PULTEVENT
Stag do games: 7 formats for the pub, the lodge and the long table
The back room of a pub in Leeds, the one with the dartboard nobody throws at. The landlord's TV, normally kept for the football, is showing a neon car park with twelve cars sliding sideways across it. The groom's future brother-in-law, who announced at the bar that he "doesn't do games", is on his feet with his phone in both hands, leaning into every corner as if that helps. It doesn't. He's in second place anyway.
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Stag dos tend to have one of two problems. Either the plan is simply drinking, and by nine o'clock the group has split into three conversations and a smoker's corner. Or somebody has planned forfeits so brutal the groom spends the evening on the defensive. What works better is a bit of structure: games where fifteen blokes who barely know each other end up on the same side, shouting at the same screen.
PULTEVENT gives you that from a laptop and whatever TV the venue has. The lads scan a QR code and play on their own phones, no app to download, while the screen shows the race or the quiz. The phones do need internet, and pub back rooms are not always generous with signal, so check before the night.
7 stag do games and when to play them
1 The groom quiz
Ten questions about the man himself: his first car, his worst haircut, the name of his fantasy football team, what his fiancée says he does when he's sulking. Everyone answers on his phone, the table updates as you go.
How to run it. Get two or three questions from his fiancée and at least one from his mum. The answers from those two sources are usually the ones the lads get wrong.
It puts the groom at the center without making him the target, and it tells you quickly who actually knows him.
2 Drift Arena heats
Up to twelve cars on a 3D arena, each steered from a phone. The gas is automatic, the halves of the screen steer, and a big button throws the car into a drift. Points come from holding a slide; hitting a wall burns them.
How to run it. Run a 60-second practice heat first. After that, put the groom against his best man in a grudge final.
It's loud, it's easy to learn in a minute, and the people watching get as involved as the people driving.
3 The horse race
Six horses, six phones. Tap to gallop, jump the hurdles, switch lanes. The total counts the finishing place plus the coins picked up along the track.
How to run it. Let the rest of the group pick a rider to cheer for before the start. Empty stalls get filled by bots.
It works as a quick filler between bigger rounds, and the smug winners change every race.
4 The forfeit randomizer
Your own list of forfeits goes into the randomizer, and the screen picks one at random for whoever's up. Speak only in questions for five minutes, do your best impression of the groom's dad, order the next round in a French accent.
How to run it. Write twenty forfeits, delete the five that could get someone thrown out, and keep them all doable by the least confident person there.
Random means fair. Nobody can accuse the best man of picking on him.
5 The wheel of whose turn
Names on a wheel, spun on screen. It decides who does the next forfeit, who proposes the next toast, or which table buys the next round.
How to run it. Keep it to a dozen or so names so they're readable from the back of the room. Put the groom on it twice. Everyone expects that.
It gives the evening a running joke you can come back to every half hour.
6 The karaoke battle
Two singers, or two teams, go head to head on the same kind of song. The points go straight to the team scoreboard.
How to run it. Pick songs everybody knows the chorus to. Nobody wants to hear a verse sung confidently in the wrong key for four minutes.
It gets the quiet ones up, because a team hides a bad voice better than a solo does.
7 The final table and the awards
If you've played in teams all night, the scoreboard ends with an awards ceremony: special awards first, then third, second and the winners, with fanfare and confetti on screen.
How to run it. Rename the special awards to fit the weekend: Worst Navigator, Last Man Standing, The One Who Called His Mum.
Stags without an ending just fizzle out. This gives you a clear last moment before the night moves on.
Up to twelve drivers at once
In Drift Arena every player steers a car from his phone. Nobody's waiting for a turn on a single controller.
A quiz about the groom
Questions from his mates, his family and his fiancée. The best man finally gets tested on what he claims to know.
Forfeits on a wheel
Your own list of forfeits, spun on screen. The wheel decides, so nobody can blame the best man.
One scoreboard for the night
Split into teams and every game feeds one table, with an awards ceremony at the end.
Pub, lodge or long table
In a pub back room you borrow the landlord's TV. Ask in advance whether you can plug a laptop into it and whether sound can go through the pub speakers. Bring your own HDMI cable, and turn the telly's own "sports mode" off, or the colors will look like a nightclub.
At a lodge or a rented house you have more time and a sofa. That's where you play the full evening: quiz, races, karaoke, awards. At a long restaurant table, keep to the phone games that need no standing up: the quiz, the horse race and the wheel. Nobody wants to karaoke over someone else's dinner.
Banter without humiliation
The best stag dos I've seen make the groom laugh at himself. The worst ones make him stop enjoying it by nine. The difference is usually one forfeit too far. My test: would the groom tell his fiancée about it on Sunday and still smile? If not, it's out.
Future fathers-in-law, younger brothers and colleagues often come on stags now. Write for the most sober person there, not the loudest.
Internet and the back room problem
Every phone game needs the players' phones online. Pub function rooms are often in basements with poor signal and Wi-Fi meant for the card machine. Ask for the guest Wi-Fi password and test it with two or three phones before the group arrives.
If there's truly no signal, the forfeit randomizer and the wheel still run from the laptop. The races and the quiz don't. Please don't discover that at eight on the night.
For a bachelor party in the US
Same games, with a sports bar or a rented house instead of a pub. The groom quiz and the drift heats travel perfectly. If half the guys are flying in and a couple can't make it, share the stage window in a video call: the remote ones see the screen and can play from their own phones through the QR code.
How long it takes to set up
An evening's worth takes a couple of hours at home: the groom quiz, the forfeit list, the team names. On the night, fifteen minutes to plug in, check sound and put the QR code up.
Try it in the free 3-day demo first, no card needed. The full version is a one-time license, no subscription, and the price is listed at pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to run stag do games from a laptop
- 1
Collect groom questions from his fiancée, family and mates a couple of weeks ahead.
- 2
Write the forfeit list and cut anything the least confident guest couldn't do.
- 3
Split the group into two or three teams and enter the team names.
- 4
At the venue, plug into the TV, sort the sound and test the Wi-Fi with a few phones.
- 5
Start with the groom quiz, then drift heats and horse races between drinks.
- 6
Finish with the karaoke battle and the awards ceremony on the scoreboard.
FAQ
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See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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