Group Games Rankings

45: Cards Against Humanity

Cards Against Humanity, or CAH is one that I enjoyed the first couple of times that I played it. But it is not that great for two reasons for me. One, the humor is hit or miss in the game. And I know that it’s meant to be this dirty humor and I appreciate some of that, but it gets boring. And secondly, whenever someone wants to play it, it goes on too long. CAH is a game that works if you play 6-7 rounds. After that the jokes and terms have diminishing returns. And I feel like most CAH games go twice as long as that.

44: Guesstures

Guesstures is a game that I grew up playing, and honestly, I don’t remember it too well. Which says something about it. But charades, meh. That’s where I’m at with it. It’s an old party game and one that I don’t want to go back to.

43: Concept

If you watched my video on games that I dislike that I’m probably wrong about, Concept is an obvious one. But for me it didn’t work. Like I said in that video, it just feels like it’s a lot of staring at the board. And because the word can be anything, it just feels too broad and sucks the fun out of what is a cool idea. Concept is better in concept than it is on the table.

42: Magic Maze

Already on another list quite low, it’s even lower here because I think it suffers with more people. It’s a real time game which is a strike against it in my opinion. Plus, there is no communicating, and you’re working cooperatively. So if someone misses that they are the person who needs to move a figure, it just gets frustrating. Plus, real time games are just too stressful to be that fun for me, and too stressful to want to play them all that often.

41: Catch Phrase!

This one maybe should be lower, I’m very done with Catch Phrase. the concept is not too bad in trying to go fast and get people to guess words. But like a lot of party games the variety was lacking in what you did. I know we played it enough growing up that you’d almost memorize the cards and take reduces the fun even more.

40: Tsuro of the Seas

Tsuro of the Seas again isn’t a bad game in concept. I like the game it’s based on more and it’s higher on the list. Tsuro of the Seas promises to add in more by adding in dragons. And those dragons move around removing tiles and changing up the map and you need to avoid them and the other players. The issue is that it takes a pretty fast and simple game and makes it longer. So while I wouldn’t say no to playing it again, I would prefer to play the original.

39: Spot It!

Spot It! is another game that I’m probably wrong about. Granted, Spot It! is a very simple game. You have a card and you want to be the first to match what you have on your card to what is flipped. It’s a fast little filler that works well with almost all ages. And I think there are other ways to play as well. I wouldn’t tell anyone not to get it, it’s just not for me really.

38: Apples to Apples

Apples to Apples is CAH but clean. So, this again falls into the category that it sticks around too long. But it’s a bit more fun for me. And I think if you can cut it short so that you only play so far it can work. The rules as written, it takes it past the length a good party game should go, as most party games have a problem with. Plus this one you can play with anyone and there’ll be some good laughs.

37: One Night Ultimate Vampire

We’re coming up on a run of social deduction games right here. And I know that I like them less than most people do, so take this part of the list with a grain of salt and know your group. But One Night Ultimate Vampire was the most disappointing of them that I’ve played. It’s fairly basic, and it gives you the least information to go on, it feels, because it’s only one night. So stuff happens while people’s eyes are closed and then you just accuse randomly after some random talking, so there’s no real point. I’m sure people find more strategy than I do, but it doesn’t work for me.

36: Secret Hitler

Another one, like I said t here is a run of them here. Secret Hitler is better, and in terms of mechanics, it is one of the more interesting. One person gets three things, could be fascist laws or liberal laws to enact, they pass two to another player and that player picks one of those two. So it’s a double blind sort of thing, and then people discuss who is lying and who the next chancellor should be.

But for me it’s the theme, the theme kind of works for the game, but it isn’t needed for the game. You could have picked something better, and then they made it possible to be political in the US, which works, but also just isn’t what game nights are about.

35: Werewords

This one I like better than some but also disappointed me more than most social deduction games. I watched a play through of the game and I thought, this might be a social deduction game that works for me, it has more than just accusing randomly. But it is still pretty random. Yes, you can see how good the questions someone asked were, but it’s fairly random still. And the addition of twenty questions, it’s just okay.

34: Donner Dinner Party

Now we go back to more traditional social deduction. Donner Dinner Party is about cannibalism and it’s an odd theme. Who is the cannibal is the game that’s basically going on. But it does some decent things where the party leader adds in a random card, and everyone puts in the food they found blind. It works for hiding information but still giving something to talk about. But still, if you and I both claim we put in the squirrel, one of us is lying and no one knows whom. So sometimes just keeping a mouth shut is better or it’s still very random.

33: The Resistance

The Resistance and this kind of includes Avalon, though I like the Resistance “theme” better is a nice simple game. I feel like it distills a lot of what many social deductions games do, but it keeps it simpler. I like the speed that this one plays, and people slowly talk more about things. And I like that this one doesn’t expect you to start talking with little information at the start like a lot of them do. I don’t love this game by any means, but it’s the best of this group.

32: DICEcapades

I just got rid of DICEcapades, and I kind of miss it. It’s odd, but it wasn’t one that I was going to play again. I like the random challenges it made you do like stacking dice, or adding up dice really quickly, or stuff like that. But then there was a trivia section, and the trivia is bad. Not that it’s too hard, it often isn’t, but it’s a you know it or you don’t. Everything else is silly and fun, that part is just boring.

31: Farkle

Farkle is a nice beer and pretzel style of game. By that I mean you can take it to a bar and not pay that much attention and have something to do. As a bigger group game, though, it just takes a long time. The rules are simple and push your luck is fun, but when people just bust over and over and over again, or there are a bunch of people between your turns, it’s less interesting.

