25 Pen and Paper Games – The Ultimate No-Screen List

Need a few ideas for pen and paper games besides tic-tac-toe? We’ve all been there: the kids are restless, screen time is maxed out, and you hear those dreaded words… “I’m bored!” How lucky that the ultimate boredom buster is already sitting on your kitchen counter. All you need is a sheet of paper and pen or pencil! And many of these can be played with groups as well.

From sneaky strategy games like Dots and Boxes to hilarious drawing challenges, these are quick to setup, easy to learn, and total lifesavers. Grab a scrap of paper and let’s play!pen and paper games besides tic-tac-toe.

Solo Pen and Paper Games You Can Play by Yourself

The beauty of these games played on paper is that you can give them a go as a single-player game or have your friends join in.

Boggle Word Search

One of the best people to beat in games is yourself.

Draw a 4 x 4 (or 5 x 5) grid and fill it with random letters, making sure you include 3 to 5 vowels.

Now make words :). You can go about this two ways, either set a rule that all letters can be used to form the words or set a rule that in order to use the letter in a word, it must touch the letter before it and after it. Set a timer or allow yourself unlimited time to find as many words as you can.

Words Within a Word (The Letter Explorer)

This is another pen and paper game that can easily be played solo.

Write down a long word, the longer the better. Think of words like HIPPOPOTAMUS, CATERPILLAR, or even HALLOWEEN.

Now, set a timer for two minutes and see how many smaller words you can build using only the letters from your big word! For example, if your word is CATERPILLAR, you can make cat, lip, tap, and ear among many others. It is like a treasure hunt hidden inside a single word, and it is a fantastic way to pass the time on a long car ride.

Word Ladders

If you love word puzzles, this one will feel like a magic trick.

Start by writing down a short word at the top of your page and a target word of the same length at the bottom. Let’s say “cat” and “dog”.

Your goal is to change exactly one letter at a time on each step of the “ladder” to form a brand new, real word until you reach your target. Can you do it in three steps? Four steps? Let’s see: CAT becomes COT, COT becomes DOT, and DOT becomes DOG! It is a brilliant brain workout that you can play entirely on your own.

Blind Drawing or Writing

Ready for some serious giggles? This game is part art project, part hilarious challenge, and you can play it completely solo.

Pick something simple to draw, like a happy house, a cat, or a flower.

Now, close your eyes tightly (no peeking!) and try to draw it on your paper. If you want to try writing instead, try writing your name or a funny sentence. When you open your eyes, you’ll be greeted by a wonderfully wonky masterpiece. It is simple, silly, and guaranteed to make you smile.

Connect the Dots

This one can be done with one pen, but for the simplicity of it, I recommend colored markers.

Randomly make dots on a sheet of paper, two of each color (if you are using one pen, make different shapes. For example, two stars, two circles, two squares. Connect the dots without having the lines cross. Want to add difficulty? Also draw obstacles!

Two Player Pen and Paper Games – Play With Friends

First, all of the single-player games listed above can be played by two people as well. Some are co-operative or just for giggles (like blind drawing and connect the dots), and others are competitive (who can find the most words in allotted time, complete the challenge faster…). This list focuses on paper games that need two people and are best played by two people.

Tic Tac Toe

The king of all pen and paper games. It is the ultimate classic for a reason; it is super fast to set up, takes about 10 seconds to learn, and you can play it absolutely anywhere.

Just draw a simple 3 x 3 grid (two vertical lines crossing two horizontal lines). One player is X and the other is O.

Take turns placing your mark in an empty square. The first person to get three of their marks in a row, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, wins the round! Because rounds are so quick, it is the perfect game to play in a “best out of 5” tournament while you are waiting for your food at a restaurant.

SOS

This looks a lot like Tic Tac Toe, but it comes with a clever twist that keeps you on your toes.

Draw a grid, it can be as small as 4 x 4 or as big as a whole sheet of paper.

On your turn, you can choose to write either an S or an O in any empty square on the grid (you don’t have to stick to just one letter!). The goal is to be the person who completes the sequence “S-O-S” in a straight line (up, down, sideways, or diagonally). Every time you successfully form an “SOS”, you draw a line through it to claim your point, and you get to take another turn right away. The player with the most points when the grid is full wins!

Dots and Boxes (Pigs in a Pen)

If you want a game that involves a tiny bit of sneaky strategy, this one is an absolute blast.

Start by drawing a grid of dots on your paper. A 5 x 5 or 6 x 6 grid is perfect, but it can be larger than that – we loved playing this on a sheet of graph paper in school.

