20 Awesome Camping Games to Play at Night

The tent is set up, the sun is down, and Wi-Fi is nowhere to be found.

And then you realize… you don’t know how to stay entertained without lights or cell service! Now what?

Lucky for you, I’ve spent lots of dark nights at the campground and have tested plenty of games to have fun while unplugged from the grid.

What makes these good games to play at night on a camping trip?

• They don’t require a lot of light to see players or game pieces.
• They can be played with no electronics or Wi-Fi.
• They need little to no equipment, so you don’t have to buy or pack a lot of extra stuff in addition to your camping gear. The games that do need equipment only involve things you likely packed anyway (like flashlights).

Whether you’re camping with a small or large group or need games for families or adults, I’ve included a nighttime game for everyone on this list.

So light the campfire and get ready to play games all night! Here are 20 awesome camping games to play at night.

Use these links to navigate through different categories of games:

• Conversation games to play at night
• Group games to play at night
• Active games to play at night
• Drinking games to play at night

Related article: 35 Super Fun Camping Games For Adults

CONVERSATION GAMES TO PLAY AT NIGHT

All of these games only involve talking. These are some of the best camping games to play at night around the campfire since they don’t require moving, seeing players or game pieces, or sitting in a specific arrangement.

Two Truths and a Lie

Two Truths and a Lie is a fun way to get to know more about your friends and family. What better way to spend quality time together?

To play, one person lists 3 statements about themself. Two of the statements are true and one of the statements is a lie. Everyone else has to guess which one is the lie. Then it’s another person’s turn to come up with two truths and one lie about themself.

It can be a challenging game if you feel like you and the people you’re camping with know everything about each other. But it can be a great way to learn even more things about each other that may never come up in conversation otherwise, or just to see how many random facts you remember about each other.

Twenty Questions

Twenty Questions is a fun game to get your brain thinking.

To play, someone thinks of a person, place, or thing and keeps it a secret. Everyone else has to figure out what it is using 20 questions or less. The questions can only be yes or no questions. For example, you could ask “Is it bigger than a pencil?” but not “How big is it?”.

If the group gets stuck, you can resume this game in the morning! Twenty Questions also makes for a great game to help pass the time while you’re cooking meals, going on a hike, or hiding in your tent on a rainy day.

The Alphabet Game

The alphabet game is a memory game in which you take turns listing items starting with the letters A through Z. The challenge is that you have to remember and list every item previously mentioned before you say a new item.

For example, the first person may say, “I’m going on a camping trip and I’m bringing apples.” On the second player’s turn, they may say “I’m going on a camping trip and I’m bringing apples and bananas.” Then it would be the next person’s turn to list apples and bananas before listing an item that starts with the letter C, and so on.

This game is typically played with the prompt “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing…”. No matter what prompt you use, the items that players list don’t actually have to be relevant to the topic (you can totally bring a zebra camping when you get to the end of the alphabet!).

Would You Rather

Would You Rather is a game that can strike up interesting conversations and fuel lively debates.

To play, take turns coming up with two hypothetical scenarios and asking everyone which one they’d rather do. For example you might ask “Would you rather have the ability to fly or to be invisible?”

The scenarios can be as unpleasant, ridiculous, far-fetched, or profound as you can think of.

It’s a great game to pass the time whether you’re sitting around the campfire or staring up at the stars.

Never Have I Ever

Never Have I Ever is a great game to play with people you’re willing to be open with.

On your turn, you say something that you have never done. For example, you might say “Never have I ever gotten a speeding ticket.” Anyone who HAS done that thing has to take a drink.

Alternatively, if the people you’re camping with don’t drink, you could all hold up 3 fingers at the start of the game and anyone who has done the thing has to put one finger down. You’re out of the game when you’ve put down all of your fingers.

The things you share can be as mundane or risqué as you want, as long as you’ve never done them. 

I recommend playing this game with adults only. Even if you keep the topics PG and play by the non-drinking rules, the adults are at a bit of a disadvantage if you’re playing with kids with little life experience.

Truth or Dare

Truth or dare is a great way to bond with your fellow campers by sharing secrets and engaging in scandalous dares.

The rules are simple. On your turn, pick someone and ask them “Truth or Dare?”. That person will choose to either tell the truth or accept a dare.

If they choose “truth”, you get to ask a question that needs to be answered honestly. If they choose “dare”, you will suggest a challenge for them to do.

As with Never Have I Ever, the questions and dares can be as innocent or intimate as you want. It makes for a great camping game for couples if you use flirty prompts, yet it can also be played with groups that are less comfortable together if you keep the prompts tame.

Not feeling creative? Consider bringing a print out or screenshot with a list of prompts.

Drunk or Child

Drunk or Child is another game for the adults to play after the kids have gone to sleep.

It’s a silly game that lets you learn fun stories that have happened in each other’s lives.

Each person will tell crazy stories that happened to them in their past. The other people have to figure out if they were drunk or a child when these stories transpired. 