30: Bring Your Own Book

One of the earlier games I backed on Kickstarter, I thought the concept of Bring Your Own Book was interesting. You basically play Apples to Apples, but with picking something from a book. The issue is not all books are made equal. Having a computer programming text book sounds like a funny thing but it isn’t as good as a novel. And you need to know your book. Otherwise, you are just flipping too randomly through it. Good sounding idea, turned out to be just okay as a game.

29: Cthulhu Fluxx

Fluxx (and the versions of it) are a lot of people’s gateway games, or one that they play early on. It’s a fun little game that has one thing I don’t like about it. It can be a great time as you play it quickly, or it can take forever. If the game could last 20-30 minutes, it’s great, when it goes longer, it becomes boring. Though, there are ones that are fun themes and plays on the rules. Cthulhu Fluxx also adds in a way for everyone to lose, which is actually okay.

28: Codenames

Now, this is another one I’m likely wrong on, at least according to most people, but I do have a version of this I like better. The concept is good, and I’ll gladly play it, giving clues to get people on your team to guess words faster than your opponent can. That’s a simplification of it because it’s done in turns, but the word one I don’t love. Mainly, it’s too quiet, and you just don’t feel clever that often as the clue giver.

27: Telestrations

Telephone Pictionary is how I originally knew abut the game. Telestrations is just a version of a game that existed and was turned into print. It’s a fun game as you go back and forth between writing and drawing and see how close or far from the original phrase it was. It’s not really a game, but it’s a great party activity. Play a round of this with a bigger group or as people who up, it’s a good time.

26: A Fake Artist Goes to New York

Another drawing game, didn’t plan on having them back to back, but A Fake Artist Goes to New York is another social deduction type of game, kind of. One person doesn’t know what to draw, everyone else does. So the one person is trying to fake their way as they add to a picture. Concept is fun, and it’s an enjoyable time, but also one of those that seems to stick around too long for me. I’ll gladly play two or three rounds, but I don’t need more.

25: Zombie Dice

Zombie Dice is kind of Farkle like in that you’re pushing your luck as you try and get brains. All the time you’re trying to avoid shotgun blasts. This one I like better than Farkle because the end game is faster and then bad luck that happens is kind of funnier. Pushing your luck with no shotgun blasts and then rolling three on green dice sucks, but it’s also absurd. Just giving the concept a theme is fun.

24: Balderdash

Again, I have two similar games right next to each other, though Balderdash is nothing like Zombie Dice. Balderdash is a game where you make up what a weird law is, what an acronym stands for, what a definition might be, or more things. And then you try and guess the right answer and hope people guess yours. This generally doesn’t end as a game but devolves in a fun way into in jokes for that session and a lot of laughing.

23: Liebrary

Liebrary is very similar to Bladerdash. Instead of a definition or an acronym, you’re given the plot of a book and need to write the first sentence. It’s again really goofy and while it’s easier to know what the right one is a lot of the times, it can provide so many good laughs. And then when everyone things that a line is too crazy and it turns out to be true, that’s even better.

22: Unspeakable Words

Unspeakable Words is a Cthulhu themed spelling game where you are trying to make as big words as possible but you might also be going insane. Though, if you go insane, now you don’t have to make real words anymore. It’s goofy and simple, one that I played a bunch and then moved on from. But it’d play it again as a good little filler.

21: Flapjacks & Sasquatches

Another one that kind of falls into the filler category is Flapjacks & Sasquatches. You are trying to cut down trees and playing out different things to do that. There’s some take that, it’s kind of in that weight of a Munchkin, which isn’t on the list because I don’t consider it a big group game or it’d be very low, and Fluxx. This one I feel like is just more enjoyable and less in your face take that. Though, when it does have that, it is in your face. Plus just sillier in a different way, where Munchkin doesn’t feel that unique.

20: Tsuro

Now we’re onto Tsuro. I had Tsuro of the Sea lower, and this one works better. Firstly, the timeline is set. There are only so many tiles and it’s unlikely you’ll play all of them. Plus there is more strategy in the game while still being lighter. You just plan out how you are going to do move and nothing will break that up. But you also can manipulate it so that you might be able to take out another person. Though, now I’ve played it enough that it’s low on my list to play again, it is one that’s unlikely to leave my collection because it’s so easy to play.

19: Second Chance

Like Tsuro, Second Chance is another one that is super easy. I’m not going to remove it from my collection because it is easy, but I’ve played it enough that it’s not one I gravitate towards. It’s basically fitting Tetris shaped pieces into a board, it’s a roll and write, and then trying to end with the fewest open spots left. It’s very lucky, but it is also a relaxing game to play.

18: Coup

Coup is another bluffing game, but it’s not social deduction really. People can claim that they have whatever role they want and then take that action. But will someone call them out on if they truly have that role. If you guess right and they don’t, they lose a role, if you are wrong, you do, and the goal is to be the last one standing. Though, if you don’t ever call someone out, I think it’s that you can collect points to win. Clever game, and simple enough to play.

17: Scattergories

Another classic party game, Scattergories is one that I enjoy a lot. It’s a good one in that everyone probably has played it, because it is a classic. Though, maybe newer gamers haven’t. And it is a party game that led to others on the list. You’re just trying to come up with an answer to a prompt that might be a boys name or thing found at a beach and they need to start with the letter J. And you just don’t want to overlap. So do you take the obvious one in hopes that other people will avoid it, or go with something more out there?

