That one is trickier, in some ways, to pick out games for. Because, it isn’t like I can pull out a heavy board game off the shelf to play with. It is often too many people to do that with. And I need to think about the different levels of gamer and numbers as well. I like to theme the nights, as well, so people know what they are getting into.

Top 5 Themes for Board Game Night

5. Racing Games

Kicking off this board game theme list is racing games. And this actually catches some games in other categories that I came up with as well. But racing games work well because racing is a theme that people understand. I want to finish the race first. Or, a lot of racing games, I want to win the most money because I bet best on the racing games. It might be more about the betting than the racing, but people understand it either way.

The downside to some racing games, Formula D for example, is that they can take a while. But then there are other ones that are fast and action filled. You might even decide to play a dexterity game like Pitchcar in this as well. And that one might take a bit, but it has some other benefits which we’ll talk about coming up. But racing games often play a number of people, you just want to make sure they are fast moving ones, as a race should be.

4. Roll and Writes

Roll and write style games work well for a board game night as well. Mainly, again, a lot of them play higher player counts. It might be a bit solitaire in what the players are doing, but it works because everyone is playing off of the dice on their own sheet of paper.

I think of games like Cartographers, or Paper Dungeons, though, that offer a little bit of interaction that makes it work. Or other games, though, like Trek 12, Welcome To… or Railroad Ink that offer less. So you can choose between a few options, but generally you’ll find that you play a few more of these that work well as competitive but non confrontational games.

3. Dexterity Games

Now, this type of board game might seem odd to be in there for an adult group playing games. But dexterity games really do work great for a board game night. They provide a party game atmosphere without having to play party games every time. And some of them definitely handle a high player count well.

And for me, one thing that I really love is that they are light and silly, but they offer feel good moments. For example, with Pitchcar, a game of racing disc cars around a track, when someone makes an amazing shot, everyone is excited. Why, because it is an amazing shot. And even if you play the game a lot there is an element of luck to pull off an amazing shot.

2. Drafting Games

Next I want to talk about drafting games, because they are an interesting sort of game for a game night. A good drafting game is going to stand out in that it can handle a lot of people. Why, because a lot of the drafting games are fairly simple and they keep everyone engaged at the same time.

I think of games like 7 Wonders, Sushi Go Party! or any of the Ecosystem games. They all run off of a similar systems. When I am drafting a card, so are you. Everyone is involved at the same time. And 7 Wonders and Sushi Go Party! both work with a higher player count. The others could as well, it’s just fewer cards, so that limits the player count. But because you all play at once, there is no downtime which makes it easier.

1. Party Games

This is an obvious one. However, I will say, this doesn’t mean Taboo, Balderdash, Catch Phrase, and Cards Against Humanity. Thankfully, now is a good time for party games. And it is also a time where there are several cooperative ones, so it’s easy to sit down with a group and enjoy without it becoming too competitive. Which is something that is needed for some groups.

When we play party games, I think of games like Doodle Dash, Just One, Blank Slate, Medium, and So Clover that top the list. All of these are solid games with solid theories behind them as to how they work. And they provide humor and a good time through the players versus something like Cards Against Humanity which tries to add that via the cards only.

Final Thoughts

There are a ton of different themes. And often times i look at it and I think, I could mix in another type of game, or it might change based on player count. If we end up with just a few people, sure, I’m going to pull out a couple of heavier games, or even a couple of games that play at a lower player count. We get ten players, it might pivot to party game night, or we might split into two groups. It is about knowing your group for a game night.

At the same time, it’s fun to give a theme or an idea of what games are coming. Why, because then people can decide if it’s a night for them or not. Maybe you don’t like roll and write games, that is fine, you skip the board game night where it is roll and writes. But as someone coming, you now know what is coming to help you make a decision.

Do you find that your game group gravitates towards different types of themes in board games?

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How Important Is Winning?

Now, this is probably a pretty open question that depends on the person. For some people, winning at a game is extremely important. They play board games to win and if they don’t win, they aren’t happy about it. Or they want to go again because to them playing a board game is about winning.

For other people, winning might not be important at all. They play board games so that they can hang out with people. They want the fun social interaction you get at the table around the activity of board gaming. For them, getting together at the table to play a board game, the board game is the reason but not always the point.

