You need something that people can share, that requires communication and so initiates conversation. (That gives people something to do with their hands? That f

You need something that people can share, that requires communication and so initiates conversation. (That gives people something to do with their hands? That fosters a sense of shared experience?) Some types of gaming can do that and in certain sectors gaming may be as universal as drinking. It also needs to be sufficiently unstructured that people can drift in and out as individual conversations move past small talk.