Thumper

Origin: Thumper has been played at North American colleges since the 1970s and reached Europe through sports teams and student halls. The name comes from the drumming on the table that the whole group uses as a metronome.

Setup: Everyone sits around a table. Going around, each player invents a hand sign and shows it once to the group.

How to play:

1. Everyone drums the table with both hands
2. The group chants: what are we playing? Thumper!
3. The starting player makes their own sign and then someone else's
4. That person is up immediately: their own sign plus a new one
5. The drumming continues between the signs

Drinking:

• Forget your own sign and you drink
• Show the wrong sign and you drink
• React too late or stop drumming and you drink

Escalation: After each penalty the player may change their sign. The confusion is the point.