Is One Way Better?

No, neither way is better, and a blend of both of them is healthy. Where both of them become bad is when people take them to the extreme. Let’s look at two examples.

I pull out a board game. I have new players and experienced players at the table. The experienced player really needs to win, so they absolutely destroy the new player.

On the other side, I pull out an easy game and I have someone who is just there to socialize. It gets to their turn and they don’t notice, haven’t planned anything and continue a conversation for five more minutes before actually looking at the board. And when they do they just slap a move together to get back to talking.

You can see how both of these when taken to an extreme aren’t ideal. I’ve talked about this with board games nights before. The point of a game night is in the title, it’s to play games. That doesn’t mean that socializing doesn’t happen, but it also doesn’t meant that gaming is lost at the expense.

So How Do You Balance It?

The way I’ve heard this described is that you try to win but winning isn’t everything. It’s more about having fun while at the table. For some people fun is only winning, but going back to something I talk about with RPG’s, it’s about the whole table having fun. Thanks again to The RPG Academy for that.

So what does this look like in practice. In practice it means, if I’m an analysis paralysis player who must win, I find a move that will help me and I take that move. It might not be the perfect or ideal move, but I keep the game moving. If I am a social player, it means I pay more attention to the game. I notice when my turn comes up without being told. I pause my conversation and take a good move for me and then can return to the conversation.

These aren’t hard things. They keep the game moving in both cases and they both players take moves to help themselves win.

Anything Else To Do?

I think there are, I think that players need to think about what group they might fall into. Do they need to win, do they need to talk? And split up into different groups sometimes. The trick can be that some players need to win and need to talk and that is trickier.

Also, going back to a board game night, think about who is coming. If you mainly have people who want to socialize, go with lighter games. Go with shorter games. That way when a game drags out a bit, you aren’t that long and people aren’t losing what is going on. It’s fine to just play party games. On the flip side, if you have winning gamers, go with bigger and tougher games. That way when their turn takes longer, the game is already longer so it doesn’t stand out as much. And if you have both, don’t hesitate to split into two groups during the night.

So, really, winning is important in a game. That is what games are for, you play them for the experience and to try to win. But winning isn’t everything and at least at my table will never be the only focus. Talking and conversations will happen. We’ll get up and get food or a drink, but when it’s your turn, you take it with the intention of trying to win.

Do you fall more on the must win side of social side of board gaming?

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Pitchcar

Pitchcar is a dexterity racing game. And really, that’s about all there is too it, you are flicking your car, which is a disc, around the track. If you fall off, you go back to where you flipped from. If you tip over, you go back to where you flipped from. You take turns, the first person to make it the whole way around, they win. The second person, second place, and so on and so forth. You get points for your position, so you could play multiple times and see who the overall winner is.

What I Didn’t Like

Honestly, there isn’t much that I didn’t like about Pitchcar. My table could be larger for it, but that’s an issue on my end. I guess, if there was anything, it was that the game might be too simple. Now, don’t get me wrong, as you’ll see, I had a blast playing the game. But it is just around the course, I was hoping that it might be up there with Ice Cool for me, but I think it’s just a step below, because Ice Cool has just that tiny bit more going on. Other than that, no negatives. And I think keeping track over multiple races, that would make it more fun and offer more of a challenge.

What I Liked

This game is stupid fun, and I really mean that in the best way. Stupid might sound bad, but it isn’t. This game is all about flicking your car and seeing what happens. You can practice and get better, for sure, but even if you are playing it for the first time it’s still fun. When you pull off that great shot, it feels amazing. And it’s like Ice Cool in that when someone pulls off an amazing shot no one is mad that they are doing better, everyone cheers.

So that’s another thing that I like, it’s a competitive game that doesn’t feel that competitive. Sure, someone probably has taken it too far with Pitchcar and gotten mad because they keep flicking it off the track. I don’t want to play with that person in general and definitely not play with them on Pitchcar. At the same time, that person probably knows after seeing Pitchcar set-up that the game isn’t for them. So they wouldn’t play anyways.

