28 Halloween Party Games for Kids, Adults, the Office and Video Calls (With a Running Order)

By The Rondovo team · Published September 18, 2026 · Updated October 11, 2026 · 15 min read

The best Halloween party games are quick to explain, a little bit scary and easy to play in costume. For kids, that means races and guessing games like mummy wrap and the feel box. For adults, it means a game of secret roles in the dark, spooky charades and a costume contest with real categories. For the office and video calls, short rounds everyone can join from their own desk or screen.

Below are 28 Halloween games grouped by who they are for, each with how many players, how long it takes and what you need. Then come original spooky word lists you can use for charades, drawing and story games, and a running order for a kids' party and an adults' night.

In short

• Kids (5 to 10): mummy wrap, pumpkin bowling, monster freeze dance, the feel box.
• Teens and adults: Mafia or Werewolf with the lights low, spooky charades, a costume contest with five categories.
• Office: pumpkin decorating, the sweet jar guess, a caption contest, Halloween bingo.
• Online: a draw and guess round with spooky words, a five minute scavenger hunt at home, secret roles on everyone's own screen.
• Plan 2 to 3 hours for an adults' party, 90 minutes for small children. Put the loudest game first and the spookiest game last.

Halloween party games for kids

Short rounds, lots of movement, prizes for everyone. Most of these use things you already have.

1. Mummy wrap race

Players: 6 or more, in pairs · Time: 10 minutes · Needs: toilet paper, one roll per pair

One child wraps their partner from shoulders to ankles in toilet paper. First full mummy wins. Faces stay uncovered. Then the mummy has to waddle to a finish line without tearing out, which is the funniest part.

2. Pumpkin bowling

Players: any · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: a small round pumpkin, 6 to 10 empty plastic bottles

Line up the bottles like pins (draw ghost faces on them with a marker) and roll the pumpkin. Two rolls each. Small pumpkins roll badly, which levels the field between ages.

3. Monster freeze dance

Players: any · Time: 10 minutes · Needs: music

Play spooky music. When it stops, the host calls a monster ("zombie!", "vampire!", "ghost!") and everyone freezes in that monster's pose. Wobblers sit out and become judges.

4. The feel box

Players: any · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: a box with a hand hole, a few bowls of food

Kids reach in without looking and guess what they are touching. Cold cooked spaghetti is "worms", peeled grapes are "eyeballs", a damp sponge is "brain". Check allergies first, and for under-fives, skip the grapes.

5. Witch's hat ring toss

Players: any · Time: 10 minutes · Needs: a witch hat or traffic cone, rings made from paper plates or glow sticks

Score 1 point for a ring on the brim, 3 for one over the tip. Move the throwing line back for older kids.

6. Pass the pumpkin

Players: 6 to 15 · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: a prize wrapped in many layers, music

Pass the parcel with a Halloween theme. Put a sweet or a small sticker in every layer so nobody leaves with nothing, and a forfeit card in some layers ("howl like a wolf").

7. Ghost in the graveyard

Players: 6 or more · Time: 20 minutes · Needs: a garden or park at dusk, a "base"

A hide and seek game. One player, the ghost, hides. Everyone else counts at base ("one o'clock, two o'clock... midnight!") then searches. Whoever spots the ghost shouts "ghost in the graveyard" and everyone runs for base before being tagged. Only with an adult outside and a fenced space.

Halloween party games for adults

These assume a living room, low lights and a group that knows each other a little. All of them work without drinking.

8. Mafia or Werewolf in the dark

Players: 6 to 16 · Time: 20 to 40 minutes · Needs: role cards, or a game that deals them

The classic Halloween party game. A few players are secretly the killers (Mafia, or werewolves). Each "night" everyone closes their eyes and the killers choose a victim; each "day" the village argues and votes out a suspect. Turn the lights down for the night phase. Our guide to how to play Mafia has the full rules and the roles worth adding.

