Bangkok’s quiz and game nights: find your kind of crowd

Organiser information checked on 21 September 2026. Follow the calendar links for current dates.

A pub quiz is one of the few places where remembering a deeply unimportant fact can pay for your next drink. A board-game night can turn strangers into friends, or reveal which of your existing friends should never be allowed near a property market.

Bangkok has plenty of both. Comedy organisers run trivia in restaurants and bars. Cafes host social mixers, specialist game shops teach newcomers, and chess players can choose between a friendly game and the pressure of a clock.

The choice goes well beyond the nearest BTS station. You might want an excuse to talk to people, a room that shares your particular obsession, or a competition you intend to win. Those are different evenings, even when they happen at the same venue.

The suggestions below are based on the organisers’ published formats. For current dates, use our Bangkok quiz calendar and board-game nights guide.

A comedy organiser’s quiz can still have a scoreboard

If the host matters as much to you as the questions, look at who runs the night.

Leaf, Laugh, Love Comedy presents trivia at Upper Deck on Tuesdays, Catrika on Thursdays and Santi Social Space on Fridays. The current listings allow teams of up to six, with prizes for the top three and entry covered by a food or drink purchase.

Catrika’s questions cover pop culture, music, films and general knowledge, with Mexican and Latin food alongside. That makes it a useful option for friends combining dinner with a quiz. Upper Deck offers the sports-bar setting; Santi’s Friday listing includes history and geography alongside entertainment questions. Catrika event · Upper Deck event · Santi event

The comedy connection is a reason to investigate these nights if you enjoy some personality at the microphone. A good host can make a wrong answer entertaining for everyone except the person who insisted it was definitely right.

It would be a mistake to assume that a comedy-run quiz means easy questions or nobody caring about the result. These nights advertise prizes too. You can want a laugh and still be furious that your team changed the correct answer.

Some people come for the prizes

If your friends assemble a team by subject specialism, give them something to play for.

The Sportsman’s Tuesday quiz advertises a ฿1,000 bar voucher for the winners, ฿500 for second place and a rollover jackpot. It also invites people to join its regular teams. That is a concrete reason to try it if you enjoy a scored pub quiz but have arrived without five friends and a designated geography expert.

The Deck’s Thursday quiz offers Deck Dollars and a weekly cash jackpot. Solo players and teams are welcome, and the venue advises booking a table. It is another option for people who want dinner, drinks and a reason to pay attention when the answers are read out.

The prizes are one part of the choice. Ask the host about the question mix too, especially if your team’s general knowledge falls apart whenever British television comes up. A cash jackpot and a welcoming table for newcomers can happily coexist.

Find a quiz about your own kind of nerdy

“Nerdy” covers a lot of ground. The person who knows every anime opening theme may be useless at naming European rivers. The Taylor Swift expert can have equally specialist knowledge, with better accessories.

Treehouse’s September programme illustrates the difference: it advertised Anime Trivia on 16 September and Taylor Swift Trivia on 17 September, followed by a separate general-knowledge quiz on 23 September. Those themed dates are examples of its programming, not a promise of weekly anime or Taylor Swift nights. September poster · General-knowledge event poster

A themed quiz gives a fan a reason to use knowledge that usually makes their friends change the subject. It also gives a newcomer an obvious conversation starter. Pick a theme you enjoy rather than assuming that “general knowledge” is automatically more sociable or less difficult.

Arcadia’s Brainrunner pub quiz uses cyberpunk language that fits its barcade setting. Try it if that setting appeals, and ask the host about the subjects if you want a specialist quiz: the announcement leaves the question mix and difficulty unspecified. Brainrunner announcement

Easy games give you something to do while meeting people

Some game nights make the social purpose explicit.

Crimson Cat’s Saturday night at Treehouse promises easy games and a chance to meet people. It allows flexible arrival and departure, and its ฿350 walk-in price includes a drink. That suits someone who wants an organised way into a room without spending the first half-hour learning a complicated game.

