I’ve talked about how my board game night is starting up again soon before. I know that most of the group whom I play board games with is already vaccinated or just finishing it up. So I feel very comfortable starting it up again, but for some people, they might not. This could be because they don’t know their group as well or because their group doesn’t share everything on social media. This means that indoor gaming might not be an option. Or it could be that no one has a house to host, so the game night is normally done at a game store and that isn’t allowing gaming yet.

That got me asking a question, what games work well outside. I think I’ve talked about this before with camping, but let’s talk about games that can be played outside that might be a little bit bigger. Small games are fun to play, but you don’t always, only, want to play them.

Ice Cool

Of course I am going to talk about a dexterity game. And I could have picked Pitchcar as well. Pitchcar just has more to move around than Ice Cool does. With Ice Cool it compacts down nicely into a box and you can get it set-up really fast. Pitchcar takes a bit longer. Now, Ice Cool does have cards, but that is kind of optional, and there aren’t that many. You just need a flat surface to play on and one that is ideally pretty level. Maybe in a strong enough wind it’d lift up the boxes, but most days Ice Cool would work well outside.

Potion Explosion

This one is completely card free. And the components, the marbles, do a good job of weighing everything down. This game doesn’t even need a ton of table space compared to Ice Cool. Potion Explosion is a fun marble collection game where you brew potions for points. It falls into that line of app games where you remove something to get like colors to hit to remove those. But it is a board game which is way more fun. Good combination of things and really creates some fun times and nothing that wouldn’t hold up well outdoors.

Quacks of Quedlinburg

Not many cards in this game. Because of that it works well outside. This is mainly a push your luck game. You pull out different ingredients from a bag to add to your concoction. All of this while trying not to get too many bad ingredients. When do you stop, how far do you push your luck? Most of the game is just those chips and the cauldron you add your ingredients to. It takes up a little bit of space, but should work pretty well outside on a picnic table.

Draftosaurus

Most drafting games wouldn’t work that well outside. They have you drafting cards and playing them down. If a breeze came through it’d just cause a big old mess. Draftosaurus, instead, has you drafting dinosaur meeples. Those go onto cardboard boards and there is a die. That’s it for the game. Nothing that is apt to blow away. It gives some fun drafting and you could set the dinosaur meeples in the grass to get pictures that make them look like they are in the wild. Okay, that last bit is silly, but it would work really nicely outside.

Quarto

Quarto is an abstract game that is made out of wood. It isn’t going to move anywhere easily. In Quarto, you take turns picking pieces for your opponent to place. The goal is to get four in a row of certain things. You win if you get color, shape, height, or if it’s hollow in a row. So you need to plan out what you give your opponent carefully so that they can’t win but also will set you up. Any game that is made out of wood would work outside. Quarto is just a different one than say, Chess.

And There Are More…

Really, most games will work outside if you put your mind to it. I see card games on my self that’d be easy to play outside if it is calm enough. The trick is the weather, I feel. Know your forecast when picking games because some will need less wind than others. Last fall I played Gloomhaven outside a couple of times, I don’t recommend that one that much. It is a bit too bulky to get outside really, even on a nice day. But any game is able to be played outside if you really want to.

Plus there are small games, like Zombie Dice, Love Letter, Age of War, and others that have so few components that they’d be easy enough to play. Or roll and writes work well as well. Sure, a sheet could blow away, but something like Ganz Schon Clever, and that whole series, they’d work easily. Each person just holds their sheet and it’d be easy enough.

Have you done gaming outside? What games have you found that work, or don’t work so well?

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