Jenga is a deceptively straightforward game that rewards a steady hand and nerves of steel. Players take it in turns to remove one wooden brick at a time from a tower that, to begin with, is stacked 18 bricks tall and 3 bricks wide; once a brick has been removed, it must then be placed on top of the tower, meaning that the structure gradually gets taller and less architecturally sound as the game wears on.
Play continues until someone knocks the tower over, at which point the culprit is eliminated from the game. The remaining players then rebuild the tower and start over until only one person remains.
As anyone who's ever played Jenga will tell you, this simple tabletop game frequently becomes as tense as a round of Russian roulette (and the longer the tower stays standing, the tenser things get). Throwing alcohol into the mix may help to calm your nerves, although a round of the Jenga drinking game tends not to last anywhere near as long as the regular, sober version. Jenga requires precision and steadiness, and booze isn't exactly known for sharpening either of these attributes!
That being said, the Jenga drinking game is still a tonne of clumsy, clattering fun - here are the rules in case you fancy getting the blocks out at your next party...
Jenga Drinking Game - Rules of Play
You will need:
- 1 x standard Jenga set (consisting of 54 rectangular wooden blocks)
- At least 2 players (this version of the game works best with 3-4 people, but more can play if you want)
- A steady supply of your favourite alcoholic beverage!
Got all that? Great - now let's play!
- Start by building the Jenga tower. Place 3 bricks in a row with the long sides touching; then place another 3 bricks on top. Your second layer should be placed at a 90-degree angle to your first layer. Continue placing layer upon layer, alternating direction so that no two consecutive layers are facing in the same direction. You should end up with a tower that looks like this:
Image source: college.library on flickr
- Pour everyone a drink. (Please drink responsibly - know your limits and stop when you feel you've had enough. Visit drinkaware.com for more information.)
- Starting with the clumsiest person at the table - or the youngest player if you can't agree on who's the clumsiest - players take it in turns to remove a single block from the tower (the top 3 layers are off-limits!) and place it on top. When placing blocks on top of the tower, be sure to continue alternating brick direction from one layer to the next.
- After you have successfully removed a brick from the Jenga tower, you may nominate another player to take a sip of their drink.
- Play continues clockwise around the table until the tower topples over. When that happens, the players whose turn it was must immediately finish their drink.
- When one round is over, simply rebuild the tower and start again! You don't have to eliminate the loser if they're keen to continue playing.
Optional Rules / Variants
There are lots of different ways to play Jenga, so if you want to make the Jenga drinking game a little more challenging, try adding some or all of the following rules:
- On your turn, you MUST take the first brick you touch, even if you immediately realise that you've made a huge mistake. Alternatively, you may change your mind...but you must take a sip as payment for your mulligan.
- Before the game begins, write a dare / forfeit on some or all of the bricks. (Don't write on Jenga bricks that don't belong to you!) When a player removes a brick from the tower, they must perform the forfeit written on that brick, if any. Example forfeits might include taking off an item of clothing or answering embarrassing questions from the other players. (You may wish to add an extra rule that allows people to swap these dares for a drinking penalty if they don't want to do them.)
- Time limits! When it's another players turn, everyone else counts down from 10, out loud, in unison ("Ten! Nine! Eight!..."). If the countdown reaches zero during your turn, you must finish your drink and refill before finishing your move. Alternatively, if there are only two of you, you could incorporate a chess clock into your game like these two guys:
Already mastered drinking Jenga? Need a new alcohol-fuelled challenge? Try one of our beer pong sets!
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