21 Tent Games You Can Play When It’s Raining

While you can check a weather report to see if it’s going to rain, you can never know for sure whether or not it will rain during your camping trip.

A rainy day can either make or break your camping fun, but you shouldn’t let it. Whether it’s a card game, a board game, or a lawn game, there are several ways to have fun when it’s raining. Here are some fun camping games that the whole family can play. 

1. Charades

Charades is a good game to play with the whole family. You can use any kind of reference to play it, and you can play it anywhere! Here’s how to play: one player acts out a situation, movie, book, tv shows, etc. The rest of the campers try to guess what the person is acting out, and the person who guesses correctly gets a point. 

This game is fairly easy because there aren’t many rules. You can play in teams, having one team member act something out and the rest of the team members guessing. Or, you can play individually. The main thing to remember is to have fun. This game can get very competitive, so it’s important to stay calm, cool, and collected. 

2. Ring Toss

You can play this game with some old water bottles or soda bottles that you have with you. Or, you can buy a ring toss set on Amazon for fairly cheap. You play by setting up the bottles in the shape of a pyramid and make them very close together. Well, not too close, but make the pyramid dense. 

The first person will get the rings in their hands and toss them into the pyramid of bottles. The adjective is to get all the rings to hook around the bottles. Once everyone gets the chance to throw all the rings available, the person who hooked the most bottles wins. One way to spice this game up is by playing it with glow sticks instead of regular rings. It’ll be a great way to make the kids have even more fun. 

3. Two Truths and A Lie

While this is a fun game, it might be challenging for families because they probably know enough about other people to know what’s true and what’s not. However, it’s a good game to play on company camping trips and multiple family camping trips.

One person starts by sharing three facts about themselves, and two of them are true while one is false. Everyone in the group has to guess which fact the lie was. This is more of a getting to know you game, which is why it better suits coworkers or multiple families. If you want to keep score, it’d be easier to write it all down on a piece of paper instead of trying to remember in your head. 

4. I’m Going On A Picnic

This game is interesting because it could be anything you want it to be. So, the first person starts by saying, “I’m going on a picnic, and I’m going to bring…” They say something that starts with the first letter of the alphabet, A. It goes to the next player, who says what the first person said and includes something with the letter B. 

It goes on like that until the end of the alphabet, with the last person trying to remember what everyone said before them. It’s not a points game; it’s more of a time-filling game. It can be good for kids because they can explore their vocabulary. 

5. Tic-Tac-Toe

Most people have heard of tic-tac-toe, and it’s a great game to play in pairs. First things first, you draw a grid of three by three boxes. Next, you decide who will be X’s and who will be O’s. The person who is X’s will start by drawing an X in whichever box they choose.

The other person will draw an O in any of the remaining boxes. This will continue back and forth until one person has three in a row or all the boxes are full. Three in a row can be sideways, up and down, or diagonal. The best thing about this game is that it doesn’t get old; you can play it as many times as you want. It requires a little bit of practice because it requires more skill than people realize.

6. Jenga

You’ll have to buy this game to play it, but it’ll be worth it because it’s a great family game. It comes with 54 wooden blocks that you build into a tower. Each row should have three blocks in it, and the direction of the rows should alternate.

According to the rules, whoever built the tower is the first person to play. They will pull one block out of wherever they want in the tower, except for the top row. Once they pull out their block, they must place that block on the top of the tower so the game can seemingly continue forever.

However, the game is over when someone causes the tower to fall in any way. One way to spice up this game is by writing truths and dares on the blocks and playing truth or dare with Jenga. 

7. Bocce Ball

Bocce ball is a classic game that many people enjoy, but you’ll have to purchase the equipment for this one too. It requires eight big balls and one smaller ball. Everyone is divided into two teams, and each team gets four balls. You can figure out which team starts however you want, but most people do a coin toss.

