Starting a Game Night

Just start with 3 other friends playing cards, dominoes, or Scrabble or whatever game you all like. Make it potluck or you provide food and they bring desserts. I'd love that kind of weekly fun. I'm 55 and have a zero social life on weekends because I no longer do bars but my younger circle still does.

At my age, I'd not want kids around. I'm a teacher and don't want to be in teacher mode on weekends.

However, when my son was in grades 4-12, I'd like doing that kind of inclusive party.

We have a regular game night, once a month with a particular family. My kids love their kids too. 6 months at their house, 6 at ours. We get the winter months because we have a fireplace that we all enjoy. They do the summers cause they have the pool. We play cards, kids play games and we eat. Host makes the main dish, guests bring desserts. Works great. Been doing it for years and our nights have become treasured times for us all.

The biggest challenge is to find a family that "fits" yours.

My family does this regularly (just us) and we have friends who do it a few times a year to every month.
It's good to rotate the games if you can. My family likes odd board games so we tend to pounce on ones we find at thrift stores and yard sales.
One piece of advice: Try to invite people with similar ideas about sticking with the rules, playing for money, etc. My family likes making up our own rules to make it even more fun. My older daughter's ex-BF couldn't handle that (he's no longer around to complain luckily). I absolutely won't play for money.

for family or friends?

You only need 1 or 2 games as long as they are age friendly and can keep the interest going. A couple of decks of cards and a good set of dominoes can usually cover most groups (train dominoes is good for 4 to 8 people of all ages). I find the most successful games nights hinge not on the games or snacks, but the people playing. A good mix of people can make any game fun, a bad group will ruin even the most interesting games.

Well if you can get people to want to do that, then that helps. So "survey" people you want to invite to this. First.
You ask people first, IF they would be into that. ie: a game night.
It can be weekly or twice a month of once a month, depending on the schedule of yourself and the others. And it should be something that is, doable. For all. Not a hassle.
Because, if no one is into it or can't make it or are too busy, then you can't have a regular game night and no one will attend.

Choose a night and the TIME of it. Start time and end time. So that people can adjust their schedules or schedule it in and, do it.

Then, either YOU supply all drinks/snacks, or not and decide if your budget can handle that cost. If not, you SAY to the participants, that these game nights are pot-luck. And make the pot-luck easy for people to do. Otherwise, bringing snacks/food to a gathering, becomes a hassle for people and it gets too complicated, and then they may not want to do it, over time.

AND if you get into the realm of "prizes" being given out, then well that gets more complicated and costly. So you decide, what is the point of it? ie: the prizes and people being competitive over it, or just the camaraderie and fun, of it. Even if you do not get prizes for it?

And also: do YOU supply all the games, or not? Or others can too? Or if other people bring games, then you get into the "problem" of WILL others want to play that too or not? And do you think it is appropriate or not? And who's game... will be played that night or not? So you have to come up with a PLAN... and organization about it.

I would not do MANY games a night. That will make it a long night. I would pick one game, and play that. Some games can go on... for at least an hour. For example. And then people may get petered out on it.

Games:
Yahtze
Bingo
Pictionary
Monopoly

Invite a couple of couples over with the invitation stating for them to bring their favorite group game. Then have everyone bring snacks to put together for everyone to partake of. This will be a great way to see how many people are interested, what their likes are, if they like similar games, etc...if everyone brought win, lose, or draw you'd know they like challenges between teams where they can work together...

This will also tell you if the couples are the right mix.

We need more basic information to know what sort if game night You and the people Iinvolved want. Is this for family, friends, neighbors? I suggest you first decide who the group will be and plan together. Perhaps you choose 2-3 games, a simple snack and beverages. Invite people. Group chooses game from what you provided and play the game. Discuss how you want the next meeting to be. With some variation will work with kids depending on age.

I'm in a group who plays games every few weeks. We meet twice a month on Sunday afternoons. at each other's homes. Food is potluck. Drinks are non alcoholic. The times we don't play games we talk on a topic chosen before the meeting. We think of it as a women's support group.

As to games, we choose which one or two from several provided by one of us. It doesn't really matter what the game is. Socializing is the reason for the game. One member peruses thrift stores for games. We have yet to play a mainstream game. We choose based on our small groups interests. There are 7 of us.

We have a group of 16 women and we get together once ca month for Bunco. We each take turns hosting and have a theme.

We only play Bunco ( if we get to it because we do a lot of socializing and drinking) and we pay $$ for the prizes.

It's a lot of fun, we're all walking distance from the hostess of the month. It can get pricey when it's your turn to host which is once every 16 months. The average $$ spent which includes good food ( catered) and drink (alcohol) runs around $1000 minimum.

Each player puts $10 in the pit for winnings and we pay 4 spots.

Lots of fun