Avoid sharing any clues that give away when it would have taken place (for instance, places or people that would have only been relevant later in life).

Of course, this game doesn’t really apply if you or the people you’re camping with don’t drink.

Just a Minute

Just a Minute is a game from a popular BBC radio show that can be adapted for any number of players instead of a group of contestants. If you’re not familiar with the show, you can listen to past episodes to hear some examples.

One player is given a topic which they have to talk about for a full minute without hesitating, repeating themselves, or switching topics. If they do, they get a point. The next player then gets a new topic and has a minute to speak about their topic.

If a whole minute is too challenging, one variation is to see who can discuss their topic for the longest amount of time.

Shag, Marry, Kill

Shag, Marry, Kill is another game that can easily be played while doing other nighttime activities like making s’mores or stargazing.

To play this game, someone lists three celebrities and another player must choose one celebrity to shag, one to marry, and one to kill. After taking their turn, they present the next player with three celebrities to shag, marry, or kill and so on.

It can be interesting to hear what combinations other people choose!

This game is versatile for camping because it can be played anywhere in any size group. It’s simply an amusing prompt for conversation.

You Laugh, You Lose

You Laugh, You Lose is one of my favorite camping games. It’s a really fun game to play as it will have you laughing all night long!

On your turn, you have a minute to try and make your partner (or opposing team) laugh. If they laugh before one minute is up, you get a point, but they get a point if they keep a straight face the whole time. But, this is one of those games where having the most fun is more important than keeping score.

GROUP GAMES TO PLAY AT NIGHT

While many of the games on this list can be played by two or more players, the games in this category are best played with a large group. I recommend playing them with at least 6 or more players.

Mafia (Werewolves)

Mafia (also called Werewolves) is a go-to camping game for large groups.

In this game, mafia members and civilians try to kill each other off. The catch? You don’t know who’s on which side!

The full rules are pretty long but here’s an overview of the game setup and how the rounds work to get you started.

One person is chosen to be the narrator and will facilitate the game. The narrator will secretly assign some people the roles of mafia members, doctor, and detective so no one else knows the identity of these roles. Everyone else is a civilian. Many writeups of the rules will instruct you to assign these roles using cards, but you can just have everyone close their eyes and tap people on the head to silently designate the roles so you can play without using any equipment.

Once the roles have been assigned, the game play alternates between “night” and “day”. At night, everyone puts their head down and the narrator facilitates the mafia, doctor, and detective to take turns picking their heads up to silently play their parts.

First the narrator asks the mafia members to wake up and choose someone to kill by pointing at them. When they’ve come to a consensus they put their heads back down.

Next the narrator wakes up the doctor who silently chooses someone to save in the event they are the person that the mafia murdered.

Lastly the narrator wakes up the detective. The detective will point to someone to ask if that person is in the mafia, and the narrator must nod or shake their head to let them know.

The narrator then declares that it is daytime, at which point everyone lifts their heads back up. The narrator announces who the mafia killed off (and that they were saved, if they are the person that the doctor chose). Everyone must discuss who they think is in the mafia and agree to accuse one person of being in the mafia. When everyone agrees on one person, that person is killed and out of the game.

Continue alternating between day and night until all of the mafia members are eliminated or until the mafia outnumbers the civilians.

You can find a more detailed explanation of the rules of Mafia here.

Murder by Winking

If you think Mafia is too complex or takes too long to play, you may prefer the game Murder by Winking.

Murder by Winking is an excellent game to play around the campfire at night when everyone’s faces are obscured by flickering shadows.

Have everyone sit around the campfire and choose one person to be a neutral party for the round. This person’s job is to assign the role of murderer so no one else knows who the murderer is.

Once the neutral party is chosen, everyone else closes their eyes. The neutral party silently selects a murderer by walking around the circle and tapping one person on the head. They will then sit back down and tell everyone to open their eyes.

Resume having a normal conversation as if you aren’t playing a game. The murderer tries kill people one by one by winking at them – without getting caught by another person.

If the murderer winks at you, you die. Slump over and act dead! If someone witnesses the murder occur they can accuse the murderer by name.

If your accusation is correct, you win the game. But if your accusation is wrong, you die, so guess wisely! The goal is to catch the murderer before they kill everyone.

Telephone (Whisper Down the Lane)

Telephone is a group game that can be enjoyed by campers of any age.

The aim of the game is to get a word or phrase from one end of the group to the other only by whispering. See how much your message changed from the beginning to the end!

Get everyone together in a circle or line. One person comes up with a word or phrase and whispers it to the person next to them. That person whispers what they think they heard to the next person, and so on until everyone has heard the word or phrase.

The last person who had the phrase whispered to them will say what they heard out loud to the group. The person who came up with the phrase will then announce what phrase they started the round with.

It’s fun to have more people share what word they thought they heard to find out where the communication broke down and hear how many times the phrase got messed up along the way.

If you have a really large group, you could split everyone into two teams and see which team gets closest to the original word.

