One topic that I wanted to spend more time on was talking about different types of games for different types of board game nights and board game groups. Depending on who you have coming, it is really going to make a difference in what type of games you are going to play.

Talkative Groups

For this sort of group, you are really looking for more party games. You want turns that can take a while so that conversations can happen, and you want games that are simple enough for people who might not be familiar with the game so they won’t forget the rules in between their turns. Party games are ideal for this. A couple of my top recommendations would be Cards Against Humanity (or Apples to Apples if you are feeling tamer) or Stipulations. Both of these have quick rounds where people either play cards or write something down, and whoever is “it” picks the winner out of the different ones. They are good because the rounds are fast, everyone is involved in the rounds at once, and if you get into a conversation between rounds, there is no confusion as to where you pick up again.

Let’s Work Together Groups

There are a couple of reasons for having this sort of group of game players. The first is that while this type of players like games with story and depth to them, everyone isn’t on the same level of game playing, so if that group was playing a trickier game, the same people are always going to lose. The other reason is that if someone in the group tends to lose poorly, it can ruin the experience for everyone else. So instead of not inviting certain people depending on what games you want to play, for either reason, you are able to play games that are more cooperative. The best examples of this, in my opinion, are the Lord of the Rings Board Game and Pandemic. Both of these offer a number of different strategies, so if someone wanted to play it one way, they can, and it allows for a lot of discussion and working together at the table. If you get tired of games where people purely work together, games like Betrayal at the House on the Hill and Dead of Winter are great options as well. While the team is working together, someone is randomly chosen to become a traitor — it’s a whole lot harder to have hard feelings when it is a random card or roll of the die that determines the traitor.

Casual Competitive

This group is able to handle games that pit players against each other, and that one player can work on their own to win instead of letting it be based on someone else’s decision (or even partially based on that). As a casual group, it still focuses on faster and simpler games, though. You wouldn’t sit down and play the Battlestar Galactica board game with this group, but instead, you’d play Carcassone or King of Tokyo. A lot of the Euro-style games fall into this category. While something that another player might do could stop you from doing what you wanted, everyone is actively trying to meet their own conditions to win the game, not (most likely) stop other people from winning.

Serious Gamers

I was thinking about putting this group and the next one into the same group, but I think, at times, there might be a reason to differentiate. Serious gamers are people who love very in-depth games. They want to spend the time to work through a long game of Marvel Legendary or Arkham Horror, and they don’t  mind so much if the game is cooperative or competitive. If the game is challenging enough and different enough and really allows them to flex their game logic muscles, they are going to enjoy the game. These are the people who try and figure out the optimal strategy for Dominion, and probably own most of the expansions for it. They take their gaming seriously, and when they play, they expect the other people in the group to do that as well.

Cutthroats

These people play Risk and are out for blood. They make and break alliances with no concerns about who they beat down in the process. They also aren’t going to have a qualm about knocking out a player early in a long game and just letting them sit there. A cutthroat group is going to want to play long and challenging games, and while they may have hurt feelings in the game, they are able to get past that once the game is over. A player for any group besides the Serious Gamers group isn’t going to be able to hang with a cutthroat group, and even the serious players are going to have more fun elsewhere. I do want to clarify: I’m not trying to say that this group is a bad group. If you play this way and have friends who do as well, more power to you. But often, it’s hard for cutthroat gamers to mix well into other groups and vice-a-versa, probably more so than any other combination.

Just to close up this topic: a lot of these groups work well together; people who are part of a talking group can easily play games that cooperative and casual groups like. And serious gamers can enjoy playing cooperative games and casual games as well. However, it is important to be aware of the dynamic of your group and know how they play. If you have people who are expecting to play serious and challenging games and all you have is party games, some people won’t be having as fun a time, for example. But if you know the type of group you have and what type of player you are, you can always have a fun board game night for everyone.

What type of player are you with board games?

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