Never have I ever

The icebreaker that works because nobody wrote it

Never have I ever goes wrong in one predictable way. Somebody at the table thinks of the statement, and it is aimed at a person in the room. Drawing from a set written before anybody sat down takes that out entirely: nobody can tailor a statement to whoever has to answer it, and the worst the evening can produce is an argument about pineapple on a pizza.

It is also the fastest way into a room of people who do not know each other yet. There is no turn order to explain, no equipment, and no losing until somebody chooses to play with fingers. One statement is read out, everybody answers at once by putting a finger down or not, and the group has learnt six things about each other before anybody has introduced themselves properly.

Seven sets, and how to pick one

Four sets are family safe: growing up, school days, food and the kitchen, and travel and days out. School days is the one to reach for in a classroom, because every statement in it happened in a corridor or a lunch queue and nobody is left out for not having been anywhere. Travel is the one for a long journey, which is a reliably funny place to be asked whether you have ever argued with a satnav.

The three grown-ups sets sit behind a button and are labelled with their ceiling, office-party level and never rude. Work and life, screens and gadgets, and small embarrassments. They are cheekier, and that is all they are: the worst admission in any of them is that you have waved at somebody who was waving at the person behind you.

Keeping it kind, and the ten fingers rule

Two rules said out loud before you start are worth more than any set of statements. Anybody may decline to answer, and nobody is asked to explain a finger they put down. The game is funny because of what people volunteer, not because of what the group can extract, and a host who says so at the beginning gets a better evening out of it.

Fingers mode is optional and off until you turn it on. The names come from the same shared list the truth or dare bottle and the turn order cards use, so a group that plays a few things in one night types them once. If you would rather score the evening properly, the scoreboard is the page for it, and the jar of questions is the same idea with a question to answer instead of a statement to admit to.

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