Four on the Couch: King of the Hill for Adults

Divided into two teams, players must strategically place only their team on The Couch, but how will they do so if they can’t remember the identity of their teammates?

 

Four on the Couch is a fun group activity that can either be played as an icebreaker or with a group of friends.  Just gather people into a circle and enjoy as they try and manipulate their team into the four magical spots that make up The Couch.  Things can go south very quickly, so make sure to emphasize the importance of communication.

 

Will your team dominate The Couch? Let’s find out…

 

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Players: 8 – 16

Gear: A couch (made up of four seats)
Chairs
Paper & Pen

 

HOW TO PLAY

 

Have each player write their name down on a slip of paper.  Divide the players into two teams.  Begin sitting people by alternating teams.  Once everyone has sat down, there should be one empty chair (it cannot be a part of The Couch).  Finally, randomly distribute the slips of paper so that everyone has someone else’s name. 

 

 

 

Shifting Seats

 

Each player assumes the identity of the player on their slip of paper.  The player to the left of the empty seat begins by saying anyone’s name (except for the name on their paper).  The person with that name on their paper moves to the empty seat and switches papers with the person who called them.

For example:

Casey, being the player to the left of the empty seat says “Skyler”

 

 

Skyler doesn’t move, but Cameron, the person with the slip of paper that says “Skyler”, gets up and moves to the empty seat.

 

 

Cameron gives Casey the paper that says “Skyler” and Casey gives Cameron the piece of paper they had before.  Casey will now move if “Skyler” is called again.  

 

 

 

After people have moved and switched papers, the person who is to the left of the empty seat begins again by calling a name (except the name just called).

 

 

 

Winning the Game!

 

The game ends when everyone on The Couch is part of one team, and that team wins!

 

One last thing!

There are a variety of ways that you can differentiate the two teams.  If there is an even number of boys and girls, that may be the easiest way, but there are other options too.  Having different colored bandanas to give to team members is another quick easy solution.  If you have no other materials though, people can just raise their hand when someone else on their team is calling out a name, that way they can easily visualize where the rest of the team is. 

 

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Author’s Note

Surprisingly, I had never played Four on the Couch until I began writing this blog.  Out of the hundreds of games that I have skimmed through in The Games Bible, I decided that this week I would explore one that was new to me, instead of revisiting an old favorite; and I’m honestly really glad I did.  This Thursday I got a bunch of friends from Schreyer Honors College together and we had a great time! It was very easy for everyone to grasp, and they all enjoyed how laid back it was.  The best part about the game is the simplicity and ability to engage a large group of people.  Do you have any favorite games designed to be played with  a lot of people? Please let me know if you can think of any other quick, pick up games that you’ve played before!  I’d love to look more into it and perhaps post about it.

 

Check out this video as well as this Wikipedia page if you would like a very quick, simplistic overview of the game.  The game is also known as Couch of Power and Parliament.

 

 

Analysis

For such a simple game, Four on the Couch  initially confuses many people.  Because people swap their identities, it is very easy to get lost and forget who has what card.  The key to success in this game is really to keep track of the slips.  It’s relatively easy to understand WHO has to move, but a lot harder to remember what name to call to move that person.  The interesting thing is that its difficulty increases with the number of people that are playing.

Creativity: If you’re looking to stimulate imagination, this is not the right game to invest your time in.  While it is tons of fun, there are not a lot of components that individuals can customize each time they play.

Luck: Even though you can try really hard to keep track of all of the moving variables at play, I think a that part times, luck and gut instinct helped a lot when you were unable to rack your brain for what card someone has.  Sometimes, I just went with what I felt right, and luckily, when we played on Thursday, it was guesses like that which helped guide our team to win.

Strategy: The most strategical approach to playing Four on the Couch, is storing a lot of tiny details.  Memory plays a crucial role in this game, since trying to remember which cards are being passed around is key to succeeding.  However, there are so many distractions that truly paying attention is extremely difficult.

 

Tips & Strategies

Tips for memorizing

• •  Instead of paying attention to everyone’s identity (ID), try and focus on the ID’s of people sitting on the couch. That way, you can avoid removing people on your team and more easily remove opponents.
  • Or, you can focus on just those on your team.  This is really helpful because if you need to place someone on your team on The Couch, then you are golden, but if you need to move an opponent, worst case scenario, you can say the name of anyone who is not on your team.
  • As a general tip, when someone calls out a name, they adopt that ID.  For example, if Casey says “Skyler”, and Cameron has Skyler’s paper, then Cameron moves to the empty seat and gives Casey the Skyler ID.  This means that every time someone calls a name, they then become that person.  This is a quick shortcut so that you can more easily think back to the names that people called out (which may be catalogued as auditory memory) instead of abstract facts like (Casey is now Skyler).

 

Variations: Try this out next time you play!

• Increase the number of people.  Going from a total of 8 people to 20 people completely changes gameplay and allows for a variety of play styles.  

 

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day!

 

 

Credits

I cannot stress enough the importance of Leigh Anderson’s fantastic book The Games Bible for inspiring these blog posts.  Her book has hundreds of amazing ideas, from icebreakers, family games, and weekend getaways.  This blog would not be possible without all the hard work she put into writing the book so my source for ideas and research are from her book.

Additional Materials

Four on the Couch Printable Instructions

Sources

• Anderson, Leigh. The Games Bible. Workman Publishing Company, 2010.
• TripleSGames, director. How to Play 4 on a Couch. YouTube, YouTube, 20 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKIjx5mBNCw.
• “Couch of Power.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Jan. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couch_of_power.
• Anderson, Leigh. “The Games BIBLE: The Ultimate Gamebook… Book by Leigh Anderson.” ThriftBooks, www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-games-bible-the-ultimate-gamebook-for-grown-ups-307-games-to-put-the-fun-back-in-parties_leigh-anderson/571781/#edition=5740103&idiq=12407424.

Image Sources

• Couch
• Glow in the Dark Chess
• All graphics related to Four on the Couch were created by Nicholas Bodie