You might have heard these called gateway games or family games before. And welcoming games definitely are that. A good welcoming game is going to be a game that gets someone to a table and doesn’t feel like a hard time. I love welcoming games around the holidays because they are easier to get played because people are more interested in playing them. So I think something with a good hook to it or a good gimmick to it works well. But let’s see what makes my welcoming games.

Welcoming Games

Potion Explosion

This one immediately starts off the list with a gimmick, something that is unique for the game. Potion Explosion has marbles and a marble chute that funnels the marbles out. It looks awesome on the table and people will be drawn to it for that reason. Plus, Potion Explosion is a good game that is pretty simple to pick up. So most people will find it easy enough to play, even if it isn’t the most strategic right away.

In Potion Explosion, you want to complete potions that give you points. To do that you need ingredients which are the marbles on the track. You pull a marble and if the two marbles that hit are the same color as each other, you take all of that color in a group, and if the next ones to hit are the same, you take those. And that continues until two marbles that aren’t the same color hit. It’s kind of like some app games that way.

You use those ingredients to complete your potions. And that is really the welcoming feel to the game. But I feel like a lot of welcoming games end up stopping there. Potion Explosion then lets you use the potions to get more ingredients and manipulate the dice. That is where extra strategy can come in and players will learn, which means Potion Explosion isn’t just a play a game and be done with it sort of experience.

Pandemic

Next up I like a modern classic for the list. Pandemic is available at every big box store like Wal-Mart and Target because it is that successful. And I like Pandemic for one big reason, it’s a cooperative game. Now, I like a lot of cooperative games, but this one stands as a good simple cooperative game, but like Potion Explosion, not one with too little going on.

In Pandemic you want to stop four diseases. To do that, you need a cure for each one of them. So on a turn you treat diseases, trade cards, and travel around the globe. That’s the simplified version of what you do. It is about keeping diseases from spreading out of control. It is about collecting research cards that allow you to treat a disease and eventually treat all of them.

Another thing I like about Pandemic, that I mentioned already, is that it’s a cooperative game. Cooperative games are a new space for some people, but it is also a way that games work better for some people. It is easier to be welcomed into a cooperative game or play that, if you don’t like competitive games. A lot of people remember the sting of Monopoly and Risk games not being fun, so a cooperative experience eases them back in.

Ecosystem

Now we’re going to a small game. And Ecosystem does double up from my Stocking Stuffer list. But I think it’s worth it to show up on both lists. I just won’t go into as much detail as to how the game plays. You can read about it on the other list.

But Ecosystem is a good welcoming game because of the theme. A lot of people would think a board game should have nerdy theme. Ecosystem is a much more welcoming theme. The nerdiness is likely to get missed in it, because it is really nerdy. In fact, Genius Games is all about the games being nerdy. But animals and nature just seems less that way.

It is also one that I’ve had success with introducing to a number of groups. The experience is just easy enough to follow that people enjoy it. And the rules, while not the simplest with all the animals and nature giving points in different ways, is on a card. Plus a turn itself is very simple.

Via Magica

Next up a game that is a nerdy theme. But it is nerdy in the way that Harry Potter is nerdy, so it is still welcoming. Or it is like Potion Explosion that way. You are technically students trying to pass your exams and get the best marks by opening the most portals. How you do that is by a bingo mechanism of drawing out a chip and everyone placing a token on that color on their portals.

Via Magica is a fun game with simple mechanisms to the game. But it is welcoming for that reason. And the fun of bingo style, I think helps the game a lot. People know how to play bingo. Even if people don’t play bingo they know how to do it because culturally it is something that is done. And that concept is easy to wrap your head around if you need a refresher.

Plus, I like Via Magica as a game that has a bit more going on than there. There is strategy, albeit not too much, in what you select for your portals. Picking diversity in colors is helpful with the tokens being drawn. And the scoring or powers that they give you is good as well. It allows for you to select some options that work together better or to try different strategies.

Marrying Mr. Darcy

Then I think Marrying Mr. Darcy, while not my favorite game, is one that works well, as well. It is pretty simple in what you do with a draw a card and then play that card style of game play. Again, something that is familiar but with a bit more going on to it.

You want to end up with your best suitor and get the most points in this game. But most of the game is about building up your most desirable attributes as one of the characters from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. And each suitor wants slightly different ones. And each lady ideally ends up with a specific suitor. But it depends on what the cards give you.

It is also familiar in that there is a good amount of randomness to the game. So what you draw is what you draw, at least to some extent. But that isn’t a flaw to the game, it is what the game is going for and who the game is targeting, so I think that works well. And it’s a fun theme that people might know from the book or the movies around it.

Trailblazers

Finally, I think that Trailblazers is a very solid option for the welcoming games list and the newest one on the list. Trailblazers is all about building out trails of three different types, kayaking, biking, and hiking. And the more and longer trails you can make, the more points you get. And you guessed it, the most points is the winner of the game.

This is one that you can checkout on Malts and Meeples YouTube and the video that I’ll have below for it. Solo playing a tiny bit different, but not too different. You draft, pick, two cards from your hand and you’ll use those to build out your different pathways. Then you pass your hand of cards to the next player and you get passed a hand of cards. It is a process that you repeat. And you play through a few hands of cards, but it’s very simple that way.

The artwork is going to make the game more welcoming. It’s pretty art and unique art. It feels like it should come from a state park for some reason. And I think the theme of being outdoors is a good one. It works well, especially up north where I am, for a game because I am not able to get outside during the winter. So this is a good way to have some fun with that theme.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot more welcoming games out there as well. Ones like Catan, Ticket to Ride, Magic Market, or small games like Silver or dexterity games like Tokyo Highway. So there isn’t a shortage.

I intentionally tried to stay away from games with too much take that. I think there are a lot of games that show up on the lists like this that have a lot of take that. By that, I mean that I can do something to mess you up. But while that is familiar, I think that it is far from friendly. It means that I am making your time less fun, and I want more people to have more fun when they play a game.

What is your favorite welcoming game? Or is there one on this list, of welcoming games, that you want to try?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here