Coucou Social in Ekkamai offers both casual cafe play and organised social nights. Its library includes quick choices such as Codenames and Exploding Kittens, alongside Catan for a longer session. The venue advertises open tables, Wednesday Meet & Play and a Saturday social night using icebreakers and beginner-friendly games. Its Thursday Social Guild is specifically promoted to locals and expats in their twenties and thirties.

That distinction matters when you come alone. A cafe with a shelf of games gives your existing group something to play. An organised open table gives you a way to find a group. Look for the latter if meeting people is the reason you left the house.

You can also choose a mixed evening. Slow Social’s programme includes board games and karaoke at Santi, and a Sunday session at Arcadia that mixes party games with longer strategy games. Check the dated listings before going: a recurring event can have an end date or skip a week. Santi games · Arcadia games

Strategy games and social deduction ask more of your attention

If you enjoy learning rules and working out what everyone else is planning, try a session that gives the game more space.

Battlefield Bangkok is a hobby shop as well as a place to play. It says it has been building its community since 2009, so Bangkok’s gaming scene has roots well before the latest social-night posters. Its Thursday meetup splits into strategy, party and social-deduction games according to what people want to play. Newcomers can learn from the group; the event runs mainly in English. Thursday meetup

For someone curious about deeper games, that is a useful middle ground: help learning, with room to try more than an icebreaker.

Blood on the Clocktower is a different social experience again. You have a role, partial information and other people whose explanations may be extremely convenient. Talking, bluffing and working out whom to trust are part of the game.

Bangkok Gaming Society’s announced Treehouse session on 24 September includes a beginner tutorial at 18:00. Bangkok Gamers also runs a Monday Clocktower night, temporarily moved from Chapter Market to Mariee Cafe during renovations. These sessions suit people who want to participate in the group’s argument and pay attention to what happens. Arrive for the introduction if you are new. Treehouse session · Bangkok Gamers session

Treehouse can therefore mean easy Saturday social games, a themed quiz or a much more involved deduction game. Choose the event and organiser as carefully as the building.

Chess offers both a gentle introduction and a clock

Chess rewards sustained attention, but the local events give beginners several ways in.

Red Knight’s Saturday casual evening offers friendly games, advice and an optional blitz tournament. You can come for ordinary games without entering the tournament. The event is at the cafe in Bambini Villa; Red Knight also has a separate club location, so check the address.

At Boring Club’s Chess Corner at FCCT, beginners can learn or watch, and the organisers offer to help match players of similar ability. Chess has its own tables alongside the board-game event. It is worth considering if you want to learn in a social setting, or arrive with someone who prefers a different game.

For a beginner, those distinctions are more useful than calling every chess night “serious”. A timed tournament, a lesson and a friendly game over coffee require different things from you. Check which one you are joining.

Dungeons & Dragons asks for commitment to a group

Tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons suit people who want to inhabit a character and make decisions together over a story. A Dungeon Master prepares and runs the adventure; the players shape what happens through their choices. Official D&D introduction

The commitment can be greater than a casual cafe game, especially in an ongoing campaign. Other people are making plans around your character being there. That deserves a more definite answer than “might pop in after dinner”.

The tone depends on the table. A campaign can be dramatic, tactical or gloriously stupid. More rules and preparation do not oblige anyone to spend the evening speaking solemnly about elves.

Battlefield sells tabletop RPGs and offers a place to meet other gamers, making it a sensible starting point for asking about local groups. A shop stocking D&D does not mean there is an open game waiting every night. Ask about a beginner session or a one-shot adventure, the language used, any fee, whether characters are supplied and whether the group expects repeat attendance.

Choose a one-shot if you want to try the format without joining a continuing campaign. If you are staying in Bangkok and want a regular group, a campaign gives you a reason to keep seeing the same people.

Choose the evening you actually want

Start with the current quiz nights or board-game sessions, then check the organiser’s announcement for your date. If you are coming alone, ask how you join a table. If you are bringing friends, make sure they have agreed to the same kind of evening before someone starts explaining their character’s three-page backstory.