Hunger Games Game: Four Ways to Play in Panem
If you are looking for a Hunger Games game, there are four good ways to play in Panem today. You can run a whole Games in a minute with the free BrantSteele Hunger Games Simulator and watch twenty-four tributes fight it out. You can lead the rebellion or the Capitol across a map of the districts in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, the board game. You can join Hunger Games: The RPG, a roleplay forum where members write their own tributes into Games that run for months. Or you can open Suzanne Collins’ novel itself and walk into District 12 as a character of your own, with a narrator that has read the book and answers whatever you type. Which one fits depends on whether you want a quick bloodbath to laugh at with friends, a strategy evening, a writing community, or the arena with you inside it.
This guide goes through all four, says who each one suits, and ends with how to try the last one tonight without paying anything.
What people want from a Hunger Games game
The books are about a girl who volunteers, survives and then refuses to play the Capitol’s game any longer. People who search for a game set there usually want one of these:
- The arena. The reaping, the Cornucopia, the alliances that break, the last tribute standing.
- Their own tribute. Somebody who is not Katniss, from a district they chose, with a skill and a weakness of their own.
- The war. Districts rising against the Capitol, the story of Mockingjay rather than of a single Games.
- The world as written. Panem’s hunger and its spectacle, Haymitch’s advice, Effie’s schedule, the mutts, the sponsors’ gifts that arrive by parachute.
The table shows where each option lands.
The four options side by side
| Hunger Games Simulator | Mockingjay board game | Hunger Games: The RPG | Play inside the novel | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Free browser simulator | Strategy board game | Roleplay forum | Written game in a browser |
| Players | Just you, often with friends watching | 2 to 4 | A whole community | Just you |
| Who you play | You cast 24 tributes and watch | Rebels or the Capitol | Your own written character | Your own character |
| Story | Random events, day by day | A war for Panem | Written by members, post by post | Grows from your choices, grounded in the book |
| Session length | A few minutes per Games | About 90 minutes | Months per Games | As long as you like |
| Best for | Laughing at a random arena | A strategy night | Writers who want a group | Readers who want the arena itself |
The claims below about the simulator, the forum and the board game are as of October 2026, read from BrantSteele’s own pages, the forum’s front page, and a retailer’s listing of the board game.
The BrantSteele Hunger Games Simulator
This is the one most people find first. BrantSteele’s simulator is a free web page that opens on The Reaping: two tributes from each of the twelve districts, starting with the book’s own cast, from Glimmer and Marvel in District 1 to Katniss and Peeta in District 12. You press Proceed and the simulator writes the Games out from the bloodbath onward, event by event: who ran for supplies, who teamed up, who did not see the morning.
Most of the fun is in the cast. Edit Cast lets you replace the tributes with anyone you like, so a classroom, a group chat or a whole fandom can be reaped. Random Cast, Adjust Size and Manage Events change who plays, how many and what can happen to them. There are two versions, the original at brantsteele.net and an updated one at brantsteele.com that the original points to for its extra options. The site describes itself plainly:
“BrantSteele.net’s Hunger Games Simulator is a fan-created, non-profit work.”
It asks players to be 13 or older, or to have parental guidance, because of the violence.
Pick it if you want a quick, shareable laugh, and the joy of seeing your best friend outlast everyone with a slingshot.
It is weaker for anyone who wants to make a choice. You set the stage and watch; the tributes act on their own, and nobody in the arena hears you.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, the board game
River Horse published a licensed strategy game in 2019 built on the last book. The retailer listing describes it this way:
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – The Board Game is a strategic board game where two to four players must employ all their wits in order to free or control Panem.”
The box holds a large board of the districts, thirteen character miniatures from Katniss and President Snow to Finnick, Beetee and Alma Coin, Resistance and Peacekeeper armies, hovercraft and mutts, and a set of polyhedral dice. The listing gives 2 to 4 players, about 90 minutes, and ages 14 and up.
Be aware that it is out of print. The retailer marks it so, which means a copy today comes second hand. It is also a game of the war, so the arena itself is not on the board.
Pick it if you have two or three friends who want the rebellion as a strategy game, with miniatures to push across Panem.
