Pirate Party Games for Teens

Pirates aren't the fear-inducing characters they once were. For teens, pirates are pretty cool, thanks to the many teen-friendly films depicting pirates as clever, funny and handsome. If your teen is planning on a having a pirate-themed birthday party, plan party games that will engage their teenage spirits.

Pirate Treasure Hunt

Plan an epic pirate treasure hunt around town for the teens. Put the teens in pairs and create a list of items they must find, and tasks they must do to complete the scavenger hunt. The list could include objects such as a pirate eye patch and chocolate gold coins. For a task, you could require the teens to record themselves singing a pirate ditty on a street corner for "gold coins," get a stranger to dress in pirate gear from a costume shop and take a picture, steal something from another participating team and find a book in the library about a famous pirate. Assign each task a certain amount of points. Whoever has the most points and returns in the allotted time wins.

Pirate Pool Games

If you have a backyard pool, the teens can use it for pirate-themed water games. For instance, the teens could play a pirate trivia game where they must correctly answer questions related to pirates. Questions could be about the life of real pirates, pirate lingo and famous pirates. If a teen gets three questions wrong, they must "walk the plank" and jump into the pool. For another pool game, the teens could play a pirate version of Marco Polo. The person who is "it," must keep their eyes closed in the pool while trying to tag another teen. To figure out where the teens are in the pool, he could yell a pirate phrase such as "ahoy scallywags," and the teens must reply with "arrgh!" If he tags someone, that teen is next to be "it."

Pirate Relay Race

Divide the teens into groups of three or more and have them line up for for a pirate dress-up race. Place a bag for each team full of pirate gear, such as a hat, a pirate-style suit jacket, an eye patch and a hook a few yards away. The first teen in line for each team must run to the bag, put on the entire outfit, grab the empty bag and run back to his team, where he must undress and put the outfit back in the bag. The next teen must run back to the spot where the bag was, put the outfit on and run back and take it off. The first team to have all members dress and undress in the pirate outfit wins. For another pirate-themed relay race, you could have the teens race to a large cardboard box, or "treasure chest" filled with chocolate gold coins. Each team member has 15 seconds each to grab as much as they can and the team with the most coins wins.

Steal The Pirate Flag

Divide the teens into two teams with a territory. All the teens must wear eye patches. Place three flags for each team on the opposite team's territory in various locations, then place a treasure chest in a neutral zone. The teams must try to get onto each others territory and steal their flags and take it back to their "ship" or safety zone. If they are tagged on another team's territory, they are sent to jail and can only be rescued by another team member tagging them free. When a team gets all three flags to their ship, they team can then race to get the treasure chest in the neutral zone. The first team to get their flags and the treasure chest wins the game. For a variation of this game, you could hide the treasure chest really well and have the team who can find it win automatically, no matter how many flags they have.