16: Criss Cross

Another roll and write, and one that I still quite enjoy, but because of it’s simplicity it’s just dropped a bit. But it’s a great one, because of it’s simplicity for a bigger group. You just need to be able to see the dice. And you are trying to get the same symbols adjacent to each other in rows and columns. But you also need to put the two dice rolled right next to each other. So it’s a bit of a puzzle as you fill in your board. A good one, just one I’ve played a lot.

15: Codenames: Pictures

Now, the preferred version of Codenames for me, Codenames: Pictures. I like this one better because it gives you more of a chance to be clever. The images are so weird that you can come up with interesting ways to exclude some images or to connect others. And people discuss it more around the table. Can still suffer from silence sometimes but generally it plays with more energy.

14: Stipulations

And now another game that I’d put in the same category as Liebrary or Balderdash. The pick something and create an answer. But it also has some Apples to Apples where someone is picking their favorite answer. This one is more fun though because you have control over it. You write down a stipulation for something like the dream job of being a baker, but everything you bake is poisoned, some stipulation like that. It can overstay it’s welcome, but I try and keep that from happening.

13: Hues and Cues

Hues and Cues is a party game all about colors. In it you try and get someone to land on your color and get a lot of people close, as the clue giver to score points. And as the guessers, the closer you are the more points you can score. It’s a clever game where you give a one word then two word clue and then reveal the location. And it is one that works pretty well via Zoom.

12: Wits & Wagers

Wits & Wagers is my favorite trivia game, maybe the only one that I like. The main reason is that you don’t need to know the answer to do well. You just need to know who might know the answer and bet on their guess. Because it’s Price is Right rules, closest without going over. And all the numbers are numeric, so generally people can ballpark it. This one just works for trivia and plays fast and everyone is playing the same game, no one is putting down the right answer because it’s their turn to.

11: Not Alone

Now, we move away for a moment from party games. Not Alone is a one versus all game. The one is a monster who is trying to stop the crashed astronauts from getting off the planet. And everyone else is those astronauts waiting for a ship to pick them up. They can go anywhere they have a card for and can even discuss it, but the planet or monster is listening all the time. The idea is clever, the game play is pretty simple, and the whole thing is fun as the monster or the astronaut.

10: Medium

Now we’re back to party games. Medium is about matching words with your partner for that round. But to do that you both put down a card with a word on it and you try and say a word linking them and match up. If you don’t match, then you do it again with the words you just said. And if you don’t again, you get one last chance, and hopefully you’ve narrowed it in. It is good for laughs and everyone is thinking of the word that they’d have said as well.

9: Just One

Just One is a cooperative party game, not the last one on the list. It works really well with almost any group because the concept is simple. One person is it and they pick a random word from a list that they can’t see. Everyone else writes a one word clue. But if any of those clues duplicate, both copies of it are gone. Then with the remaining clues the person who is it needs to make a guess. There are rules to make it trickier, but generally we play it simply so that you feel like you can guess. I’ll let you find out on your own what the actual rules are.

8: Sushi Go Party!

And away from party games, Sushi Go Party! is a card drafting game. And a set collection game, or a set not collection game but mainly a drafting game. I really like it with larger groups because it doesn’t change how fast it can play. And it feels like there is more substance, because there is than a lot of other bigger group games. It’s one that won’t ever leave my collection because of how simple it is to get to the table and play and the variety it can have.

7: Cross Clues

Cross Clues is the second to last party game on the list and second to last cooperative one. This is kind of like just one, but instead of guessing one word from a bunch of clues, you’re trying to get people to guess a combination of two clues with just one word. I really like how this doesn’t have turn structure as well, whenever you have a clue for your intersection card, you can give it. Makes the game faster and keeps everyone involved at all times.

6: Similo

The final party game on the list, Similo is a blast to play. It might drop over time a bit, but when you have a lot of sets you can get a lot of weird things. One person is a clue giver who is trying to get people to guess their card from a group of 12. But they can only say if it’s similar or different from a card they play from a hand. And everyone else must eliminate one, then two, then three, then four, then one to win. It’s not too bad when you’re using animals to eliminate animals, but animals in hand to eliminate historical figures, now that’s interesting.

5: Welcome To…

Welcome To, the second highest roll and write on the list though I just realized I forgot Cartographers, is a great game, so is Cartographers for a big group. Each person is using the same poll of flipped cards and going for the same scoring objectives. So all you need is to be able to see the cards. And game plays differently every time because of how things come out. I need to play with more of the maps though.

4: PitchCar

One of two dexterity games on the list, this one is a racing one where you and up to 7 other people, maybe 9 if you get an expansion (so 10 total) are flicking cars to race them around the board. It’s silly fun as cars fly off the track or bank nicely around curves. And when someone has a good shot, you cheer. Grand old time and a silly game but in the best way.

3: Railroad Ink

Finally roll and write is Railroad Ink, and this is a bit of a cheat, as is my #1 because you technically need two sets. Thankfully Railroad Ink or Railroad Ink Challenge were released two boxes at a time. So you can play up to eight if you get both of them. It’s a route building roll and write, and with the challenges it just adds that little bit more. But I like challenges better for that more, it gives you direction when you don’t know what you want to do.

2: Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

And super high on the list is a social deduction game. I love Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, why, because you aren’t just guessing randomly at the beginning. A murder has happened and everyone has four clues and weapons in front of them. The murder picks on of each of their own and the forensic scientist knows what they are. But no one else does and the forensic scientist can only send up reports. But with that first report you can start guessing, because it’ll be meaningful, and that’s immediately when the game starts. So great and always memorable accusations.

