One thing I like to do with nerdy co-workers is pull out a board game once in a while. I worked at one place where we would play games almost every day during an hour lunch. Other spots, well, it’s not as common. But being in IT (information technology), generally means I find people to play games with pretty easily. So maybe you also want to find someone to play board games with at work, what games might work well?

The Criteria

When making this list a few things need to be considered, though. Mainly how long a lunch you get, if it’s an hour, that opens up more games. But lots of times, I think people get 30 minutes. So that’s where I want to keep my game lengths. Even if you get an hour, you need to prep food generally.

I also want to keep the player count lower. Generally you don’t end up with a ton of people who want to play a game. Or at least you don’t start that way. At the one office, I would sometimes start a game of Dominion or Power Grid one lunch and it’d carry over to the next one. But there are other smaller and faster games that work well. And games where you don’t need the whole office to play.

Plus, a game needs to be portable. Even if you could get through a session of Gloomhaven in one sitting, it is too big. So something that fits into a backpack, laptop bag, or whatever you use, that is going to be important.

10 Lunch Break Board Games

In no particular order.

10. Floriferous

Floriferous is a drafting set collection game that could be playable at lower player counts in 30 minutes or less. In this game you draft flowers to get combinations which then give you points. The flowers might have bugs on them, or be certain types or colors, all which can score points. Assuming you draft enough scoring cards as well.

So that is the first fun thing of balancing drafting scoring with drafting flowers. The other interesting thing is how turn order works. The higher you draft a card from a column, the sooner the next round you go. It means that sometimes you might want to take a less ideal card just to go sooner now.

9. Matcha

Matcha is my trick taking game. I could have put a few on here, Fox in the Forest would work here as well. But Matcha is my pick, just because it’s a solid two player option as well, and I think that it probably plays in a shorter time frame. It is interesting too because of what takes precedence of number or color that you are trying to get to.

It also adds in a bit of set collection as well. You are trying to get either different items or all the same or completely don’t match every time. I think that it’s interesting to shoot the moon that way. I like it when a game gives you options for scoring and winning. And Matcha does that so that as you play you don’t fight over the exact same thing.

8. Love Letter

If we’re talking about a really small game, Love Letter is going to be a great option. Technically it does have a certain point that you need to get to. I think it’s one person wins a round four times. In a larger player count game that could take a while. But it’s super small and easy to learn.

This is one that I haven’t brought in or played in ages. But it is pretty welcoming for what a lot of players know as a game. It is smaller than most likely what they’ve played before. The whole element of guessing what someone else has, the few cards, it just feels familiar.

7. Cribbage

But speaking of familiar, we have Cribbage. Cribbage is going to be familiar to some people as it’s been around and available for ages. I need to actually play with my nice Cribbage board. But the game play is fast, and while I do think the rules, or at least scoring, can be a bit tricky for some people to wrap their head around, it is not that complex as to what you are doing.

Now, this might not be as modern a game as you’d be thinking for the list. But in terms of classic card games, I feel like it’s a good one for lunch. The ability to just sit around, chat, and play is very high with the game.

6. On Tour

But now into a more modern game, On Tour, which I played on Wednesday is a solid roll and write game. In it you are playing as a manager for a bad trying to create a path for the band to take a tour on, or something like that. Basically, you want to get numbers in sequential order to make a path around the United States or Europe.

This is limited by cards that are flipped each round and the dice as they are rolled. The cards determine where you can play the two number combinations on the dice. However, if you use East once and have no way to use East again, unless there are two East cards. It’s a clever system that offers fun choices that are tense but never too hard.

5. Hanamikoji or Jixia Academy

This one I put down both versions of the game because some people might not want a game with Geisha at work. But really this is a nice two player tug of war game where you are vying for favor or Geisha by trying to give them gifts. But to do that, you take four different actions.

The actions are what is so cool about the game. Each player, and it’s a two player game, has the same four actions. So you each will take them each once, but when to do that is always a question. And the actions make you have tough decisions. You might be showing your opponent 3 cards and they pick one to take. So how do you create a combination so that you get what you want?

4. Qwixx

Qwixx is going to be up there with the simplest games on the list. It is a roll and write where you are just trying to get numbers in order on different colors. The more numbers you get, the more points you get. But when you skip a number, you can never go back. So if I go from 3 to 7 in red, that means that a red 4, 5, or 6 will never a useful for me.

And the game has an interesting end. It ends when either someone can’t place a number or cross out a number for the fourth time. Or when two dice come locked. The dice become locked, so that no one can add to that row, when you have five numbers crossed off in a color. Then you need to roll a 2 or 12, depending on the color, to clock that row. It’s a cool little element that makes you think about how you push your luck.

3. Ohanami

Ohanami is a card drafting game where you get more points the more cards you have a certain colors. But you also need to be putting the cards into three columns. And the cards you draft need to be higher than the highest card or lower than the lowest, on a given column to be able to be placed.

This game is really nice as casual at 4 players. The randomness of what you draft is interesting. At two players it is fairly cutthroat. In either case, it plays fast. That means that you can get it in during lunch, and it is just a deck of cards and a score sheet.8 Either way or player count is fun, but some people will prefer the more casual.

2. Super Fantasy Brawl

This one is pushing it game length wise. That said, it is doable as long as you can get it set-up fast. Super Fantasy Brawl is a head to head skirmish game with a big table presence. The minis are big, the board is big, but the game play is simple. It is one of those games that has depth and simple game play.

You are just playing down cards of three colors each round. And then you activate the hero on that card with the action on that card. You do that to try and knock out your opponents characters, who can respawn and position yourself to complete objectives. You can play it with mainly just punching, but objectives will hep you get the win.

1. Village Green

Finally, Village Green, another smaller card game. Here you are competing to have the best village green by laying out cards in a 4×4 grid. The top and left edges are scoring cards that you draft and play. The middle and lower and right are your village green.

What I like about this one, and it’s one that I’ve played on stream, is that you need to think about columns and rows for scoring. As you add cards to the top row and the left column, you need to think about how they intersect so you play the best green cards you can. But you can’t just play green cards anywhere. They need to match flower or color to get onto the board of something adjacent to it. Probably 2 player only for work lunch, but a nice thinky game.

Final Thoughts

One game that I thought about for the list but didn’t put on is Magic: The Gathering. I’ve really enjoyed Magic over work lunches. But it isn’t a 30 minute game. It is an hour, especially with more than two. But it is an option as well. I also think that Magic is much more intimidating to try and get someone to play. There is a lot going on if you aren’t that familiar with board games.

And, like I talked about before, you can play bigger games. At that one job we’d have Power Grid or Dominion set-up for two days. But that depends on the business and break room. When you play a game like that you need something that won’t be disturbed. And a lot of offices, especially with bigger companies, will need that space to be used by a number of people.

But let me know if you’ve introduced co-workers to board games. Which ones do you find work well for a lunch break game?

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