Gear › How-to · Updated October 2026

Table and Hands Games

Table and hands games on the lot
Table and hands games on the lot

Not every crew wants a throwing lane. Table and hands games are what you play when the spot is full, the kids are done running, or the venue would rather you didn’t fling anything.

You need a stable surface — see tables — and a rule that alcohol games, if you play them at all, stay legal for that campus. Plenty of schools ban drinking games outright. Read the guide for the lot you’re in before you set up cups in a line. If the rule says no, play cards. Want the full drinking-games set with the responsible-drinking line up front? That’s Drinking games.

Games in this footprint

Spades, card Golf, Crazy Eights, and more. Wind clip required — seriously. Most portable game you own: no throw lane, no hard projectiles, just a deck and a game the crew can learn before the next beer run.

Full how-to →

Pocket dice on a tray — Yacht, Ship-Captain-Crew, LCR, and Farkle. Almost no room. Links out to giant yard dice when you want the foam set on a tarp.

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Stack games beside the table — not on a flimsy card table if the blocks are heavy. Give a collapse a safe radius (grass or your mat). Spectacle that still doesn’t need a throwing lane.

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Beer pong, beer darts, flip cup, forbidden words, Chugger Knights — each has its own how-to. Only if age + lot rules allow. The Responsible Drinking section on that hub is mandatory reading before cups go down.

Full how-to →

The pick: if the fun is conversation, bring cards. If the fun is a spectacle that still doesn’t need a lane, bring one stack game and give it a safe radius. Leave the beer-pong table at home unless you already know that school allows it and you have the surface and the cleanup. A fly fan and a tablecloth — see Customize YOUR Tailgate — do more for a card game than another set of bags.

*If it doesn’t need a lane, it belongs here.*

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