Drinking games are common place when a large group of teenager or young adults gather in an evening. Many games are played and the game of 21s is a classic.

General rule of the game is to move around the circle counting up towards 21. The loser is the person to get a number wrong or whoever says the number 21. Now this sounds easy but there are several rules to make it more complicated.

The game starts by a person saying “I propose a game of 21s to my (left or right),” They then follow this by the number 1. If someone says two numbers in sequence then the direction around the circle reverses. If someone says 3 sequential numbers, it continues in the same direction but skips a person and goes on to the next. This can be implemented at the start and they can start of by saying 1,2 and the path would go in the opposite direction to which they stated.

A rule to make it a bit more complicated is that you can not say two sequential numbers immediately after someone else has just done this, i.e Person 1 says: 3,4 Person 2: 5,6. This is said to be “doubling a double”. Similarly, you cannot say three numbers three times in a row, “tripling a triple”.

Once someone has made it to 21 and lost, they are allowed to make a new rule for the game. This can be anything they want. Common ones used are saying numbers in a foreign language, standing up, animal noise/actions, cricket signs and many many more. As the game progresses, it becomes more and more difficult to remember the rules.

Generally errors are punished by having a drink but generally it’s just a game to play whilst drinking rather than forcing heavy drinking forces. Enjoy the game and drink responsibly!