Drinking games without alcohol: 30 dares

By Roy de Bie · Updated August 11, 2026 · 5 min read

Why one rule for the whole table works better

The classic fix is that whoever is not drinking does "something else". In practice that often means they are not really playing. Which is a shame, because a lot of the fun is not the drinking itself, it is losing in front of everyone. If the consequence is the same for the whole table, nobody has to explain why they are sitting this one out, and you skip exactly the awkward conversation nobody wants.

Practically: agree on one replacement for the whole group before you start, rather than negotiating per person. Anyone who would rather take a sip still can. The point is not that nobody drinks, it is that the game does not fall apart around the people who do not.

Pick a type of dare

• Do something
• Say or invent something
• Together with the group
• Consequences inside the game

Do something

Is standing or walking difficult for someone at the table? Pick from the other categories, or let that player choose one themselves.

• Walk a lap around the table or the sofa.
• Stand on one leg for the whole next turn.
• Play the next round standing up while everyone else sits.
• Let the group pick a sound you have to make whenever somebody answers wrong.
• Swap seats with the player on your left.
• Wear something from anyone who offers it for the rest of the round: a cap or a scarf.
• Play the rest of the round with your hands behind your back.
• You are the timekeeper next round: you call out when the time is up.
• Invent a hand gesture you have to make every time you get one right.
• Tidy something small: the empty glasses, the crumbs, the dropped cards.

Say or invent something

• Name three things from a category the group picks, in ten seconds.
• Tell the table a harmless fact about yourself nobody there knew yet.
• Spell a word the group picks backwards.
• Explain the previous question as if you were talking to a five-year-old.
• Invent an advertising slogan for the first object you see.
• Speak only in questions for the next round.
• Name a word starting with the last letter of the previous answer.
• Describe the worst movie you have ever seen in three sentences.

Together with the group

• Pick someone who gets to answer for you next turn.
• Let the group choose the next song that goes on.
• Give your point from this round to somebody else.
• Pair up with the player next to you for the next question.
• Strike a pose and hold it until the next question; the group comes up with a caption.
• Introduce the next question with an announcement of your own making.
• Come up with a flattering nickname for whoever is leading at that moment.

Consequences inside the game

You keep track of these yourself: the penalty wheel only shows the dare, the app does not adjust anyone's score for you.

• You lose the points from this round.
• The next question counts double for you, for better and for worse.
• You have to announce your next answer out loud as soon as the time is up.
• You confer with somebody else next round, but you each answer on your own phone.
• You get five seconds less thinking time next round.

Keeping it fun for everyone

• Agree the replacement before the game starts, not at the moment somebody loses. Then it reads as a rule rather than an exception made for one person.
• Keep dares within what everybody can do. Running a lap is not a given for everyone, and a dare somebody has to refuse misses the point.
• Nothing anyone regrets later. No taking clothes off, no sending messages on someone's behalf, no money.
• Passing is always allowed, without explaining. One person feeling uncomfortable ruins the evening faster than a skipped dare.
• Vary them. Five of the same type in a row gets dull, even when each one is good.

How to use this list in Kwishetwel

Kwishetwel has a penalty wheel you put your own dares on. Whoever loses a question or a round spins it themselves on their own phone, and the wheel lands on the dare. You can also just leave it switched off if the group is not in the mood. The dares above work without it, but it helps that nobody has to remember what the penalty was again. There are more ideas in fun penalties for the penalty wheel, where they run from harmless to daring.

Further reading: a drinking game for big groups, fun penalties for the penalty wheel, 100+ pub quiz questions with answers and how to make your own pub quiz.