Usually smaller LAN parties consist of people bringing their computers over to each others' houses to host and play multiplayer games.

They are sometimes established between small groups of friends, and hosted at one participant's house or a small venue. Such events are often organized quickly with little planning, and are usually overnight events, with some stretching into days (or even weeks). Because of the small number of players, games are usually played on small levels and/or against bots. When a broadband Internet connection is available, some LAN parties will join on-line servers, where everyone connects to the same server to play together, often on the same team. In this case, the LAN party helps bring the team in one physical location, to talk/chat more efficiently.

A small LAN party requires a hub/switch, with enough ports to accommodate all the players, a fair amount of power, and suitable surfaces for all the computers. Providing large amounts of food and beverages is often also a duty of the host, though guests are usually asked to contribute resources and/or pay an entry fee or cover charge. Another tradition of some small groups is to purchase large amounts of fast food for consumption over many days. Many LAN fans will also bring energy drinks and other food to consume over the course of the party.

To set up these parties an Ethernet hub/switch isn't always required. If all the laptops/computers have Wi-Fi capability, an ad-hoc network may be set up. This is a network which connects two computers together without the need for a router or gateway.