1. Icecool

Finally, Icecool. This is a bit of a cheat, like I said, because you need Icecool and Icecool 2 to play with 8 people. But when you do, it’s a blast. Flicking the penguins around is great. And the whole racing away from the hall monitors who are out to catch you and get through the doorways to get your fish, it works. Like PitchCar when someone makes a great shot everyone is excited. And you can sometimes plan a great shot.

Final Thoughts

Big group games are interesting for me. I often play them because we have 6-7 people on a game night, but generally they aren’t my favorite. Of those 45 game that I’ve played, plus Cartographers that I missed, maybe 14 are in my Top 100. That’s a lot, but also there are 45 games on that list so I’ve played a lot of them as well.

I think it’s that a lot of the party style ones aren’t that interesting, or try and copy other games too much. And I think it’s also because I don’t like social deduction that much. I’ll play those games but I won’t pull them off the shelf myself.

But what are some of your favorite big group games?

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So, what are the requirements to make this list. The game has to have been published before the year 2000. I considered going earlier, but that seemed like it would work best. One game you’ll see missing from my list is Chess. Chess is great game, and if you get into it, you can really get into it and get good at it. I wanted to balance how good a game was with how easy it was for everyone to play it. So a game like Chess has too much of a divide between player levels to be on the list.

5 – Balderdash

I’m starting with a party game that might not have made it to the list in it’s original form. Balderdash, when it came out, just had you writing down definitions of words, or what you thought they were and then players voting on which one they thought was right. Since then, they came out with Beyond Balderdash, which is now just what Balderdash is which added in acronyms, weird laws, and movie synopsis. The game is still a lot of fun, mainly because it eventually becomes less of a game and more of a silly activity where people use in jokes from previous rounds and keep those jokes going.

4 – Cribbage

Cribbage is the only pure card game on the list. I like it quite well, in particular in a bar setting. It’s small, not many pieces, and easy enough to teach. There are definitely some complexities to the rules, but I can generally get through them in a pretty quick time frame. I’m sure there’d be some debate about a more experienced player beating a less experienced one more often than not, and I’d agree, but it’s not a massive difference. And once you’ve played a hand or two, you have the general idea.

3 – Clue

Probably up there with Monopoly in terms of games people think of when they think of classic board games. It, unlike Monopoly, made my top 5. Clue is a lot of fun and I like that it gives you real choices in the game as you craft your accusations. As a kid it took me a bit to get all the subtlies down of game, but now it’s still fun to play once in a while because of the deduction aspect and how detailed you can keep track of notes and how you reveal or don’t reveal information to other players. It’s just nice and clever in how it works. Not one I’d play all the time or want to play all the time but one that hits the table every few years.

2 – Scrabble

It’s close between my top two, but Scrabble comes in at number two. Scrabble is a word game that can be about the big words that you know, but is more about optimizing your points and blocking other players for being able to get large amounts of points. I say that with Scrabble (or Banagrams though I prefer Scrabble) my ability to recognize patterns quickly helps me a lot. And of course knowing all the two letter words that the Scrabble dictionary accepts (I don’t know them, helps a ton as well.

1 – Yahtzee

Probably not a huge surprise that the game at the top of my list is basically a roll and write game. Yahtzee is a game that I might have played too much at this point, because it’ll basically play itself. There is some strategy to it, when to push your luck on the top, how risky you want to be. Otherwise, once you’ve played it enough, you can figure out the probabilities and you adjust your rolls accordingly to it. But I do like this one as a game that you can play and just chat while playing because there are some push your luck moments or exciting moments of getting Yahtzee, but it doesn’t have the most thinking at all times in the game.

There are other older games that I could put on the list as well. I kept Quoridor off of the list because it’s less known, but a good one, just not one that people grew up with for the most part. I personally really like the game SET, but I left that one off because I like the game SET, it’s a pattern recognition game that I’m good at. What are some of your favorite classic board games?

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When I look for a party game I’m looking for a few things. First, I’m looking for a game that’s not going to be too limited by the cards. There are some games out there, Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples that once you’ve played them a handful of times, they lose enjoyment because you’ve seen all the cards a handful of times and heard all the jokes a handful of times, and the game just isn’t funny anymore. So, look for games that have enough cards. I think in the style of Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity, that style of game is never going to have enough cards, but when getting something like Balderdash versus Catch Phrase, consider the number of cards and words in those games, because Balderdash has way more options than Catch Phrase does.

Next, I’m looking for party games that won’t overstay their welcome. This is actually pretty tricky to find, so fairly often you have to be able to read the room as to not have them become boring or having people stop caring. You want to end at a point where most people are at that point where it would be fun to play more, but they aren’t chomping at the big. In the case of something like Balderdash, look for the point where what’s being written down is mainly repeated jokes from earlier in the game. That’s a sign that people are going to be wearing down. But there are some games that do give it a nice limit. Just One, for example, gives you a limit on the number of cards you do for the game, and using that as your rule for how long the game goes works really well. Normally we play it twice in one sitting, but it gives us an end point so that we can jump into other games, and keeps Just One from overstaying it’s welcome.