Finally, I really like how accessible this game. In my negatives, I said that I missed the objectives from Ice Cool, thus making Ice Cool a bit better. Now, I think Ice Cool is as simple as Pitchcar, but offers a bit more strategy. Pitchcar, though, is still extremely accessible and I can see in two years setting it up on the floor and playing with my kid who will then be 4. And I can see my kid beating me. I can see bringing this to a FLGS (friendly local game store) and playing it. I can see playing it at the holidays or at an convention and people loving the game. It is a game for everywhere.

Who Is Pitchcar For?

Honestly, I think this game is for almost everyone. There will be some people who don’t love flicking or dexterity as much. That said, I find that flicking games go over better than stacking games because a larger person can do it easier. Like I said up above, I can imagine playing this game almost anywhere with anyone.

Do You Need Extensions?

So, I mentioned Extensions above, that is not a common term with board games. What are extensions, well, they are just more track pieces that extend how large you can make the track. So basically, they are expansions in normal board game terms. I think one or two extensions will probably make the game even more fun. Just the base game will still be a blast, but with the extensions you can make all sorts of wild tracks to go on. Even another copy of the base game would give a whole lot more options for building.

That said, the base game takes up a bunch of room and would be plenty of fun. It still offers a lot of track options to be built. You just might not have quite as many so might not pull it off the shelf as often. I, however, do have three more extensions coming today for the Loop, and two more that just add in extra pieces to make it even bigger.

Final Thoughts

This game is stupid fun. Like I said, it might not be for everyone, such as those people who want their games to be more serious, but I think most people will like it. The rules are simple and easy to follow and there is just so much that can be done with it. Pitchcar is on the docket for board game night in July and I can’t wait. Especially because I’ll have two more. I will 100% be putting the leaf into our biggest table in order to make as large and crazy a track as possible.

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

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I already have done 10 games that I want to play post Covid. And I am sure that there are way more. For that list, it was a lot that were focused more on board game nights. I still stand by that, but there are so many other games that I could think about as well for playing.

But let’s talk about the first game night that I’m going to be planning.

When

This was the first question that I had to ask myself. Now, like I said, Minnesota is getting to about 50%, and my friend group, probably is about at 70-75% vaccinated at this point, at least for the board game night crowd. But I wanted to give people a really good chance to get vaccinated. I really want to have as close to 100% of the group vaccinated as possible. So when thinking about it and just about schedules, I decided that July would be when I had my first one.

What also went into consideration was just people getting comfortable being in groups again. For some people, like myself who is an extrovert, getting together in groups again is going to be amazing. For other people, who are introverts, like my wife, it is going to be more stressful. So it gives people time to start getting out and doing more with family first.

Any Extra Procautions

Honestly, not really, though, I did kind of think about that with the games I have to play. I will ask that if people are planning on attending that they be vaccinated. However, I am only going to do that in July. Why, because I don’t want to be a stickler about it, against by July close if not 100% of the friend group who don’t have a medical reason not to be vaccinated should be. But also because it’s not going to be a big group either. At most one person, or two people from a family wouldn’t be vaccinated. But obviously, we do want to encourage people to get vaccinated.

Otherwise, no masks required, no bring your own food, but the games are going to encourage some distancing. Depending on the temperature, I might throw open some windows so that there is better air flow. But with our furnace setup the fan is running all the time so that should keep air circulating and keep on bringing in new area as well for ventilation purposes.

The Games

So, the games that I picked are more so because you can’t play them not in person. But I do want to think about things that will keep people more comfortable. So the two main games for the night are going to be Pitchcar and Ice Cool.

Both of these games are dexterity games. So how do these help with any extra precautions. Well, you are not just sitting at a table with the same group of people for hours. You are getting up and moving around the table. Sure, you’ll be close to people a fair amount, but it won’t be sitting across from someone breathing at them.

But really, the main reason for both of these games, I couldn’t play them otherwise. Sure, Kristen and I could play them, or the one person who has been coming over to game with me could play them, but it’s not the same. Ice Cool is best at four or more if you have the expansion. I haven’t played Pitchcar yet, so I might do that before hand just to set it up and try, but again, seems better with more. You want to have that group around so everyone is getting excited when they make a great shot or when someone else does as well. That’s what really drives those gaming experiences to the next level.

What About Food And Drink?

