• The number of participants is flexible and fairly large. Traditional multiplayer board games tend to accommodate four to six players at most, whereas party games generally have no fixed upper limit. Some games become unwieldy if more than twelve or fifteen play, but even for these the upper limit is flexible. Many party games simply divide everyone into two roughly equal teams.
• The players can take part at varying levels. Not everyone enjoys straining themselves to the utmost to win, so good party games have multiple ways to play along and contribute to everyone's enjoyment. For example, in Fictionary not everyone needs to create plausible dictionary definitions; humorous submissions are at least as welcome. In charades, players can actively participate in guessing without taking a turn at acting.
• Player elimination is rare. Monopoly makes a poor party game, because bankrupt players must sit out while the remaining players continue to the game's conclusion, which can take several hours. In contrast, no matter how far behind a team is in Pictionary, all players can participate until the very end.
• Some games are largely non-competitive, for example murder mystery games which are mainly group role plays. Some party games, particularly lighthearted or adult games, introduce forfeits for losing players.

Common party games