Whoever wins the coin toss rolls or throws the object ball, which is the smaller one. The teams then go back and forth tossing their balls at the object ball, attempting to get as close to the object ball as possible. After both teams have tossed all their balls, each team gets points according to how close each of their balls got to the object ball. It continues until one team reaches 21 points. 

8. Go Fish

Go fish is a game that everyone in the family likes, even the older kids.  You’ll need basic playing cards to play this game. The goal of this game is to get as many four of a kind as you can, and the higher the numbers, the better your score will be.

One person will be the dealer, and everyone gets seven cards. Once everyone has all of their cards, the person to the left of the dealer begins by asking someone if they have certain cards. For example, someone could ask you, “Do you have any sixes?”

If the person does, they have to give you all of the sixes that they have. If they don’t, then they say, “Go fish.” The game is over after all of the books (four of a kind) have been won. Whoever has the most books wins. 

9. Crazy Eights

This game can also be played with regular playing cards, so you probably won’t have to spend any money to play this one. The dealer will give everyone five cards face down and place the remaining cards in the center. The person to the left of the dealer begins to play, and they pick a card up off the stockpile and place it upside down next to the stack.

They then must lay down a card that matches the face-up card’s suit or number. If the player doesn’t have one that matches, they can draw from the pile until they get one. Or, they can put an eight down because eights are allowed on anything. The first person to get rid of all of their cards wins. 

10. Uno

The game Uno is a household name, and while it’s a card game, it requires you to buy specific Uno cards. To win, you need to get rid of all your cards. First, begin by shuffling the entire deck. The dealer is picked, they deal everyone seven cards, and they set one card face up in the center.

The remaining cards are placed into a deck next to the face-up card. The person to the left of the dealer will then play a card that either matches the color or number of the face-up card. There are special cards that can only be played with corresponding colors, such as draw two, reverse, and skip.

There are also regular wild cards and draw four wild cards that you can play at any time to change the color that’s being played at the moment. The one catch about this game is that you have to announce when you only have one card left by saying, “Uno.” If you forget to say it and someone calls you out on it, you then have to draw four cards from the stockpile. 

11. Chutes and Ladders

This is a great family game because kids don’t need to know how to read to play this game. The objective is to move your piece to the end of the board. You’ll need to purchase this game if you don’t have it. You can either play it with dice or a spinner. 

The first person to play will roll the dice or spin the spinner to determine how many places they can move their piece on the board. If they land on a ladder, they can move up the board to the end of the ladder. Then, the next person will go, and the game will continue until someone lands on the 100th square. If you land on the top of a chute, you have to slide down to the bottom of it.

12. Candy Land

Another board game that you’ll have to buy, but this is a favorite among kids. To win, you draw cards and try to get your playing piece to the Candy Castle. This game comes with cards that have either one or two colors, which means that you move your playing piece to that color. 

Or, the card will have a treat that shows up on one square of the board, such as an ice cream cone, a lollipop, and a peanut. These cards mean that you go to the square with the icon that corresponds with your card. You will have to go back if you draw an icon card that has a square behind you. 

13. Cornhole

This is always a favorite camping game for many people, and it’s an outdoor game. It involves bean bags and cornhole boards, so you’d need to prepare if you want to play this game. You place the boards 27 feets apart and facing so they slant towards each other.

There are two teams of two or just two people playing against each other, and they all take turns throwing the bean bags at the board that’s opposite of them. The goal is to get to 21 points before the other team or person does. You score by making a bean bag on the board for one point or in the hole for three points.

However, points cancel out, so you could get all four of your bean bags in the hole and get no points because so did your opponent. This happens to be one of the most classic camping activities, rain or shine. You might not have to buy cornhole boards too; you could DIY them at home if you’re good at building things. 

14. Monopoly

Just about everyone knows what Monopoly is and that it’s a good time-consuming game. The rules are slightly confusing, but here’s the gist. One person is the banker, and the banker has all of the money that’s left after passing out the right amount to the other players and themselves.