Players take turns drawing a single horizontal or vertical line to connect two dots that are next to each other. The goal is to be the player who draws the fourth and final line to close up a square. When you complete a box, write your initial inside it and take another turn! Once all the dots are connected, count up the initials, the player with the most closed boxes wins the game! Sounds simple on paper (no pun intended), and it really is simple to play, but it allows for so much strategy.

Consequences (The Silly Story Game)

Get ready for some serious belly laughs! This is a cooperative game where you work together to write a completely ridiculous story, but here is the catch: you can’t see what the other person wrote.

Start with a blank piece of paper. The first player writes down a name or a description of a character (like “A grumpy frog” or “An astronaut”), folds the top of the paper down to hide what they wrote, and passes it to player two. Player two writes down where they went, folds it down, and passes it back. Keep taking turns answering prompts: How did they get there? What did they do? What did they say? At the very end, unfold the paper and read your wacky, mixed-up story out loud!

Hangman

You can’t have a list of classic two-player paper games without this one! It is the ultimate word-guessing game that is part mystery, part puzzle, and a whole lot of fun.

One player thinks of a secret word and draws a row of blank lines on the paper, with each line representing a letter in that word. Underneath, draw a simple gallows structure. The second player tries to guess the word by calling out letters, one at a time. If the letter is in the word, player one writes it on the correct blank line. If the letter isn’t in the word, player one writes that letter off to the side so you don’t guess it again, and draws one part of a simple stick figure (head, body, arm, arm, leg, leg). Can the guesser figure out the secret word before the stick figure is completely drawn? It is a fantastic way to practice spelling without it feeling like homework!

Battleship

Did you know that before this was a famous board game with plastic pegs, it was actually played entirely on a couple of scraps of paper? It is the ultimate hidden-strategy guessing game.

Each player draws two grids on graph paper (10 x 10 is the standard size). You label the top rows with numbers 1 to 10, and the left side with letters A to J. One grid is for hiding your own fleet, and the other is for tracking your attacks on your friend’s fleet!

Secretly draw your ships horizontally or vertically on your grid: an Aircraft Carrier (5 squares), a Battleship (4 squares), a Cruiser (3 squares), a Submarine (3 squares), and a Destroyer (2 squares). Take turns calling out coordinates like “B-4!” Your opponent will shout “Hit!” or “Miss!” Mark down your results to map out their hidden ships. The first captain to sink the entire opposing fleet wins.

We have a more in-depth guide on how to play the battleships, some homebrew rule variation ideas, and even a battleships printable game sheet available as well.

Name, Place, Animal, Thing (Categories)

If your kids love fast-paced thinking games, this one will keep them completely hooked. Grab a piece of paper and divide it into four columns labeled: Name, Place, Animal, and Thing.

To start a round, one player silently recites the alphabet in their head until the other player shouts “STOP!” Whatever letter they land on is the letter for the round! Set a timer for one minute. Both players must race to write down a word starting with that letter for each of the four columns. For example, if the letter is M, you might write: Max, Madagascar, Monkey, and Mug.

When the timer rings, compare answers! If you and your friend wrote the exact same word, you both get 5 points. If your word is completely unique, you get 10 points! The player with the highest score after a few rounds is the winner.

Sim (The Ultimate Shape Game)

This is a super cool, geometric strategy game that looks incredibly simple but gets wonderfully competitive. Start by drawing six dots on your paper in the shape of a hexagon (a six-sided ring). For this game, you will definitely want two different colored pens or markers so you can tell your moves apart.

Players take turns drawing a straight line to connect any two dots on the page. The goal? Do not make a triangle out of your own color! You can cross over your opponent’s lines all you want, but the moment you are forced to draw a line that completes a triangle using three of the original dots in your color, you lose the game. It starts out easy, but within a few moves, you’ll be calculating your lines like a master puzzle solver!

Paper Racing (Vector Racing)

If you want a game that feels like an arcade racing game right on your kitchen table, this is it! Start by drawing a big, winding racetrack on a sheet of paper (graph paper works best, but any paper will do!). Make sure to draw a Start line and a Finish line, and add lots of fun twists, turns, and narrow bottlenecks.

Each player chooses a different colored pen or marker to be their “racecar.” Place the tip of your pen on the starting line. On your turn, press your finger down on the very top tip of the pen, apply a little pressure, and flick it across the page so it leaves a streak! Where the line ends is where your car is now parked.

Take turns flicking your pens to race along the track. But watch out—if your pen streak crosses over the edge of the track wall, you’ve crashed! You have to start your next turn either from the starting line or from the exact spot you entered the wall. The first racer to successfully navigate the twists and turns and cross the finish line wins the grand prix!