It is weaker for anyone who wants the Games or a character of their own. You command sides and armies, and you will need to find a copy first.
Hunger Games: The RPG, the roleplay forum
This one is older than the films. Hunger Games: The RPG at hungergamesrpg.com is a play-by-post forum whose first posts date from October 2008, and it is still running Games today. Its front page lists the calendar for 2026: the 102nd Games began in July and concluded in September, after the 101st crowned a victor from District 1. It also runs “Retro Games” alongside the main ones.
You register, read the rules and the newbie guide, then write a character using its Create a Character and Character Guide pages. Members write their tributes’ parts in turn, in Games run by the site’s own Gamemakers. The sidebar links a damage calculator and an attack lookup for the fights, a plot board, and RP tutoring for newcomers who want help with their writing.
Pick it if you love writing, want other people’s tributes to meet yours, and have the patience for a story told one post at a time over weeks.
It is weaker for anyone who wants to play now. A forum runs at the pace of its members, and a Games has its season on the calendar.
Playing inside the novel as your own tribute
The fourth way is the newest. You give a narrator the novel itself, and it reads the book before you begin: the districts, the people, how they speak, what they know and what they hide. You are shown what the reading costs before anything is spent. Then you make your own character and type what you do. There is no list of choices. You can volunteer at the reaping, trade with a stranger in the Hob, or spend your training score hiding a talent from the Gamemakers, and the narrator keeps Panem consistent with what the author wrote.
This is what LLM RPG does. You upload a copy of a book you own, as a
.txt or .epub file, and it builds an atlas of that book’s world before your
first scene. Because it works from the text rather than from a preset, it works
for The Hunger Games and equally for Catching Fire, Mockingjay or any other
novel on your shelf.
Pick it if what you miss after the last page is Panem itself, and you would rather be a tribute from District 7 tonight than watch one.
It is weaker for players who want a group. It is a written story, read and typed, like a patient game master who never tires. It also needs the book file, so you use your own copy.
For the wider field, see solo role playing games and AI game master. If you liked this for Panem, our Harry Potter role playing game and Game of Thrones RPG guides do the same for Hogwarts and Westeros.
What it takes to start each one
| Option | How to start | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| Hunger Games Simulator | Open the page and press Proceed | Nothing, and a cast if you want your own |
| Mockingjay board game | Find a second-hand copy | Two to four players |
| Hunger Games: The RPG | Register and write a character | Patience for a slow, shared story |
| LLM RPG | Open the site in a browser | Nothing for the first five turns |
With LLM RPG you can play a ready-made world for five turns with no account at all, and signing up adds free credits. A full novel costs more to read than the welcome credits cover, and you are shown the exact price before anything is spent. The current plans are on the pricing page.
How to start a Hunger Games game tonight
If playing inside the book sounds like your kind of game, this is the whole path from nothing to your first scene.
- Try it with no account. Open a ready-made world and play five turns. A few minutes tells you whether typing your own actions suits you.
- Sign up with your email if it does. You get a one-time code, no password.
- Upload the book. Choose the volume you want to live in, as a
.txtor.epubfile from your own copy. The narrator reads it and builds the world before you play. - Make your tribute. A District 4 fisher’s daughter who can tie any knot, a District 11 boy who knows which plants will kill you, a Capitol stylist’s assistant who starts to doubt. You are a new person in Panem, so you can be anyone.
- Type what you do. “I run from the Cornucopia toward the trees.” “I ask Haymitch what he would do in my place.” The narrator answers in the book’s world and remembers what you did, including the alliances you broke.
When another Hunger Games game is the better choice
Be honest about the evening you want. If you and your friends want to laugh at who survives, the simulator does that in a minute, free, with nothing to learn. If you want a strategy night with miniatures and you can find a copy, the Mockingjay board game is the war on a table. If you love to write and want other people’s tributes to meet yours, the forum has been running Games for years and is still reaping.
A written game fits a different moment: you have just finished the last chapter, or put down the newest prequel, and you want to stand on the platform when the gong sounds, as yourself. That is the moment it was built for. If you are looking for something to share with a group of readers instead, our games for book club ideas work for Panem too.