If it’s a trivia game or a game that someone can just be better at, be careful with what you pick. There are two big offenders of this for me, the first being Trivial Pursuit, which is just a trivia game and you know what you’re getting into and you know that someone who is good at trivia is going to be better. The other is Cranium, which has some parts that are more fun like the Pictionary with clay and Charades, but if someone is better at Trivia, they can go through that section much faster and have a run away leader. Instead, look for trivia games that are about guessing and being close or that allow people to piggyback off of the smart person’s guesses. The example that I love for this is Wits and Wagers. Yes, one person might do better at guessing the number, but everyone else then has a chance to bet on their answer and make more money.

Finally, party games are best when they give players some creative agency in the game. Something like Trivial Pursuit or Catch Phrase, it’s about what you know or how you can describe a word that’s been given to you. Those games don’t allow you to really be creative besides maybe coming up with a funny way to get people to guess a word in Catch Phrase, but because you’re going against the clock, you don’t have time to do that without hurting your team. But, there are plenty of games that give the players some creative agency. Balderdash is a good example of this because you’re writing down your guess for what an acronym stands for, or what the weird law or definition that you don’t know is. Stipulations is my favorite like this, because it has that creative piece of coming up with a good idea and takes it away from it being a definition or something dryer like that and makes the game have that goofiness that you can have in Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity the first time you play it. Even Just One, where you’re only writing down a single word each round, because there isn’t the time pressure, you feel like you can be more creative in giving your clues.

So, what are some good options for party games that won’t have the limited replayability and allow you to be creative, I’m sure you can guess which ones I’m going to mention, but I’ll add in a few more. Just One is my top one to mention because it’s cooperative and while team versus team is common for party games, Just One is fully cooperative so that helps balance out the feeling of stronger or weaker players, and it’s done in a way that there won’t be anyone who can alpha player the game. Stipulations is my best for that any sort of setting funny game. In Stipulations there isn’t anything inherently dirty about it, but if you wanted to make it dirty you can easily. Wits & Wagers is my trivia entry, the fact that everything is a number means that everyone is going to be a ballpark, maybe way off, but you’re not failing at trivia by thinking a tree is a type of bear or something like that. The betting also works well, because you can always bet on the person who you think is most likely to know, and hopefully it’ll work out. Scattergories, this one is pretty old compared to the others on the list, but it still works well. This also has a bit of a trivia feel as you’re in board categories where there might be a lot of answers, but like in Just One, you are trying to come up with a unique word. This is competitive, so if you have that more competitive group that wants a party game that is a bit more serious, this is a good one for them.

There are more good ones out there that I’ve heard about, just haven’t had a chance to try yet. Right now the two that I’m curious about are Medium which seems like it does a more engaging version of The Mind. I can see it going over well in some groups and being horrible in others, so I’m curious to try for myself. The other one is Wavelength, another one of those games where you’re trying to get people to read your mind, it’s a common theme, but you are given a wavelength target and you have to try and get people to guess/place the dial between best and worst type of range for something, and you’re giving them a clue to try and get it dialed in. And I’m sure there will be more cool party games coming out this year.

What are some of your favorite party games? Are there any that have worn out their welcome for you?

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Taking from the Oxford dictionary, the definition of a game is:

“a form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck”

Oxford Dictionary

According to that definition, is my example of The Mind, a game?

Basics of the Mind are that you are trying to play cards in numerical order without talking, you can see your cards but there is no communication, so you have to guess, based off of feel when to play them down, and you’re trying to get through a certain number of rounds.

By the definition of a game, it doesn’t really take skill or strength, but it is very much luck. And, I think that something that I’d say for a definition of a game, it needs to have a win condition of some sort, I think that competitive is trying to cover for that, but I think a win condition is clearer, because cooperative board games are definitely games even though you’re not competing against someone. So, the Mind, by the technical definition is a game. But, when looking at the definition, it feels like it’s lacking a little bit of what is normally a game because it is just luck based.

So, maybe it’s a combo of a game and activity. I think that you could say that all games are activities. And with the Mind, because you’re mainly just guessing when to play down a card or when to use a special ability, it feels more like an activity to me. And it is a fun group activity as you try and use body language or other non-verbal queues and non-spoiling clues to get other people to play or to have a rush of playing when the numbers are close together. For me, the Mind is more of [redacted – come back for the review].

Is it bad that it might be more of an activity than it is a game? No. I think that many party games, they are best when they are treated more as an activity than a game. When you are playing something like Stipulations and trying to come up with an answer, it’s better to put down something that you think is funny. Same with Balderdash or a game like Cards Against Humanity or Apple to Apples. Even if it isn’t the best answer or the answer most likely to win, it’s a lot of fun just to create moments where you can laugh. And you play until laughing is just starting to fade, and you’ve had a great activity without caring about who wins because you can just be goofy. If you treat them as a game, you won’t get the in-joke answers, you’ll get people trying really hard, and that’s less fun. Yes, you might be removing the game aspect from it or going against the spirit of the rules, but it’s a party game, and a party is supposed to be fun. That’s why I have issues with “party” style games that don’t led themselves to being an activity because they can’t have the same level of fun. I’ll talk about what makes a good party game later as well.

So, with the Mind or party games, they can border on an activity, and that’s fine. I think what’s not fine and some of the reason why I’m writing this article, is because there can be a sort of snooty thumbing of the nose towards these games and the people who play them. Yes, it’s not that complex a game or activity, but are the people having fun, yes. Can it be a gateway for getting people into the heavier and more complex games? Yes. Will it always do that? No, and that’s fine. We want to encourage as many diverse gamers to join the hobby as possible as that will keep the hobby growing and from becoming stale. It might not be a 4X game, an 18XX game, a euro game, or an Ameritrash game, but that’s fine depending on the group, and if they don’t want to move on to those sorts of games, it might be that game group isn’t the right one for you, but don’t disparage someone for having fun in their own way.