The hard part with paper cards is the narrator, who can never play. That is why we built Nightfall, our own take on Mafia: everyone checks a secret role on their own screen, night actions happen on screens, and nobody has to sit out to run it. It plays with 4 to 16 people.

9. Spooky charades

Players: 6 or more, two teams · Time: 20 minutes · Needs: the word list below, a bowl, a timer

Act out Halloween prompts in silence. One minute per turn, one point per correct guess. Our list of 225 charades ideas has the full rules and gestures; the spooky list below gives you 25 Halloween prompts.

10. Costume contest with real categories

Players: everyone in costume · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: paper ballots or a show of hands

A single "best costume" prize always goes to the same person. Five categories spread the glory. See our categories list below. Do a quick parade first so every costume gets its moment.

11. Story by candlelight

Players: 4 to 12 · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: one candle or torch

Sit in a circle in the dark. One person reads a story starter (see the list below), then the torch passes round and each person adds one sentence. The rule: every third sentence has to include a sound ("and then we heard a creak"). End when the torch has gone round three times.

12. Monster "most likely to"

Players: 4 to 16 · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: the questions below

Who in the room is most likely to survive a zombie film? Read a question, count to three, everyone points. See our Halloween most likely to questions below, and our full list of most likely to questions for the rest of the year.

13. Two truths and a ghost story

Players: 4 to 12 · Time: 20 minutes · Needs: nothing

Everyone tells three short creepy stories about themselves: a strange noise, a coincidence, a house that felt wrong. Two are true, one is made up. The group votes on the fake. Our game Two Truths handles the writing and voting on everyone's own screen if you'd rather not say them out loud.

14. The potion taste test

Players: 4 to 12 · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: 5 drinks in unlabelled cups, coloured with food colouring

Pour five drinks (juices, sodas, flavoured waters), tint them all the same murky green, and label them Potion 1 to 5. Guests write down what each one is. Most correct wins. No alcohol needed.

15. Murder in the dark

Players: 6 to 15 · Time: 15 minutes a round · Needs: a dark house, folded slips (one marked "murderer", one "detective")

The murderer taps a victim in the dark; the victim counts to five and screams. Lights on, the detective questions everyone and makes one accusation. Clear the floor of anything people can trip on first.

Halloween games for the office

Short, inclusive, no fake blood on the carpet. Most work in a meeting room and on a video call at the same time. For the rest of the year, see our office party games.

16. Pumpkin decorating, no knives

Players: any, in teams of 2 to 4 · Time: 30 minutes · Needs: small pumpkins, markers, stickers, paper scraps, glue

Carving at work means knives and mess. Decorating with markers and craft bits is safer and gets more creative results. Vote at the end.

17. The sweet jar guess

Players: everyone · Time: runs all day · Needs: a jar of wrapped sweets, a sign-up sheet

Count the sweets as you fill the jar. Closest guess at 4 pm wins the jar. It's the easiest office game there is, and nobody has to stop work to join.

18. Spooky caption contest

Players: 5 or more · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: 5 Halloween photos (pets in costumes work brilliantly)

Show a photo, everyone writes a caption anonymously, the room votes. Our game Fill-In is built the same way for prompts with a blank, if you want the anonymous voting handled for you.

19. Halloween bingo

Players: any · Time: 20 minutes · Needs: bingo cards with Halloween words, or a bingo caller

Fill cards with Halloween words (bat, cauldron, cobweb, moon...) and call them out. Or play a normal numbers game of bingo and give themed prizes. Our Bingo lets each player build their own card on their own screen.

20. Door or desk decorating

Players: teams · Time: a week, judged on the 31st · Needs: craft supplies

Each team decorates its door, desk cluster or video call background. Judging takes ten minutes in the Halloween meeting and gives the quieter teams something to show.

21. Costume parade on camera

Players: everyone · Time: 10 minutes · Needs: a video call

Each person gets 15 seconds on camera to show their costume. Even a hat counts. Then vote using the costume categories below. Remote staff can join in, which a hallway parade doesn't allow.