Our Favorite Custom Twist: This was by far my favorite pencil-and-paper game when I was a kid. We started off with a simple racetrack, but over time, the game evolved to include barbed obstacles, vortexes that would teleport you to another part of the track, booster pads, and more. It really is a wonderful game to kick-start creative thinking, so don’t be afraid to make up your own crazy rules!

Symmetry Drawing

If you want a game that is half art project and half mind-bender, this drawing challenge is a total winner. It is a fantastic way for two players to team up to create a masterpiece, or completely scramble each other’s brains!

Start by drawing a line right down the center of your page to split it in half. Player one goes first and draws exactly half of an object, character, or creature on their side of the line. Think of fun things like half an alien, half a castle, half a butterfly, or half a silly monster face.

Then, pass the paper to Player two! Their mission is to look closely and mirror the drawing on the other side of the line to complete the picture perfectly.

Cooperative Drawing

Two markers, tons of fun. Pick something to draw, keep it simple – like an animal (dog, cat, flamingo…). Player one has 5 seconds to draw as much as they can. Then the player two takes over for 5 seconds. Take turns until the drawing is complete.

Five in a Row (Gomoku)

If you love Tic-Tac-Toe but find it a little too easy, this traditional game is the ultimate upgrade! It takes the exact same concept but blows it up onto a much bigger scale, turning it into a gripping game of stealthy strategy.

Grab a piece of graph paper (the more squares, the better, the classic game has a grid of 19 x 19). One player is X and the other is O.

Take turns writing your mark inside any empty square on the grid, starting at the bottom. You can only place your mark on the bottom line or on top of another mark. Your goal is to be the first player to get exactly five of your marks in a continuous line, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

Order and Chaos

This is a brilliant modern twist on traditional grid games like Tic-Tac-Toe and Five in a Row, but it comes with a mind-bending catch: players don’t own a specific mark. Instead, you are playing for a specific role!

Draw a 6 x 6 grid on your paper. One player takes the role of Order and the other becomes Chaos.

On your turn, you can choose to place either an X or an O in any empty square on the grid. Yes, you read that right—both players can use both letters!

• Order’s goal: Win by creating a straight line of five identical symbols (either five Xs or five Os) horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
• Chaos’s goal: Win by completely filling up the board while successfully preventing Order from making a line of five.

Because you can use any letter at any time, it becomes a fascinating game of cat-and-mouse. Order tries to subtly build up rows, while Chaos uses tactical placements to block lines and create un-winnable gridlocks. It is fast, intensely strategic, and completely flips your usual Tic-Tac-Toe thinking upside down!

The Crossword

If you love Scrabble but want something you can play anywhere with just a scrap of paper, this is the ultimate 2-player grid showdown. It turns your page into a fast-paced, competitive crossword puzzle!

Draw a 10 x 10 grid on a sheet of graph paper. To start the game, write any common word right across the very center of the grid.

Players take turns adding a new word to the board, crossword-style. The rules are beautifully simple:

• Your new word must be attached to a letter that is already on the board.
• You score 1 point for every new letter in your new word and 2 points for incorporating a letter already on the board.

Example: If the word C-A-T is on the board, and you use the A to build the word B-A-K-E-R vertically, you just scored 6 points (2 points for A, and 4 points for B, K, E, R! Write your running total on the side of the page.

Because you can build off any letter on the board, including the ones your opponent just placed, the game quickly becomes a tactical battle. Do you play a massive, high-scoring word, or do you play a short word to block your opponent from accessing a juicy spot on the grid? Maybe try to use multiple letters from the board to double up the worth? So many options!

Keep taking turns until the grid is completely full or neither player can make another word. The wordsmith with the highest score wins the match!

Invaders (The Sky Flick Showdown)

Without a doubt, this is the absolute ultimate pen-and-paper game on this list. Okay, we might be a little biased because this is a game we actually invented as kids, but it is an absolute masterpiece of physics, strategy, and pure tension! One player protects the planet from the bottom of the page, while the other invades from the sky.

The Setup

Draw a solid line across the very bottom of a blank sheet of paper. This is Earth, the Defender’s base. At the very top of the page, the Invader draws a small circle, this is the first UFO.

How to Play

Unlike other racing games, only the Defender flicks the pen!

• The Defender’s Goal: Launch a “defense projectile” from the Earth line. You press your finger onto the top tip of your pen and flick it across the page, leaving a streak. You have exactly 5 flicks to navigate up the page, building off your last mark, to land inside the UFO and destroy it.
• If the Defender Succeeds: The UFO is blown to pieces! The Invader must draw a brand new UFO at that same far distance at the top of the page (left or right of it). The Defender resets their pen to the Earth line. The Invader has 5 total UFOs in their fleet per round, if you destroy all 5, Earth is saved!
• If the Defender Fails (Runs out of 5 flicks and misses): The invasion forces are breaking through! The Invader now draws a new UFO closer to Earth. To make things even more tense, the Defender’s weapon systems are taking damage; you now only get 4 flicks to hit this closer target.

