“Play is often talked about as relief from serious learning. But Play is serious learning”

-adapted from Fred Rogers

Why PLAY? Play can reduce stress. Play can increase joy. Play can help you learn. According to psychiatrist Stuart Brown “Play is a basic human need as essential to our well-being as sleep, so when we’re low on play, our minds and bodies notice.” Lynn Barnett, a professor of recreation, sports and tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign notes that “At work, play has been found to speed up learning, enhance productivity and increase job satisfaction; and at home, playing together, like going to a movie or a concert, can enhance bonding and communication.”

How To Play Stuff was created to enable play.

Learn how to play a new game or re-discover a game you played with your grandma. Whether you want to learn how to play hearts, soccer, team building games, or board games, we’ve got something for everyone!

Check our our Top 10 Team Building Games. Whether you have a small group, large group, or limited supplies we’ve got a game for you that will increase communication and engage even the most stubborn team members.

How to Play Football

Football Basics: • Football is played on a marked field measuring 100 yards, an end zone at each end of the field. The field is marked with hash marks, each being a yard apart. The fifty yard line marks the center of the field with each yard line counting down until a team reaches its end zone on...

How to Play Soccer

Soccer Basics The object of soccer is to score on the opposing team's goal while preventing  them from scoring on your own team's goal. Soccer is played with 2 teams of 11 players.  The team that has scored the most goals after time expires, wins the game. The game is 90 minutes, split into 2...

How to Play Solitaire

Klondike solitaire is a basic patience game that is simple to set up, simple to play, but difficult to win. It requires a standard 52-card deck of cards (no jokers). How to Set Up Solitaire (Refer to the diagram) Place a single card face up on the left hand side of the field. Place six more cards...

Tallest Tower

Work with your team using simple supplies to build the tallest tower possible before time runs out. Ideal for building: Teamwork, innovation, creativity, communication, working under pressure, dealing with disappointment There are many different ways to play this game using simple supplies. See...

How to Play Rugby

The Basics of Ruby Despite its riotous appearance, rugby is actually a very organized, well-governed sport that is played all over the world. The rules of the game are rather basic and can be learned fairly quickly. If you know how to play American football, then you will learn the sport of rugby...

Bat Moth – A Game About Adaptation

Bath Moth teaches how bats use echo location to hunt with a modified game of tag. You can explore principles of adaptation, noise pollution and predator/prey dynamics.

How to Play Tennis

Tennis is one of the world's most beloved and popular sports.  This is probably due to it being really fun and exciting, but also because of how quickly and easy it is to learn how to play tennis. Requiring only a usable court, a tennis racquet, a few tennis balls and a willing friend, it's...

Puzzle Challenge

Work with your team to think outside of the box to solve multiple riddles, word problems, and other challenges. Ideal for building: Thinking outside of the box, teamwork, patience Puzzle questions for each team Answer sheet Match sticks Pencil for each team 2+ people 10 minutes Set Up: Print the...

Flip the Tarp

Get your whole team to work together to flip over a tarp that they all happen to be standing on. The trick is you cannot touch the ground or use any other object to help. Ideal for building: Teamwork, communication, trust and problem solving 1 Tarp (should be just big enough to hold the whole...

The Big Picture

A leader from each team studies a picture for 15 seconds and memorizes as much as possible. The leader then goes back to their team to describe the picture, who then has to draw based on the instructions. Ideal for building: communication, teamwork, understanding, positive conflict, leadership A...