Thumper

Thumper is the loud one. It needs a table to drum on, a circle of people, and nothing else, which is why it sits with the other drinking games without cards. The idea is simple: everyone has a hand sign, and play moves around the circle by one player doing their own sign and then someone else’s. The catch is the rhythm. The whole table is drumming the whole time, and every sign has to land on the beat. It is easy for two rounds and very hard once the drinks and the drumming speed up.

What you need

• A table everyone can reach with both hands
• A drink for every player
• Four to twelve players
• A hand sign each, decided before the drumming starts

Setup

1. Sit in a circle around the table. Everyone needs a clear view of everyone else’s hands. Standing around a high table works too.
2. Each player picks a hand sign. It should take one beat to make and be visibly different from everyone else’s. Moose antlers, finger guns, a salute, a heart, two thumbs up, a phone to the ear.
3. Go around the circle and show your sign. Each player demonstrates theirs twice. The table is allowed one lap of practice to learn them.
4. Pick a leader for the first round. They run the chant and make the first pass. After that, the leader is whoever lost the last round.

How to play Thumper

1. Everyone starts drumming on the table. Both hands, alternating, a steady beat like a drum roll. This beat runs for the entire round and does not stop.
2. The leader shouts “what’s the name of the game?” and the table answers “Thumper.” Keep drumming through the chant.
3. The leader shouts “and why do we play?” and the table answers “to drink.” The traditional answer has a swear word in it. Use whichever version suits the room. Then the drumming continues and the passing begins.
4. The leader does their own sign, then another player’s sign. On the beat: own sign on one beat, the other player’s sign on the next. Then straight back to drumming.
5. The player whose sign was shown does their own sign, then someone else’s. Same pattern, same beat. The chain continues around the table in whatever order the signs send it.
6. Anyone who breaks the chain drinks. That means missing your own sign when it is called, doing the wrong sign, passing to a player who has already left the game, or falling off the beat. Arguments are settled by a majority; the drumming hands vote.
7. The loser becomes the leader. They start the next round with the chant and the first pass. A round lasts as long as the chain holds.

How the rhythm works

The drumming is the clock. Every sign is two beats of the drum roll: one for your own sign, one for the sign you are passing to. Between signs, your hands go back to the table. A player who hesitates, who has to think about whose sign is whose, has already lost, because the beat moved on without them.

A good leader sets the pace slow in the first round and speeds it up each round. A mean leader starts fast. Passing back to the person who just passed to you is legal and is the quickest way to catch someone who has relaxed.

Variations and house rules

• Progressive Thumper. Instead of passing, each player repeats every sign that has come before and then adds their own. By the sixth player there are six signs in order, on the beat. The first person to forget the order drinks. This is the version that ends friendships.
• Signs, the quiet version. No drumming, no chant. One player stands in the middle and the circle passes signs silently behind their back. If the player in the middle catches a sign being passed, the passer drinks and swaps in. Same idea as Thumper with stealth instead of rhythm.
• Speed rounds. After every successful lap, the leader calls “faster” and the drumming speeds up. Rounds rarely survive the third speed.
• Call your own. Any player can pass to themselves by doing their own sign twice, which holds the chain for one beat and forces the table to watch them. Allowed once per round, or it becomes a stall.
• Sign swap. When a player is caught, they have to adopt a new sign for the next round, and the table has to learn it. Keeps the long game from getting comfortable.
• Two signs each. For a small table of four or five, each player has two signs. Both are theirs and either can be called. It brings the difficulty up to a bigger game’s level.

Tips

• Keep the drinks small and the rounds short. A round ends in seconds, so a table of eight can run fifteen rounds in ten minutes and every round has a loser. Sips, not shots, and a break after the fourth speed-up.
• Choose a sign you can make drunk. Anything with fine finger work falls apart after the third round. Big, obvious shapes win.
• Do not pick a sign that looks like someone else’s. Two players with a peace sign and a finger gun will spend the night in arguments, and the table will make them both drink.
• Leader sets the tempo. If the game is dying, the leader is going too fast. If it is boring, too slow. The right speed is the one where a sober person could just about keep up.