What is a light game that you think works better or is more of an activity? Have you tried The Mind, and do you like it? Let me know in the comments below.

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That’s basically how the games works, but Stipulations is one of those party games, up there with Just One, that I’ve had a lot of fun playing. For me, Stipulations falls nicely in between games like Balderdash and then games like Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, and is better than both of the groups, though, Balderdash is still enjoyable.

In Stipulations you are trying to get “points” by writing down funny, interesting, weird, silly, thought-provoking stipulations to the thing that the person who is it picked. It’s very much like Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples that way, that someone is picking something, but like Balderdash, it requires your own creativity. Let’s give an example of how this works. I’m it, and I can pick one of the four options on my card, they are super power, lifetime supply, fulfilled dream, and dream job. I read over them and I decide that having the super power of flying seems like the most fun. Everyone else then writes down a condition for what I’ve picked. The answers come in and I can fly but….
Only when I’m farting
No more than 4″ off the ground
Only backwards
You don’t know how to land without crashing
Then I get to pick my favorite, or more specifically, according to the rules, I must pick the least desirable. Then you’d draw a bonus card that has you pick another one in a different way to award more points. At the end of the game the person with the most points win.

Let’s start out by talking about the points in this game. No one keeps track of points, or I should say, no one cares about points. This, like Apples to Apples, Cards Against Humanity, and Balderdarsh, are much more fun when people are just trying to be goofy about it and you don’t care about points. In fact, I don’t think that their “scoring” system works all that well. Picking the least desirable might make more thematic sense for the game, but I think that the game works better when the person picking picks their favorite, whether that’s the one that made you laugh the most, the least desirable, or the most desirable, but the chooser decides which one is the best based off of their own criteria. But, the least desirable is a good option, where it works less is drawing the extra scoring card. It can be something like, the one that made you laugh the most, that’s fine, but it might also be, the person who bought the game, that’s a stupid one, because, since I bought my copy, I’m always going to get that card if it happens to come up. I could just remove them, but I find that just picking one from the group of options just works better and keeps the game moving faster. Now, this might seem like a pretty long time talking about a negative, but it is a negative in basically all party games, and it doesn’t matter, because they are party games and you are meant to be having a silly fun time, if you care about the scoring, you care too much.

The rest of the game actually works really well. I’ll talk a little bit about when I think it is placed between those two groups of games. With Balderdash or another one similar to that Liebrary, you’re coming up with something unique. You’re required to use your own imagination and I like that in those games. I think, though, that both Balderdash and Liebrary because they are based on something real, a real definition or acronym or a real first line of a book. With Stipulations, you are write down whatever you want, and if you are extremely silly, it’s in line with the game. Then, the selection criteria is very Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity like. But, Stipulations has one major advantage over both of them, you never make it through all the cards. In Cards Against Humanity or Apples to Apples, eventually you’ll see all the cards, and in peak Cards Against Humanity days, that would take about a week, because you’d play it twice for a long (too long) period of time and you’d make it through the cards. Once you’ve gone through the cards once or twice, you know all the jokes in both games, and some cards will automatically win because of the meta of your group. Compare this to Stipulations, the game can still be dirty, if you want, so it can be like Cards Against Humanity, but as a group you get to control that, and because there are no answer cards and you need to use your own creativity, that means you won’t get certain answers that are as likely to win. Sure, you can still create a meta in your group where an answer like “Bees!” will always win one card per game, but that is less of a guarantee.

For me, this is one of the best party games and I think because it was a kickstarter game before kickstarter games were cool, it’s flown under the radar. I also think because of the weird extra scoring card, it can seem like a little bit more work for groups. But, I really like this game, and with my minor tweak to scoring, I think it flows even better, but it isn’t bad the other way. If you’re looking for a party game where you can tailor it to the group you’re playing with, this is a great option, for a bachelorette party, you can make it as dirty as you want, and then you can take it and play with your Grandma at Thanksgiving. Now, I think that, and I’ve seen it happen, some people don’t like that they have to be creative themselves, but, I’ve also seen those people then join into the game at a later time, because they realize how simple and silly you can be with it, and you don’t need to be that clever. And even with one person never joining the game who was watching it played, they ended up having a lot of fun just laughing at the silly things that were written. Overall, it’s always been a fun time.

Overall Grade: A-
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: A

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Like your standard party game, Bring Your Own Book runs off of the prompt and reply system. This is why I brought up games like Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples. Now, I actually like some prompt and reply style of games. I think that games like Stipulations and Beyond Balderdash (which I believe I can just call Balderdash now) are enjoyable because in these games you are coming up with your response, so it relies on your creativity, not just a hand of cards you’ve been given. Bring Your Own Book doesn’t do that, because, instead of using a card or writing something down, you are finding a line in a book to use, and that can be whatever book you brought to the table.

This is a strength and issue of the game. It’s a strength because it lends itself to variety. When we’ve played it, we’ve had books ranging from technical or non-fiction books to YA books. So you actually get more variety and you don’t see cards repeat like you do in something like Cards Against Humanity or Apples to Apples. But, at the same time you’re limited to whatever book you brought to the table or that was at the table when you got there. So if the book I have at the table is an epic fantasy novel, everything I read is going to sound like an epic fantasy, and if it’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, it’s going to sound like that. So as a player, you are still being limited in variety of what you can do, unless you have a book of short stories.