Halloween games online and on video calls

These work with everyone on their own screen, a TV in the room, or both.

22. Spooky draw and guess

Players: 3 to 16 · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: paper and the word list below, or a drawing game

One person draws a spooky word, everyone else guesses. On paper, hold the drawing up to the camera. In our game Scrawl, you draw on your screen and it appears live for everyone, and guesses score by speed. It uses its own word list, so for a fully Halloween round use our spooky drawing words on paper.

23. Haunted telephone

Players: 4 to 12 · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: paper per person, or a picture telephone game

Everyone writes a spooky phrase, passes it on, the next person draws it, the next guesses the drawing, and so on. "A vampire at the dentist" becomes something else entirely by the end. Our Chain Sketch runs this on everyone's own screen and replays every book on the TV at the end. See more in online drawing games.

24. Five minute scavenger hunt at home

Players: any · Time: 10 minutes · Needs: a video call

The host calls out one item at a time from the list below. First person back on camera holding it gets a point. Simple, loud, and it gets everyone moving.

25. Spooky charades on camera

Players: 4 to 16 · Time: 20 minutes · Needs: a private way to send the word

The actor stands back from the camera so the whole body is in frame. In our game Act It Out, the other team suggests and votes on the first word for your actor each turn, so they can pick spooky ones from our list below, and only the actor's screen shows it.

26. Monster most likely to, online

Players: 3 to 16 · Time: 10 minutes · Needs: a chat or a voting game

Pointing doesn't work on camera. Post the question in chat and have everyone type a name at the same moment. Our Most Likely To does secret votes on everyone's own screen with a big reveal; its prompts are our own general deck, not Halloween ones, so read the monster questions below aloud.

Halloween games for everyone

27. Bobbing for apples, the hygienic way

Players: any · Time: 15 minutes · Needs: apples, string, a doorway or a broom handle

Tie apples on strings and hang them at head height. Hands behind backs, first to take a bite wins. Same chaos, nobody shares a bucket of water.

28. Candy corn relay

Players: 8 or more, two teams · Time: 10 minutes · Needs: a spoon per team, a bowl of sweets at each end

Carry one sweet at a time on a spoon to the far bowl. First team to move ten wins. Add a rule for adults: walk like a zombie the whole way.

Spooky word lists and prompts

All of these are our own. Use them for charades, drawing, story games and quizzes.

Spooky charades words

Act these in silence:

1. A vampire who has slept in too long
2. A zombie learning to dance
3. A witch whose broom will not start
4. A ghost who is scared of people
5. A skeleton with a lot of creaky joints
6. A werewolf at the hairdresser
7. Carving a pumpkin and finding the seeds disgusting
8. Trick or treating at the scariest house on the street
9. A mummy whose bandage gets caught in a door
10. A black cat crossing the road very slowly
11. Stirring a bubbling cauldron
12. Opening a creaky coffin lid
13. A bat hanging upside down for too long
14. Walking through a spider web
15. A scarecrow that comes to life
16. A haunted doll turning its head
17. A monster under the bed, scared of the child
18. Getting lost in a corn maze
19. A fortune teller seeing something terrible
20. Hearing footsteps and slowly turning round
21. A Frankenstein monster trying to tie shoelaces
22. Eating all the trick or treat sweets in one go
23. A ghost trying to walk through a wall and failing
24. Running from a chainsaw in a haunted house ride
25. A witch flying through a storm

Spooky drawing words

Easy: pumpkin, ghost, bat, moon, spider, cobweb, candle, skull, broom, cauldron.

Medium: haunted house, graveyard, black cat, witch's hat, mummy, scarecrow, full moon, owl, coffin, candy bucket.

Hard: werewolf at dinner, ghost on a rollercoaster, zombie in a library, a pumpkin with a toothache, a vampire at the beach, a skeleton playing the drums, a witch in a traffic jam, a monster under the bed reading.

