Team building and Christmas party ideas in Dublin

Most team building activities in Dublin fall into two camps. The ones that feel like work with a lanyard on, and the ones that are really just the pub with a budget code. A games night is the third option. People sit down, pick up something to do with their hands, and within ten minutes the quiet one in accounts is bluffing the head of sales and everyone is talking. We run these for teams all year, and December fills first, so here is how it works.

Why a games night works for a team

Nobody has to make small talk. The game does that for you. A table of six with a deck of cards has a reason to talk, a reason to laugh at each other, and a reason to stay, and it works the same whether people have known each other for ten years or ten minutes. It also suits the people a Christmas party usually leaves out: the ones who don't drink, the ones who hate standing around, the new starters, and the ones who would rather do something than watch something.

It is a café, not a pub. There is wine if you want it and coffee if you don't, and nobody has to shout.

How a group night runs here

You arrive, the tables are set, and someone from the team picks games off the wall with you. Tell us about the crowd beforehand and we'll have a shortlist waiting on the tables. We explain the rules at each table and get you going, then step back and come round when a table finishes a game and wants another. Food comes to the tables. That's it.

Groups sit eight to a table as a rule, and the games are picked for that size, so a team of 24 is three tables and three different games, with people swapping tables through the night if they like.

Group sizes, booking and prices

• Up to 60 people downstairs, in tables of up to eight.
• Downstairs can be booked privately, so a bigger group has the floor to itself.
• Playing is €5 a person an hour, capped at €15, and there are group deals for parties and team nights. Tell us the size and the date and we'll give you a price.
• Food: pizza, platters, and wine for the table. Tell us about allergies or anyone who eats differently and we'll sort it.

Christmas dates go first, so if you're thinking December, ask now. For a smaller team, ten or under, you can book a table straight away. For anything bigger, or anything with food, send us a note with the date, the numbers and what you have in mind, or ring the shop on 01 524 2984.

Five games that work for a work crowd

All of these are on the wall, all of them are learned in five minutes, and none of them need anyone to have played a board game before.

• Codenames. Two teams, a grid of words, and one person per team giving one-word clues. The game every office has an opinion about by the end. 4 to 8 a table, and it scales up if you run two grids.
• Wavelength. One person knows where the needle is on a scale like "hot to cold" or "underrated to overrated" and gives a clue, the team argues about where to turn the dial. You learn a lot about your colleagues very quickly.
• Just One. Everyone writes a one-word clue for the guesser, and matching clues get thrown out, so the obvious answer is the wrong one. Fully co-operative, so nobody loses.
• Skull. Flowers or skull, face down, and dare the table to call it. Pure bluffing, seconds to learn, and it finds the poker face in the room.
• ito. Everyone gets a secret number from 1 to 100 and a theme, and you have to describe your number without saying it, then put the whole table in order. Ten minutes, and it works with any group.

If your crowd is more card game than board game, we run Friday Night Magic and Riftbound nights too, and a team that plays can book in around those.

What it costs, roughly

A team of twenty for a three-hour evening is €15 a head to play, so €300, plus whatever you eat and drink. Pizzas are €12 to €13. There are group deals, so ask before you budget.

Where we are

75 York Road, Dún Laoghaire, a few minutes from the DART. Open till 10pm Monday to Thursday and 11pm Friday and Saturday. If you're buying for the team as well as bringing them out, the Christmas gift guide has games for every kind of colleague, from the one who says they don't like board games to the one who has them all.