World
Titanic
Float the shot glass, pour with a surgeon's hand - don't sink it.
Goon of Fortune Drinking Game
Boxed wine on a spinning clothesline - Australia's finest.
Also known as: Wheel of Goon
Players 4-15
You needGoon bag, rotary clothesline, pegs
DrinkBoxed wine
Intensity
Time30-60 min
Goon of Fortune is Australia's most gloriously homegrown drinking game: peg a bag of goon - Boxed wine, liberated from its box - To a rotary clothesline, gather your mates in a circle beneath it, and give the line a mighty spin. When the clothesline stops, whoever the goon bag is hanging nearest must drink from it. Then it spins again. That's the whole game, and it's perfect.
The magic is in the machinery. The Hills Hoist rotary clothesline is a backyard icon across Australia, and hoisting a silver bladder of wine onto it turns laundry equipment into a wheel of destiny. No skill, no memory rules, no scorekeeping - Just suspense, sunshine, and the slow ceremonial rotation of fate. It's a staple of backyard barbecues, share-house parties, and every Australian's story about their early twenties.
What you need & setup
- Take the goon bag (wine bladder) out of its box and make sure the tap works.
- Peg the bag securely to one arm of a rotary clothesline using two or three sturdy pegs.
- Have players stand in a circle around the clothesline, evenly spaced beneath the arms.
- Agree on the drink size per landing - A solid swig from the tap is standard.
- Nominate a spinner for the first round; the role rotates after each spin.
How to play Goon of Fortune
Hoist the goon
Free the wine bladder from its cardboard box and peg it firmly to one arm of the clothesline, tap pointing down and reachable. Use at least two pegs - A mid-spin goon drop is both a tragedy and a party foul. Adjust the line's height so the tap sits at drinking height for your shortest player.
Form the circle
Everyone spaces out evenly around the clothesline, standing where an arm could plausibly stop above them. Even spacing matters: it keeps the odds fair and prevents the classic move of drifting away from the bag's flight path. Once the circle is set, players hold their positions until the spin resolves.
Spin the line
The nominated spinner grabs an arm of the clothesline and gives it a strong, smooth spin - Enough for several full rotations so the outcome is genuinely random. No touching the line once it's moving, and no player may step out of position while the goon orbits overhead. Then everyone watches it slow, creaking, with mounting dread.
Whoever it stops at drinks
When the clothesline comes to rest, the player standing nearest the goon bag drinks - Straight from the tap, no hands cradling the bag needed, for the agreed swig. If the bag stops dead between two players, most groups have both drink. Cheering is mandatory; complaining about probability is traditional but useless.
Rotate and repeat
The drinker (or the next player around the circle) becomes the new spinner, and the wheel turns again. Rounds take thirty seconds, so the game rolls on in a lazy, hypnotic rhythm. Keep spins strong, keep the circle honest, and let the clothesline decide who among you fortune truly favors.
Play to the last drop
The game traditionally ends when the goon bag runs dry - The final drinker gets the honor of the death rattle from the empty tap. Swap in a fresh bag to continue, or retire to the barbecue. Some groups inflate and pop the empty bladder as a closing ceremony; this is culturally encouraged.
The rules
- The goon bag must be pegged securely to one clothesline arm with the tap accessible.
- Players stand evenly spaced in a circle and may not move once the spin begins.
- Each spin must make several full rotations - Weak spins are void and re-spun.
- Nobody touches the clothesline while it is spinning.
- Whoever the bag stops nearest must drink the agreed amount from the tap.
- A dead-even stop between two players means both drink.
- The spinner role rotates every round so no one controls the wheel.
- If the bag falls off mid-spin, the pegger of record takes a drink and re-pegs it.
- You can always downsize your swig or tap out - The clothesline holds no grudges.
- An emptied bag ends the game (or triggers a ceremonial replacement).
Variations & house rules
Multi-Goon Fortune
Peg two, three, or four goon bags to different arms of the clothesline, multiplying the landing zones and the pace of drinking. With bags opposite each other, one spin regularly claims two victims. Use different wines per bag for a tasting-wheel effect, or make one bag water for the luckiest landing of the night.
Spin the Punishments
Alongside the goon, peg cards or notes to other arms - 'do 10 push-ups', 'swap shirts with the spinner', 'accent for one round'. Land under a card, perform the task; land under the goon, drink. It turns the clothesline into a full carnival wheel and keeps things fun for players pacing their wine.