Halloween most likely to questions

Who's most likely to:

1. survive to the end of a horror film
2. scream first in a haunted house
3. be the one who says "let's split up"
4. befriend the ghost instead of running
5. eat all their trick or treat sweets before getting home
6. have the costume planned since last November
7. sleep with the lights on after a scary film
8. win a staring contest with a skeleton
9. be a vampire who is afraid of the dark
10. hand out toothbrushes on Halloween
11. turn into a werewolf and just want a nap
12. read the spell book out loud without checking what it does
13. buy pumpkins in September
14. hide behind the sofa for the whole film
15. walk into the creepy basement to "check it out"

Story starters for the dark

1. The porch light switched itself off at exactly midnight.
2. Every house on our street got a pumpkin on the doorstep. Nobody knew who put them there.
3. The old photo had one more person in it than when we took it.
4. We heard the piano downstairs. We don't have a piano.
5. The trick or treater at the door wouldn't say a word, just held out a bag.
6. My reflection blinked a second after I did.
7. The last bus home stopped at a stop that wasn't on the map.
8. The scarecrow was in a different field this morning.
9. There were footprints in the snow leading to the house, but none leading away.
10. The voice on the baby monitor was not ours.

Scavenger hunt list for video calls

Find and bring back to the camera: something orange, something that glows, a sock with a pattern, a spoon, something with a face on it, a hat, a torch, something older than you, something fluffy, a black item of clothing, a book with a scary cover, a sweet.

Costume contest categories

• Scariest
• Funniest
• Best homemade (bought costumes don't qualify)
• Best last minute (made in under an hour)
• Best group or pair
• Most unexpected (the costume nobody could guess)
• Best pet costume (for video calls and family parties)

A running order for the night

Kids' Halloween party (90 minutes, ages 5 to 10)

Adults' Halloween night (3 hours)

Office Halloween (45 minutes, in person and remote)

Playing on Rondovo this Halloween

All the games above work with paper, a timer and a bowl. If your group is split between a room and a video call, or is just too big to pass cards round, Rondovo runs several of them in a browser. One person makes a room, everyone else joins at rondovo.com on their own screen with the four letter code, and nobody downloads anything or pays. A TV is optional. On a video call, everyone picks "Just this screen" and sees the game on their own device, so nobody has to share a screen. Throughout October the site wears a Halloween look, with pumpkins, bats and every character in costume.

Good Halloween picks: Nightfall for secret roles, Act It Out for spooky charades, Chain Sketch for haunted telephone, and Two Truths for the ghost story round. None of them have a Halloween word deck yet, so bring the lists above. For more ideas beyond Halloween, our party games guide covers every kind of gathering, and our Christmas party games and virtual game night ideas pick up where this leaves off.

Questions people ask

What are good Halloween games for adults?

Mafia or Werewolf played with the lights low is the classic. Spooky charades, a potion taste test, story by candlelight and a costume contest with several categories all work well too, and none of them need alcohol.

What Halloween games can you play at work?

Pick games that are short and that remote colleagues can join: a costume parade on camera, the sweet jar guess, a caption contest, decorating pumpkins with markers and Halloween bingo. Avoid knives, fake blood and anything that singles people out.

What are easy Halloween games for kids?

Mummy wrap races, pumpkin bowling with plastic bottles, monster freeze dance and the feel box with "worms" and "eyeballs". Keep each game under 15 minutes and give every child a small prize.

How do you play Halloween games on a video call?

Use games where everyone answers at once: a scavenger hunt at home, secret votes for most likely to, draw and guess where the drawing is shared on screen, or Mafia with roles dealt to each person's own screen. Ask people to stand back from the camera for charades.

How many games do you need for a Halloween party?

For a three hour adults' party, four or five games with food in between. For a 90 minute kids' party, six or seven short games. Always plan one extra in case a game falls flat.