But also with that, there’s another issue. You have a time limit to find your passage in the book, and this is very much needed, but that also cuts down on how much you can really search for a good sentence. If you had unlimited time, there would be people who would just start reading the book every time. I think that the title is very accurate of this game, though, to get around the problem of the time limit. You need to bring your own book, and you need to know it well. If I got the first Harry Potter book, I’m going to be able to comb that for certain passages and scenes better than I would The Expanse, for example. Because I’ve read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone several times and I haven’t read The Expanse. That’s going to be different for everyone, and while my wife and I have a good collection of books, we might not have books that someone else has read, so the game is going to be trickier for them. So, you might want to bring your own book, which means that this party game now needs to be planned to work at it’s best.

And I will say, that it’s definitely at it’s best, I think you can do it with random books. However, if you play with random books, I would suggest rotating books as you rotate the person giving the prompt. That way, everyone one gets the chance with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and everyone gets a chance with How to Win Friends and Influence People. This will make the game more fair, because, while How to Win Friends and Influence People might not be a dry book, it’s not as exciting as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and there is probably less familiarity with it around the table. Or, if you are doing random books, keep them all in the same family. Fantasy fiction would be a great one, you don’t even need to pick a type of fantasy, but that is going to keep everyone on even footing.

The actual game components, I think that the kickstarter version looks amazing, and that’s what I have. I, however, don’t really like the retail version all that well. As compared to the kickstarter, it looks cheaper and it loses the charm of looking so much like a book itself. Now the game doesn’t play different, it’s just an aesthetic thing. I think had I not gotten the kickstarter version of the game, I don’t know that the retail version would have even caught my eye.

Overall, this is another party game. If you like games like Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples, but you want a party game with unlimited variety, but still restricting, Bring Your Own Book works well, because where ever you play it, it will feel different. I’d pull it out again off my shelf, but probably not in a lot of situations. If I themed a board game night around books, it would probably be the warm up game before we split off into other smaller games.

Overall Grade: C
Gamer Grade: D
Casual Grade: B-

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So, what makes the best party games?

Replayability is one of the biggest things for me. Having a game that I can go to multiple times without it feeling like all the jokes and moments are done is key.

Large group number so that you can get everyone playing is also important. You don’t want someone to feel like they have to sit out because there aren’t enough parts of the game to go around.

Simplicity so that even Grandma and Grandpa can pick it up is key. They might not want to play, but your parents might not be that much better at picking up either.

Limited or contained down time is also important in these games. You can have moments of people sitting around and thinking or writing something, but you don’t want to have people having too much down time while on person does something. That either leads to distracting conversation and people just checking out of the game.

Can you play the game with your parents? Seems like a lot of these other ones cover that suggestion, but there are games that have more of a dirty or adult twist on things, and you have to know if your parents are going to be fine with that, or even your grandparents, depending on who you might be playing with.

The game can end while everyone is still having fun. This can be because you can just end the game whenever, but it could also be because the game is a shorter game. If the game can’t end in 30 minutes, it’s probably too much for a party game.

So what are some games that fit the bill?

Balderdash

Balderdash is a game where people write down definitions to words, what acronyms mean, complete weird laws, and then get to vote on which one they think is real. This game is easy to teach and while the replayability is slightly more limited than some, simply because you might actually remember a categories answer from before, you can always go with another one of the options on the card. Like most good party games, this game is about the laughs. It can have a run away leader problem, but really, scoring is optional, being silly is more important.

Wits and Wagers

Very similar to the game above, except everyone is putting down a number instead of some other written answer and then people bid on which is the closest without going over. There is technically an ending to the game, but you can always just pick how many questions you want to do, or when people are winding down do a single final round where people can go crazy with their bidding for a chance to win.

Scattergories

Another trivia sort of game where people are looking to fill in answers for various categories but it all has to start with a single letter. What makes this game work more often than not is that someone who might be able to come up with more answers is probably still going to have a number of common answers with other people so can end up with fewer points. Trying to come up with something that is unique, but not unique that someone else might come up with as well is the balance, plus the limited amount of time for doing so.

Stipulations

A bit more abstract, but a similar basis for the ones above, in this one person picks from four things, occupation, life time supply, super power, and dream job that they’d want. That’s all great, but then everyone else gets to write a stipulation and the person who picked gets to pick their favorite because it’s the least bad one or because it’s the funniest one, their criteria is there own. This game works really well because depending on who you’re playing with, you can make the game dirtier or more family friendly, the choice is yours. This game is good for laughs, it comes with white boards for writing on, but you could easily expand it to a larger number by just taking post-it notes or some other smaller piece of paper and giving one to each person.

Tsuro

First game to actually have a board in the classic sense. Tsuro is a simple game of staying alive the longest as your dragon follows it’s path. The game plays very fast, so you’ll likely play a couple of times. For a game that seems like it could have some decent strategy, it really works well because you can only plan on your turn, and you have a limited number of choices, especially at higher player counts. It’s always fun to see how people take different strategies in the game as well, as some people might try and avoid everyone, while others might try and instigate conflict.