Goonlight Zone
The nighttime version: play after dark with the clothesline lit by fairy lights or a torch, the bag looming in and out of shadow. Same rules, entirely different atmosphere. The reduced visibility makes the stopping point genuinely startling. Keep the ground well lit at ankle level so the circle stays safely in place.
No-Hoist Fortune
No rotary clothesline? Recreate the wheel with a spinning office chair holding the bag, a lazy Susan on a table, or a bottle-spin where the goon goes to whoever the bottle points at. It loses some ceremony but keeps the randomized dread. Renters and apartment dwellers, this is your version.
Fortune Favors the Bold
Before each spin, players may call 'bold' to double their swig if the bag stops on them - But anyone who calls it and is missed by the bag drinks a half-swig anyway for tempting fate. Adds a light betting layer and rewards the theatrical. Track calls loudly; the table will not remember quietly.
Pro tips
Chill the goon bag beforehand - Warm boxed wine is a punishment no game should include, and a cold bag survives the sun longer.
Use proper wooden or heavy-duty plastic pegs; cheap pegs surrender mid-spin and waste good goon.
Mark player positions with chalk or cups so the circle stays honest between spins.
Keep water in the circle and alternate swigs with sips of it - Goon is sneakier than it tastes.
Check the clothesline spins freely before pegging the bag; a squirt of lubricant on the hub saves the whole afternoon.
Have a second bag on standby - Announcing 'the goon is dead' with no successor kills the party's momentum.
Where Goon of Fortune fits on the shelf
- Goon of Fortune lands mid-table for intensity (5th of 9 world games), rated 3 out of 5.
- It needs at least 4 players to spark, but it scales all the way to 15+ - a true big-group game.
- A typical session runs 30-60 min - a solid middle act for the evening.
- Browse the full world drinking games shelf to compare all 9 games side by side.
A little history
Goon of Fortune is a genuinely Australian invention, born from two national fixtures: cheap boxed wine - 'goon' in Aussie slang, its bag known affectionately as a 'goon sack' - And the Hills Hoist rotary clothesline found in backyards since the 1940s. The game seems to have emerged from student and share-house culture, likely in the 1990s or 2000s, though no one can point to a first spin. The name riffs on Wheel of Fortune, and the game is now firmly part of Australian party folklore.
Drink responsibly: Goon of Fortune moves fast and boxed wine is stronger than it tastes, so set a modest standard swig, keep water in the rotation, and let anyone shrink their sip or sit out without comment. Play on even ground, mind the spinning arms at head height, and put the bag away when the sun or the circle starts wobbling. See our safety guide for pacing tips and alcohol-free versions.
Goon of Fortune FAQ
What exactly is goon?
Goon is Australian slang for cheap boxed wine - The kind sold in a cardboard cask with a foil-lined bladder and plastic tap inside. That inner bladder is the 'goon bag' or 'goon sack', and it's the star of this game. The word's origin is debated; the most popular theory is that it's a shortening of 'flagon'. Any boxed wine works, though tradition favors the cheapest.
Do you need a Hills Hoist to play Goon of Fortune?
The Hills Hoist rotary clothesline is the traditional and spiritually correct equipment, but any rotary clothesline that spins freely works identically. No clothesline at all? Improvise the wheel: a spinning chair, a lazy Susan, or bottle-spin rules get you the same randomized outcome. The fixed single-line clothesline, sadly, cannot participate.
How much do you drink when the goon lands on you?
The standard is one solid swig from the tap - A few seconds of drinking, decided by the group beforehand. Some crews use a count (say, three seconds on the tap) to keep it consistent. Whatever you set, keep it modest: the game's spins come around fast, and boxed wine has more alcohol than its price tag suggests. Anyone can always take a smaller sip or pass.
Is Goon of Fortune really from Australia?
Yes - It's hard to imagine it coming from anywhere else, since it requires two distinctly Australian ingredients: goon-bag wine culture and the backyard rotary clothesline. Its precise origin is undocumented, but it appears to have come out of Australian student and share-house life around the 1990s or 2000s, and it's now a fixture of Aussie party culture, referenced everywhere from festivals to TV.
What if the goon bag stops between two people?
The classic ruling is that both players drink - The wheel has spoken, ambiguously but firmly. Some groups instead re-spin, or let the two players settle it with rock-paper-scissors where the loser drinks. Pick one ruling before the first spin and stick with it, because 'nearest player' arguments are the only thing that has ever slowed this game down.
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