Card games are board games, just without a board. It’s a subset of games, though that a lot of people find more accessible and easier to play. Is it because card games are simpler, sometimes, but it’s also because with just cards, a game looks less scary. So maybe you have someone who is interested in games, but a big board game, even something with a number of pieces, but still being easy to play, intimidates them, here are some card games that could work well.

Ohanami

Ohanami is probably the easiest game on the list and the most traditional. You are playing cards down in order, but it has a twist on that. In Ohanami you draft two cards from a hand and add them to any of three columns in front of you. The cards must be higher, or lower than the number at the bottom of top of the column. Basically you’re creating three numerical columns.

But the twist comes in, besides drafting being new to some people, in how the scoring works. You draft three hands, each hand you score different things. But the same things. So the first hand you score blue cards, next, blue and green. So even though blue cards are worth only three points, if you can score them all three times, you got nine points. Get a blue card that last round, and you only score three points for it. So there is strategy of what you draft and when you draft it. That’s the general twist, but it’s still a very easy game to play.

Claim

This is a trick taking game for maybe that person who likes trick taking but wants more. While it generally follows the standard trick taking focus of higher card beats lower card and following suits, Claim does a lot of things differently. In particular that you play two hands. The first hand, you are trying to win tricks to win cards for your second hand. You either are trying to win a face up card with a higher value, or lose a trick to get the card off the top of draw pile of the face up card is low. Then you use those cards to win majority in the different suits.

This game has a fantasy theme. That means it might not work as well for everyone. But it also is a theme that allows the game to have powers. If, for example, you win a trick that where you led dwarves, the person with the lower dwarf value takes the cards. You still lead the next trick though. Or a knight will always beat a goblin, if you can short suit yourself.

A lot of trick taking games can take too long when they try and be clever, but Claim does not fall into that trap. The game still plays very fast, and there are multiple sets so you can try a lot of different combinations of suits and powers if you want. This game also would be a great stocking stuffer.

Point Salad

This game has a goofy name, but it is about making a salad, so it makes sense. In Point Salad, you are collecting different vegetables to make a salad that is worth the most points. This is done by drafting two vegetables from a tableau in the middle of the board to add to your own tableau.

Point Salad, again, does something different, though, in how you score at the end of the game. As well as drafting vegetables you also draft cards that will score, for you. So I might draft a card that says per every two onions I have, I get five points. Now, I am going to be drafting as many onions as I can. I might get another scoring card that says, every onion and tomato pair is worth six points, so now if I can get tomatoes, my onions will help me score even more.

While that might sound like there is a lot to keep track of, there really isn’t. Either you pick a scoring card or two vegetable cards. The game works well at all player counts, and it is one that is easy to shuffle up and play a number of times in a sitting, especially in smaller groups.

Parade

This is a game where you don’t want to get cards, but how you get cards is done in a very cool way. You play from a hand of cards to a big line of cards. The number on the card determines how many cards you can ignore. After that you take any card that matches the color of the card you took, or is lower in value.

But you don’t want cards, so you need to plan out your turns to get as little as possible. You score the point value of the cards you have at the end of the game. Unless you have collected more of a color than anyone else. Those cards are worth a point per card instead of face value. So you can push for a lot in one color to try and score as little as possible that way. Lowest score wins.

Not Alone

This one is going to be very different for people who know card games. This is a one versus all game where a spaceship has crashed onto a hostile planet and the planet is trying to kill them. The one person plays the planet and the monsters and things on the planet. The other people are playing the crew members who are trying to survive long enough for a ship to be sent to rescue them.

It’s a really fun game of cat and mouse. And it is just done with cards. The crew can go to different locations, based off of cards that they play. And the person playing the planet/monster can go to one location to try and stop the players from activating the ability at that location and dealing them damage. I like that the players can discuss what they want to do as much as they want, but the person who is the planet needs to be able to hear them.

Honorable Mentions

There are obviously a ton of card games out there. Something like Medium is a good card party game where people are trying to guess the same word between two prompt words. Or Marvel Champions is a card game, it is just a much bigger and more in depth super hero game. Hats is a fun puzzle of a game where you are collection sets of hats and trying to manipulate it so you score lots of points.

And that’s barely scratching the surface. Do you have a go to card game as a gift?

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