Sushi Go! Party

By far the most complex game, this is one that you won’t be able to pull out with everyone, but if your family is a gaming family, Sushi Go! Party offers interesting decision making as you are drafting cards. The game plays quickly, though the first hand might take a bit longer as people figure out their strategies. This game also offers the most variety in the play as you can swap out the meal that you are creating. The others all have a similar feel and rhythm every time you play it, but this one could have wildly different strategies each combination that you play.

ice Cool/Ice Cool 2

Now, this is a new one and probably the silliest out of all of them. All you are doing is either flicking delinquent penguins around a school as they try and avoid the hall monitor and collect snacks of fish, or you’re racing around the board to see who can circumnavigate the fastest. It is also different because you’re up and moving about as you cannot sit around a table to play this game, in fact you have to pull the chairs away from the table. This is limited to eight players, but it’s also the best on the list for kids, because what kid wouldn’t want to send a penguin flying around a board. And while the game is made for kids, it’s a lot of fun for adults as well as you try crazy shots to see if you can bank through a couple of doors or are you going to get stuck in a corner.

There are a lot of other options as well, but as you are looking at the store thinking about something about you might buy, remember the suggestions laid out at top of the article. Keeping it simple, replayable, and good for a large group are going to mean you’ve probably found a winner of a party game.

What are some of your favorite party games? Are there some that you actively avoid with your family?

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It’s something to write about because when people think of large group games they think of games like Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, with a few other party games thrown in. It’s fairly repetitive games that are either based around making a few jokes or trivia knowledge. I’m going to sound fairly negative about these games, but they do have their time and place. For me, however, these games have a limited shelf life. My wife and I are actually getting rid of our copy of Cards Against Humanity because once you’ve played it a handful of times, you know the general jokes.

The other reason I wanted to write about this topic is because people have trouble coming up with other larger group games. Now, not all of these games are going to be able to handle 20 people that I’m writing about, so I will write about what you can do with that size of a group as well. But, having games that will play 7-10 people are fairly difficult to come up with as well and often end up causing people to pull out party games again.

Before we talk specifics, let’s talk about what to do with that very large group of people. It’s tricky because part of playing board games is socializing, but sometimes you have a group that is just too large to play a single game. People don’t always want to split into smaller groups because people want to socialize with everyone. I would argue that this is something that you should push through as the host or as someone suggesting splitting into groups. When you have a large group everyone is not part of the same conversation anyways. As much as we want to think so, everyone is having their own little conversations. These can be done in smaller groups. Especially lean into splitting into smaller groups after you have played a larger game. Play a few hands of Cards Against Humanity first so that people are laughing and socializing and then before the game has gotten stale. People will likely be more up to splitting off into groups if they feel comfortable and having an ice breaker game is nice for that.

Also, adapt games as need be for larger groups. I’ve adapted Wits & Wagers for a larger group before because it’s not like there’s anything stopping you. Just add a few more ranges for betting and go from there. Or with a game like Scattergories, just have people share sheets.  You can also team people up for games that normally wouldn’t have teams. Balderdash can really handle any number, but if you think there will be too many things to read and remember, have people team up for that.

Now let’s get into some games. I’m going to start with some of my preferred party style games. While I have expressed some dislike for Cards Against Humanity, it is a game that a lot of people know how to play already, and when drinking, can be kind of funny even if you’ve played it a number of times before?

In it’s place, I would suggest Stipulations. This game might be harder to find, I got it from kickstarter, but I believe it is available. Stipulations is one of those write something down based off of what the person who is it says. However, as compared to trying to come up with a definition for a word or the meaning of an acronym, Stipulations has you writing a stipulation for a super power, dream job, lifetime supply of, or fulfilled dream. This doesn’t force you into anything dark and twisted, but if you wanted to go that way and that’s the type of group you have, you can. Unlike Cards Against Humanity, Stipulations is a game you could play with Grandma or at a college kegger.

A nerdier game than Stipulations that goes along with the same premise of writing down an answer and either picking a favorite or trying to guess the right answer is Liebrary. It’s a silly game where you roll and select and get a book title and try and write down what the first sentence is. The person who is it is hoping people will guess the right answer, but not everyone. It fits into the classic Balderdash style of game. This game suffers a little bit because of the categories of books. Romance novels are great to write a first line for because you can be as silly as possible, but other genres aren’t as entertaining.

Scattergories and Wits & Wagers are two that I put down as games that fit into that trivia category. Both of them are better than Cranium in my opinion. The reason that I like both of them is that you can have an arbitrary ending to either of them. In Scattergories you can play three lists or you can play ten, it’s up to you and the group, though, I’d never recommend playing ten in one sitting. With Wits and Wagers, you can just pull out a certain number of cards, and whomever has the most money at the end is the winner. Cranium has a board you have to get around, and if you get the wrong questions in trivia, there’s a chance the game will just stagnate. The same thing is the case with Trivial Pursuit, so pick trivia games that you can have an arbitrary ending to.

Finally, Moniker is a solid party game where you start out by describing someone to get people to guess them, then can only use a one word clue, and then can only charade it. It’s a team game, so only half the time are you really involved, but turns go fairly quickly. This game is on my list because it allows people to be active and moving. It helps build up the energy and is good for a laugh. It is a game that you don’t really need the actual game for though to make work. As long as people know the famous person you wrote down on a slip of paper it works. When they don’t, it kind of breaks the game anyways.

So this is part one of two, the conclusion will come up here shortly. It would have been a bit much to do in a single post, and this one has a nice breaking point because we’re at the point where I’m going to talk about things that aren’t just pure party games. There are a number of games, including a few different categories of games that work well with larger groups. And I’ll also talk about some pitfalls to avoid when looking at games that can have a larger player count.

To Be Continued….

What are your favorite party games?

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