“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 Risk

Risk is a war strategy game that allows players to compete against one another in attempting to take over the world. Since its introduction, Risk has gone through various changes, but has stayed mostly true to the original. Likewise there are several slight variations on the rules but all are very...

How to Play Go

Originating in China, Go is an ancient game of strategy. An Introduction The game of Go is played on a flat board divided up in to a 19 by 19 grid of evenly spaced lines. That's 19 horizontal lines by 19 vertical lines. The board looks like a grid of squares, but it's the lines that are the focus...

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...

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...

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 Clue

Background Info: Clue is a board game that has been around since 1948.  The style of the game is murder mystery, deduction, and bluffing.  Clue is considered best when playing with 4 or 5 players, but can be played with 3-6.  If you want to learn how to play clue, know that the object of the game...

Hidden Pathway

Challenge the team to find the hidden pathway through a grid without talking Ideal for building: teamwork, Problem solving, teamwork, attention to detail Paper, rubber spots, or carpet squares to create a 4x4 or 5x5 grid on the floor for each team Mastercopy/map of the grid 5+ people Set Up: On a...

How to play Hearts

Hearts is a 4-player trick-taking card game.  It has Spanish origins from around the mid 1700s and is said to have evolved from a game called Reverse.  Hearts has gained increasing popularity due to Microsoft adding the computer-game-version of Hearts to its Windows operating systems.  The object...

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...

Fox Walk – A Game About Behavioral Adaptation

Summary Fox walk teaches about the stalking technique of foxes, a behavioral adaptation, and the physical adaption of rabbit ears.  Predator prey relationships are explored and this is a great game to practice focus and center a groups attention.Activity Stats Group Size: 6-20 participants Ages:...