To ask if you've ever played blind man's buff?

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The classic party game in which one player is blindfolded, and tries to find one of the others, who are moving about, and sometimes has to guess who they have found by feel, or hearing them speak in a disguised voice. The game is often referenced in old fiction, as something children would do for a bit of impromptu fun. "Let's play blind man's buff while we wait for supper!"

I think it's become a forgotten game, in this age of safety, or people think of it as belonging to the era of Charles Dickens. When I was recently discussing party games with some people in their thirties, none of them had heard of it. It's probably been banned from playgrounds, like conkers, and British Bulldog.

Did you ever play it? I don't think I did as a child, but I remember playing it as a teenager once, abroad on a school trip, while we had a dull moment outside in the cold, and this was to the bemusement of passing tourists.
YANBU - I played it
YABU - I never played it

I played it as a kid.
I also remember when I was 14 and babysitting playing it with the children. The dad came back and joined in and groped my chest and bum.

We used to play it on our annual freshers hostelling trip with a group at Uni. So it wasn’t just for smaller DCs.

We did too but i think it was something like dairy milk that had segments
rather than mars bar!

One of my favourite travel memories is of my DD and a group of kids we were travelling with (family group tour) playing this with the tour guide in a Berber house in the Atlas Mountains where there was no phone signal or tv. Ages from 8 to about 16. All having fun. Bit surreal, but a lovely memory.

Everyone confidently correcting the OP but OP is right, it was traditionally blind man’s buff - buff meaning to lightly push or bump someone. It’s easy to google it and see

Exactly. Buffing into people because you can't see.

So funnily enough, I don’t remember playing it, but my two children have started playing it together and think it’s hilarious! So guessing they must be playing it at school or picked it up from a friend’s house or TV or something! 😂

Blind man's buff here, although squeak piggy squeak was more usual, which was very similar.

@mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork Wink murder (the version which I played): everybody sits in a circle, and is given a slip of paper, one of which is marked with an X; they are the murderer, and keep it a secret. The murderer kills people by winking at them, trying not to let anybody else notice. Anyone who sees a wink aimed at them dies (noisily and graphically, of course!) If somebody still alive believes they know who the murderer is, they can accuse them, and their slip is then checked. The accuser wins the game if they are correct; the murderer wins if three false accusations are made. There is a lot of tension during this game, with everyone watching everyone else's eyes.

I'm glad to know that people still play blind man's buff (which is how I shall continue to spell it). Another game I remember from school was "keeper of the keys": the keeper is blindfolded, sits in the middle of a circle with a bunch of keys beside them, and points in the direction of any sound they hear. Somebody creeps up and tries to steal the keys as silently as they can, without being heard and pointed at. The adults liked this game because it was quiet, like sleeping lions.

@TorroFerney You wouldn't have liked an activity we did at a youth group once: we had a sponsored silence, to raise funds for blind people. Everyone sat in a circle, and those who wanted to take part in the game were blindfolded; those who didn't had to read silently. Those who got bored were allowed to take off their blindfold and read, but those who kept their eyes covered the whole time (I think half an hour) got a prize at the end. I managed this, but I zoned out and fell asleep briefly!

Lates 30s. Played it occasionally as a kid in the 90s but I don’t remember it being like one of the main games you would always play at parties or anything.

We used to play Blind Man’s Buff (or Bluff, because bluffing was part of the strategy) behind the science block in secondary school. No, this was not an excuse 😉 it was a girls’ school. But there was a very convenient ‘shelf’ about 6ft wide and maybe 1ft high running the length of the passageway, which made an excellent playing track.

British Bulldogs was banned at least twice in my seven years there. Instead we played Fisherman’s Net and Snap the Whip, which were equally dangerous. They may have been our own names for these games, as nobody else seems to have heard of them.

It is 100% “buff” not bluff. I definitely played it as a child (70s/80s) but I’m not sure I could have told you the rules.

Played it with my dc during lockdown using masks as blindfolds.
It was a birthday party favourite when I was a child. Definitely buff, not bluff which was considered an hilarious pronunciation error when we were 5 and 6.

Yes and so have my kids

Yes, played as a child in 80s, was definitely called Blind man’s buff in London. Think it wasn’t so much a party game just a game we played a lot if we had friends round. We also played ‘murder in the dark’ a lot in the winter!

My son just had a sleepover for his birthday and they played Marco Polo which sounded similar.

@mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork
I did reply with a long, detailed description of Wink Murder but for some reason it didn't post. I see Op has since explained it and that's basically what I would have said!

Im in my 80s and we played it as kids in the 1950s. Also Musical Chairs, Passing the Parcel, Off Ground Tick, Hospital Tick, Simon Said etc.

Off Ground Tick is a variation of the chasing game where players are safe from being caught ("tagged" or "ticked") if they are not touching the ground. Players climb on objects like benches, low walls, or trees to avoid being made tagger. In Hospital Tick if you are ticked or tagged on a part of your body you have to hold that part and still try to evade the tagger.

We still play it now in our house.

I've never heard it called Buff either, I'd have thought that was an entirely different kind of game!

I think there are similar party games played, but the old name is probably considered offensive now?

@scalt @Bbq1

Thanks for explaining wink murder. I love this but it was unknown to us and our friends. However, I would probably have been rubbish at it as I could never successfully wink.

Buff😂! I thought you were talking about the game being played in the nude!

Yes, a staple of children's parties in the 70s and 80s, in the days when a party meant wearing a long dress and eating sausages on sticks in someone's living room while their dad put records on the music centre and their mum organised pass the parcel, musical chairs, Simon says, that memory game where you have to recall items on a tray etc.

I feel sorry for children nowadays who just get bunged off to Macca Ds or Pizza Hut!

It’s buff and yes we played it at parties in the 70’s

Squeak Piggy squeak anyone?

How about the big ship sails or oranges and lemons

Yes. Played it at home in the garden when I was a kid. DM was the 'blind man'. We were all so busy getting away, we didn't notice that she had fell over the fence into next door's garden. She was upside down with her legs kicking up in the air 😂