As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Every product below is gear we bought with our own money and use at DodgeArrows Annapolis. Nobody paid for a mention.
We run birthday parties, team events and school-break camps most weeks of the year. Twenty kids, two hours, mixed ages, and a room that has to survive all of it.
Over three years we have bought a lot of equipment. Some is still in rotation. Some broke in a week. This is what survived, and the three rules we now buy by.
The three rules we buy by
It has to survive a twelve year old. Not careful use. Twelve year olds. Anything with a thin plastic hinge, a small battery door, or a part that unscrews will be in pieces by the third party.
It has to explain itself in one sentence. If staff need two minutes to teach the rules, you lose the room. The games that work are the ones a kid understands after watching for ten seconds.
It has to work for a nine year old and a fourteen year old at the same time. This is the hardest one and it rules out most board games. Mixed ages are the normal case at a party, not the exception.
Buy the ball first
If you are outfitting a garage, a church hall or a backyard and you buy exactly one thing, buy rubber playground balls.
A six pack of 8.5 inch playground balls covers kickball, dodgeball, four square and about six made-up variants. Cheapest item on this page, most used thing we own.
For dodgeball specifically, coated foam is worth the upgrade. Rhino Skin dodgeballs are low bounce and soft coated, which matters when the ceiling is low and the walls are close. We have rebought these every season since opening, which is the only review that counts. There is a smaller 6 inch set for younger groups.
Skip cheap vinyl dodgeballs. They sting, they bounce off everything, and they split along the seam.
Teams in five seconds
The most underrated purchase we ever made was a bag of scrimmage pinnies. Twelve dollars of mesh vests removes the most tedious part of running a group: working out who is on whose team, every round, all afternoon.
Buy neon. Buy more than you think. They are the first thing to go missing and the cheapest thing to replace.
The quiet corner nobody plans for
This is the part most people get wrong, and we got it wrong for our first year.
At any party or camp day, some kids are done running twenty minutes before the others. With nothing for them, they get bored, then disruptive, and the whole room gets harder. The fix costs about forty dollars.
A magnetic travel chess set is the single most played item in our quiet corner, which genuinely surprised us. The magnets matter more than they sound: a bumped table does not end the game, and at a camp table that happens every few minutes. There is a chess and checkers two in one for younger groups and a full size board for a table that is not moving.
Beyond chess, what works with mixed ages and short attention spans:
- Connect 4, three minutes a game, loud, zero teaching required
- Pictionary, one of the few that genuinely spans ages
- You Can’t Say UMM, gets a whole table laughing and travels well
Big group games that hold up
- Rechargeable laser tag, the most requested thing we own, and it gets better with the lights off
- Axe throwing with foam and plastic axes, sounds alarming, is completely safe, adults love it
- Ladder toss, the one parents end up playing
- Throw Throw Burrito, card game plus dodgeball, exactly as chaotic as it sounds
- Slingshot rocket launcher, foot powered, flies high, keeps a yard busy for an hour
Indoor specific, learned the hard way
A foam football instead of a real one. We broke a light fixture learning this.
A portable soccer goal that folds flat, because floor space is what you never have enough of.
Coaches whistles, one per staff member. Shouting over twenty kids wrecks your voice by the third party of the day.
Padding on any pole within reach of a running kid. Not optional, and cheap.
What we stopped buying
Being honest about the misses is more useful than another list of wins.
Anything with small parts. They end up under the turf and in the vacuum. A game with forty pieces has twenty eight pieces by month two.
Long board games. Anything over fifteen minutes does not survive a party. Kids leave mid-game and you reset a board nobody finished.
Cheap battery toys. The battery door is always the failure point. One small screw holding the cover means about four parties of life.
Inflatables under about a hundred dollars. We have bought several. The seams go, and a slow leak is worse than a fast one because you keep trying to use it.
Three ways to kit out a space
Backyard birthday, one afternoon. The playground ball set, pinnies, and one big group game. That is a real party.
Church hall or school gym, recurring. Add proper dodgeballs, the folding goal, whistles, and a quiet corner with chess and Connect 4.
Running camps. Everything above, plus laser tag as the anchor activity and a second quiet-corner option so two tables can run at once.
The full list
Everything we use, with what each thing is for, lives on one page: the gear we actually use at DodgeArrows. For a glow night specifically, that is written up separately in the glow party guide.
Party and camp gear questions we get asked
What games work best for a kids birthday party?
Games that explain themselves in one sentence and work across mixed ages. Dodgeball with soft coated balls, laser tag, kickball and ladder toss all work with a wide age range. Long board games and anything with small parts do not survive a party.
What should I buy first for a kids party or camp?
A six pack of 8.5 inch rubber playground balls. One purchase covers kickball, dodgeball and four square, and it is the cheapest item that gets the most use.
How do you organize teams quickly with a big group?
Scrimmage pinnies. A twelve pack of neon mesh vests removes the slowest, most repetitive part of running a group, and neon colors also glow under blacklight if you run glow nights.
What do you do with kids who get bored partway through a party?
Set up a quiet corner. Some kids finish running twenty minutes before the rest, and with nothing for them they become a management problem. A magnetic chess set, Connect 4 and one card game cover it for about forty dollars.
What party equipment is not worth buying?
Anything with lots of small parts, board games longer than fifteen minutes, cheap battery powered toys whose battery doors break, and inflatables under about one hundred dollars, which develop seam leaks.
Are foam dart blasters safe for an indoor party?
Yes, with eye protection and a clear boundary. We use foam tipped equipment and safety glasses every session, and foam footballs rather than real ones indoors after breaking a light fixture.
Or let us run it
All of this is doable yourself, and plenty of families do it. What you are really buying with a DIY party is the setup, the refereeing, and the cleanup while the sugar wears off.
If you would rather skip that part, we run birthday parties, team events and camps at DodgeArrows Annapolis with the room already built and somebody else cleaning up.
Book a party at DodgeArrows Annapolis
Ready for an Epic Experience?
Book your session at DodgeArrows and create unforgettable memories with friends, family, or your team!
Book Now