If you miss again, the next UFO moves even closer, and you only get 3 flicks, then two, then one, and you guessed it, after that, the Earth is defenseless!

Pen and Paper Games for Groups

Tic Tac Toe for 3 Players or More

Yup, it can be played by more than two players. If 3 people play, make the grid 4 x 4. If your people play make it 5 by 5.

Paper Telephone

If you want absolute, pure chaotic fun that will leave the kids in stitches, this is the game to play. It is a mix of the classic game of Telephone and Pictionary! Both players start with a blank piece of paper. At the very top, write a funny, descriptive sentence like: “A penguin riding a skateboard through a grocery store.”

Pass your paper to your friend. Now, look at the sentence they wrote for you, and you have to draw a picture that illustrates it right beneath the text. Once your drawing is done, fold the top of the paper down so the original sentence is hidden, leaving only your drawing visible. Pass it forward! The next person must look at the drawing and write a sentence describing what they see, then fold it down to hide the picture. Keep passing and folding until you run out of paper, then unfold it to see how wildly mixed up your story became!

Word Chains

Write down a word. Let’s say it’s a dog (again :). Pass the paper to the next person. They have to write down a word that starts with the letter the previous word ended with, so a word starting with a g. Let’s say they write “good.” Pass the paper to the next person, who now has to write a word starting with a d. They can’t write a word that’s already been written, so dog is out. The person who can’t think of the word to write loses the game.

Tip: trying for words that end with the letter X gives the next person a real challenge.

Variation ideas: Set a rule for the maximum number of letters. Limiting the game to three- or four-letter words will drain the pool of words quickly.

Guided Drawing

This is the ultimate test of communication, teamwork, and sheer spatial chaos. It requires zero artistic talent, in fact, the less artistic talent you have, the more hilarious the results usually are. It works perfectly for groups of three or more, split into teams of two (or one “Director” guiding multiple blind artists at once!).

Every artist sits with a blank sheet of paper and a pen. Pick one person to be the director. Have them quickly draw an image of anything they want, in complete secrecy; no one in the group should see the drawing.

How to Play

The Director must guide the players to draw the secret image by giving step-by-step instructions. However, there are two strict catches to prevent it from being too easy:

1. No Naming the Object: The Director cannot say what the object is. They can only describe shapes and lines (e.g., “Draw a medium circle in the middle of the page. Now, without lifting your pen, draw two small triangles on top of that circle.”).
2. No Lifting the Pen (Optional but highly recommended!): To make it truly chaotic, force the artists to keep their pen tip pressed onto the paper the entire time. Once they lose track of where their pen is on the page, the symmetry goes completely out the window!

• How to Score (For Teams): If you are playing competitively in pairs, the Director guides their specific partner. The first blindfolded artist to successfully guess what they actually drew wins a point for their team!

Forehead Detective (The Sticky Note Game)

This is an absolute legendary party classic. You might know it as Hedbanz, Celebrities, or just “that game with the sticky notes.” It requires zero drawing, works for any group size from 3 to 30, and instantly turns a room into a loud, laughing guessing match.

The Setup

Everyone gets a sticky note (or a small piece of paper and a piece of tape) and a pen. Secretly write down the name of a famous person, a well-known fictional character, or even a mutual friend in the room.

Without looking at what you wrote, slap your sticky note onto the forehead of the player to your left. Now, everyone can see your card except you, and you can see everyone else’s!

How to Play

Sit in a circle. Going clockwise, players take turns asking the group Yes or No questions to try and deduce who is stuck to their forehead.

• On your turn, you keep asking questions as long as the group answers “YES.” (e.g., “Am I a real person?” → YES → “Am I alive?” → YES → “Am I an athlete?” → NO).
• The moment the group says “NO,” your turn is over, and the next player starts asking questions.
• On your next turn, you resume your interrogation right where you left off.

The first person to correctly guess their identity wins the crown! But the game doesn’t have to stop there—keep playing until everyone has successfully figured out who they are, or leave the losers wearing their sticky notes for the rest of the night.

• The Quick-Fire Variation: If you have a massive group and want the game to move faster, give every player a strict 60-second timer on their turn. They can ask as many “Yes or No” questions as they can jam into that minute, regardless of whether the answers are yes or no, before the turn passes!