Each player starts with their piece on “GO,” and one player begins by rolling the two dice and moving that number on the board. Because they went first, they have the option of buying the property that they land on or not. Then, the next person goes, and so on and so forth.

If you land on a property that someone owns, you have to pay rent. A player can purchase houses and hotels to place on their properties to make the other players pay more rent when they land on that square. A player can also land on a square that says “Go To Jail,” and they have to move to the square that reads “JAIL.”

Each time a player passes the “GO” space, they collect $200 from the bank. You can also land on spaces that correlate to cards in the middle that can either help you or hurt you in the game. The goal of the game is to make everyone else go bankrupt and be the last player standing. 

15. Checkers

You’ll need a checkers board and pieces to play this game. You set up the board by placing all your pieces on the dark squares to fill up the first three rows on your side, and the other player does the same. The player with the darker colored pieces moves one of their pieces first, and they can only move pieces diagonally onto other dark-colored squares. 

The goal is to capture all the other player’s pieces. You get the other player’s pieces by jumping over them. You can even do a double jump and capture two pieces at once. This game is a good two-person game, or if you have more people, you can play a tournament. 

16. Rummy

You can play this game with a normal stack of playing cards. You win when you work all of your cards into either three or four of a kind or sequences of cards with the same suit. Everyone gets seven cards, and the person to the left of the dealer begins the gameplay. There’s one card that’s face down that the player can pick up or they can draw from the stockpile. 

17. Solitaire

Some people don’t find this game very fun, and it’s a one-person game. It’s definitely not a party game, but it can be a good game to play if you go camping and hiking alone. The goal is to get all of the cards into piles of their own suits.

You make seven piles of cards that add a card with each new pile. So, the first pile only has one card, the second pile has one card, and so on and so forth. There’s a stockpile that you draw from. You move the cards around, placing the cards in piles that go in number order and alternate colors with every card.

You want to find all of the ace cards quickly so you can begin the “Foundation” piles. You win when you have completed the Foundation piles and there are no cards left. 

18. Spoons

In this game, you have one less spoon in the middle than there are people playing. This game works better with a group. The goal is to get four of a kind and pick up a spoon, which starts a chain reaction where the other players must pick up a spoon in order to stay in the game.

Everyone starts with four cards in their hand, and the dealer picks cards from the stockpile to pass cards around the circle. If you’re left without a spoon, then you get a letter in the word spoon. If you lose enough to spell out the word spoon, you’re out of the game altogether. 

19. Scrabble

Scrabble isn’t always a family game because kids might not know very big words yet. Everyone chooses seven scrabble tiles out of a well-shaken bag to begin. The person who goes first has to place the word that they play on the center tile.

You calculate your score based on the number on each tile and which square you put your word on. You can play off of other people’s words or you can challenge people’s words. You draw more tiles when you play a word so that you always have seven tiles.

Once there are no more tiles or words left to be played, the game is over. The person with the highest end total wins. 

20. Clue

Clue is one of those classic games that everyone loves to play. It requires a board game that comes with cards, weapon pieces, and people pieces. Place each person’s piece on the assigned space on the board. Next, put each of the weapon pieces in random rooms.

There are three types of cards: suspects, rooms, and weapons. Shuffle them in their respective stacks, and choose one of each at random to put in the envelope. The rest of the cards are shuffled and distributed to the players. Choose which player you want to be, and the player that is Miss Scarlett begins the game by rolling the dice and moving that many squares.

The goal is to make it into a room and make an accusation of who you think is guilty of murder. You have to be in the room where you think it happened to make the accusation. Any player can prove your accusation wrong, but if no one can, then you check the envelope in the middle. If you guessed right, you would win. 

21. Make Me Laugh

Make Me Laugh is fairly easy to play, and it’s a family favorite. One player goes into the middle of the circle of players and tries to make everyone laugh. They can’t touch or tickle anyone, but they can tell jokes, make puns, do a funny dance, or sing a funny song. Whoever the player makes laugh first replaces them in the middle of the circle, and the game continues.