find it hard to talk about money; seek out a counselor to help you with your financial issues or of course play our new Money Game coming out soon. A financial counselor or a therapist or marriage counselor can often help or even start with a book on the topic that you both read or allocate one person to read, report back and agree to implement new strategies learnt if they are applicable to your circumstances as a couple.

Some options for merging finances for couples

1. Discuss and develop a formal couples joint spending and savings goal and each put money into a joint card, then each partner manages their own personal spending money allocation in a separate account.

2. Financial trust builds when you know where your money is going and are both working to it, given some personal spending flexibility as well. Keeping a budget is an investment in your future as a couple and generally ‘what gets measured gets attention’, and ‘what you focus on gets the most results’, so budgets and maybe a monthly review is sound advice.

3. Designate one person as the bill payer, but the other person should be involved and should know what needs to be done and how to do it if needed, but one person takes responsibility so it gets done and save late fees too not know who paid or didn’t.

4. Each of you should have at least one debit card in your own name to maintain a separate credit history. If one of you has a cash problem, or you divorce or your spouse dies, it will be difficult or impossible to get a mortgage, loan, or credit card without a solid history. Keep the joint card for everyday expenses and if you need to build one person’s history, transfer the joint money to the personal account and pay the bill straight away.

5. Buy/borrow a book or do a mini course on personal finance management if you’re not sure. There are many good resources and the education is easier than you might think.

6. Hold a meeting each month to go over your finances, see how you went, what can be improved, celebrate if you met you goals or over-chavied on them. Don’t be hard if you didn’t meet the goals, this is a learning experience and sometimes extra bills come up. Just learn and move on as a couple.

A key them above is taking time to know your numbers and allocate quality time in a safe (non-threatening) way, to start talking with your partner about finances. Also go on our list for early advice on the How Game Are You?™ Money Edition game. It’s sure to help develop more understanding, skills and there are some special couples questions included.

Here are 11 great tips for those who likes the idea of being richer. These money-making lessons are shared so younger generations, who don’t have money-mentor parents, can be given some easy-to-read and understand guidance. So here they are:

Great Tips For People Who Likes The Idea Of Being Richer:

1. Work out what bank, building society or credit union you want to work with.
2. Create a plan to build wealth. Our plan was to buy the worst house in the best street in an up-and-coming suburb, then renovate it, learning to do a lot of the work ourselves. We then would sell it, capital gains tax-free and trade up to a better house, which was again the worst house in the best street. Of course, the “best street” was a goal and wasn’t always achievable but we went for ‘OK to improving’ streets and the strategy worked.
3. Make sure your super is in a good performing fund and that you aren’t paying more than 1% a year. If you ignore this advice and have an expensive and poor performing fund over 40 years of work, you could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars from your nest egg when you retire.
4. Put your spending life under the money microscope. It’s called doing a budget. This is where you find out where your money is going.
5. After you see where you’re spending your money, promise yourself that you’ll GST yourself! This is step two. Put a 10% tax on your spending, so if you spent $50,000 a year, your goal would be to cut that by $5,000!
6. Now you’ve got the money, decide how you’ll grow this $5,000. If you did this, say at age 25 and worked for 40 years and invested this $5,000, getting say a 9% gain after tax, your first $5,000 saved would roll over, doubling every 8 years until at age 65, when it would be $160,000! And if you found $5,000 every year of your working life, you’d be a multi-millionaire when you stopped work. How? It’s called compound interest and your 9.5% compulsory super will give you a million but your $5,000 a year strategy makes you above average compared to most Australians.
7. Learn about the stock market and easy investment products called exchange traded funds (ETFs). It pays to become comfortable about stocks. Exchange traded funds can be bought on the stock market. They have lots of stocks piled into one product. An ETF called IOZ has the top 200 companies on the Australian stock market in one buyable ‘stock’. You could sign up with an online broker and buy some units and when you were driving home from work, if you heard that “the stock market was up 2% today”, you’d be 2% richer! It pays to learn about stocks.
8. Look after your stuff. We waste money by not repairing shoes, painting the house, servicing the car and even looking after our body, so we’re fit and brimming with positivity and someone every employer wants to employ.
9. Invest in yourself. Don’t be afraid to go to a personal trainer or do courses to make you smarter, richer and even more relaxed about life. There’s a great book called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill that makes the simple case that you can think yourself into a space where you make better decisions — and the payoff is more success and more money.
10. Hang out with great, positive and success-oriented people. If you’re in business, find a great accountant. If you’re too busy to do your own financial planning, find a trustworthy adviser and learn from him or her. Join groups, go to conferences like those put on by Tony Robbins, read books on self-improvement and biographies of highly successful people.
11. Write down how you’ll boost your income, either from being the best employee in the country or via starting a business. This will be a work-in-progress effort, but you must see what the future path will be. You need to SWOT yourself to know your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Then you need to get in your strength zone and make your weaknesses irrelevant over time. These lessons will help you do it. You’re like a brand in the economy and you must make yourself distinctive, competitive, competent and attractive. If you do that, you will achieve a lot.

To those tips who likes the idea of being richer, you must desire success and then do what’s needed to achieve it. That makes all the difference. Money is like applause from an audience. If you get your act together, the money will follow, like the clapping a great performer receives. If you need any help in starting a discussion about money, we’d like to invite to get an early access to our How Game are You? Money Edition cards, a suite of game cards that promote real-life conversations around money. To receive sample cards and be advised of the launch dates, pricing, etc., just add your details to the form at the very bottom of this page.

SOURCE:  11 money lessons for the young and cashless