ACTIVE GAMES TO PLAY AT NIGHT

These games involve moving around your campsite so be careful walking or running around in the dark. Make sure you have spare batteries for your flashlights and headlamps in case you drain your power while playing these games!

Signals

Signals is a fun game for kids and adults alike.

You’ll need one flashlight or headlamp per person in order to play Signals.

Split players up into pairs. Each set of partners will have to come up with a unique flashlight signal (for example, one long flash followed by one short flash) that they will be able to recognize.

Once each group has created their signal, partners separate and scatter throughout the campsite. Have someone announce, “Ready, Set, Go!” at which point players begin flashing their signals. Partners race to find each other as quickly as possible and the first pair to reunite wins!

Signals is best played on a really dark night. A full moon or a campfire can make it too easy for partners to spot each other without using their flashlights.

Firefly

If you enjoy chasing fireflies in the summer, you’ll love playing Firefly the game.

The only equipment you’ll need is a flashlight or headlamp with a red light setting. You may be able to get away with holding a flashlight under a shirt. The idea is to have a light that has a warm glow rather than a powerful beam of light.

Choose someone to start out as the firefly and give them the headlamp. The firefly will move away from the rest of the group while the remaining players count to 20. After counting down, the remaining players look for the firefly.

The firefly should, well, act like a firefly – always move around and flicker the headlamp on and off about once a minute.

When someone catches the firefly, the round is over and a new firefly should be chosen.

Firefly is another game that is best played on a dark night without the brightness of a full moon to give away the location of the firefly.

Hide and Seek

If the classic game Hide and Seek is too easy for you, try playing in the dark for an added challenge!

One person closes their eyes and counts to 30 (or however much time you agree upon). While they’re counting, everyone else hides. Then the person who was counting has to go find the people who are hiding. Find everyone and then pick a new seeker for the next round.

When you’re playing hide and seek outdoors, it can be helpful to set boundaries of where it’s ok to hide. For example, hide only within your campsite or the campground. This will prevent the seeker from wandering all over the woods trying to find you.

I recommend giving everyone a buddy and a flashlight when you’re playing Hide and Seek at night so no one gets lost.

DRINKING GAMES TO PLAY AT NIGHT

If you’re looking for nighttime games to play on an adults-only camping trip, check out this list of drinking games. The only equipment you need for these games is booze.

Paranoia

Are you paranoid about what other people say about you?

In this game, you’ll get to find out what your fellow campers think about you – if you’re willing to drink.

To start a round, the person to your left whispers a question to you about the group of people you’re playing with. It could be something like “Who’s the funniest person here?” or “Who’s the most likely person to get fired from their job?”

You say your choice out loud to the whole group. Your answer must be someone in the group.

If anyone wants to hear what the question was, they first have to take a sip of their drink. The person who came up with the question will whisper the question to anyone who took a drink (don’t say the question out loud or else everyone will hear it whether they drank or not).

Cheers to the Governor

Cheers to the Governor is a typical drinking game where you make up silly rules as you go. Don’t forget to follow the rules or you’ll have to drink!

Set up the game by having everyone sit in a circle with a full drink. Go around the circle taking turns saying a number out loud from 1 to 21. Once someone gets to 21, everyone raises a toast and says “Cheers to the governor!”.

The player who gets to 21 creates a new drinking rule to implement on the next round of counting. For example, you could make a rule that whoever gets to the number 5 has to give someone a high five or that you must skip the number 13. If you break this rule during the rest of the game, you take a drink.

Once the rule has been established you restart the counting from one. Continue making a toast and a new rule every time someone reaches the number 21, keeping all of the previous rules that other players made.

This continues until there is a long list of rules. It gets harder and harder once there are a lot of rules to remember and a lot of mistakes have caused everyone to drink more!

I’m Going to the Bar

This game is like the Alphabet Game, but it’s more challenging because you don’t have the alphabet to aid your memory. Plus you’re drinking.

One person starts off the game by saying, “I’m going to the bar and I need to get a tequila sunrise (or any other alcoholic drink).” The next person repeats it and adds on another drink, such as, “I’m going to the bar and I need to get a tequila sunrise and a margarita.”

Each person repeats the list and tacks on another drink to the end of it. The first person to mess up the list takes a drink.

Let’s Go Camping

Although this game isn’t actually related to camping other than the name, what better time to play this than while on a camping trip?

Someone thinks of a place to go camping that you wouldn’t expect (for instance, a school). The remaining players guess what things they should bring in order to get clues about where they’re camping.

In this example, a tent is not relevant since you wouldn’t find a tent at a school. But a notebook is a relevant item to bring to school. If you guess an irrelevant item, take a drink.

The person who figures out the location starts off the next round by choosing the next destination.

You can definitely play this game without the drinking, but I think it’s more fun because there are higher stakes for guessing incorrect clues.

Related Articles:

• 35 Super Fun Camping Games For Adults
• 27 Incredibly Fun Camping Games for Couples
• 40 Fun Rainy Day Camping Activities (For All Ages)

As always, enjoy the outdoors responsibly. Leave no trace on all of your adventures.