So that is the only thing that I haven’t mentioned. And again, since everyone is going to be vaccinated, I’m going to feel very comfortable doing the normal potluck/sharing style that we do. Now, if we have chips, maybe I’ll throw a tongs into that so people aren’t touching everything as much. I can put out some hand sanitizer for people who want it. But most of the things, you are touching one items to put it onto your plate.

What Should You Do?

I think that is the question that everyone is asking themselves. I know a lot of people who are excited to get game nights going again and what does that mean for everyone it is going to be different. For us, I know the people I game with well, we do it in a home, so I can limit and control a lot of variables. If you play at an FLGS, it is going to look different than in a house. If you have people who can’t get vaccinated for a medical reason, that is going to look different as well. So I guess the advice that I can give is start small. No need to play games with twenty people, start playing with three or four and as things improve, go from there.

When do you want plan on your first big game night?

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Pros

• The Aesthetic
• Light/accessible game play
• Price and shipping
• Already known game play

Cons

• Might be too light for some

The Page

This page, it’s hard to say it’s not done well. Mainly because it looks so aesthetically pleasing. The game just pops on the page and from what I’ve seen in the review videos pops in real life just as much. And we know that R2i Games has successfully fulfilled on this game before as well.

They lay out game play for the original game to some extent but it is more focused on the expansion. I totally get that for why they did it that way, and I’m glad they have the how to play video for the base game. For me I am most interested in base game play, but I can find that in a number of places now.

The Game

The game itself looks fun. I like the idea of the transparent cards, and how you can use them to really create interesting pictures. I’ve heard, not as a complaint, that some people who play just want to make the prettiest picture instead of always optimizing points. And that is amazing.

The game play seems simple, which is a good thing, in my opinion. According to the Dice Tower review, there are good decisions to be made. But for a game that looks this aesthetically pleasing, I don’t want it to get bogged down in rules. This seems like it should avoid that, but not be a party game, which often games with this type of artwork can end up being.

I also like games that give you a direction to go in. This game isn’t about making your own points, it tells you how you can score based off of scoring cards. That helps a game get to the table. I don’t have to explain as much scoring, just a few cards and how they work. I keep on going back to it, this game, from what I have heard, is an easy game to get to the table, which it should be with it’s aesthetic.

Back or Brick

I mean, it is going to be pretty obvious, this is a Back for me. The aesthetic really sells the game and the clear cards. But it’s more than just that, that was what got me interested in it. When it was on Kickstarter the first time, I didn’t back it. Why, because I wasn’t sure about the game play itself. Now there are a lot of reviews out there, and they tend to be positive. With a game at this weight, I want to know if my wife will like it or not, or if it’ll be good for game nights or not, and I’m now convinced that Canvas will be.

How about for you, is Canvas a Back or a Brick?

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Theming a board game night can be a lot of fun. It gives people a good idea of what games might be played. It helps focus in a collection which games come off of the shelf. I know that I have enough board games where it is tricky sometimes to get them to the table, but if I theme the night, then I play games I might not get to otherwise. What I want to talk about is how to pick a theme, but before that, I think we should talk about how to pick games.

Picking the Games for Board Game Night

Now, you might just want to pick games that go with the theme ,and keeping things on brand for the theme is important. But it is easy to end up with a lot of the same types of games, if you pick something like fantasy, you could end up with four big games ready to go. A game night should provide some more diversity in what is played and that’s less because some people don’t like big games, but more because people will come in late. I am working on coming up with a methodology of what works well.

I think that starting out with a party or lighter/faster game is good to do. People will show up throughout that game, they can either sit down and chat with you while you play or hop into the game if it’s a party game as the points don’t matter. Then have some medium or heavier games to go after people have arrived. This can often have you splitting into a couple of groups, get a heavier game and a medium weight game going. Then as the games wrap up, you go back to lighter games again and pick ones that can end whenever or can be played multiple times pretty quickly as people will slowly drop out for the night. I’ve found that this strategy works well and the games played generally will give everyone something that they like, for those party game players or those heavier gamers.

Picking a Theme

Keep The Theme General

So, with that in mind, it makes a collection clearer for what themes might work. You’ll be able to see what games you have that fit a given theme. And when I say pick a theme, I mean give yourself a broad category. For examples, instead of 18XX go with games with trains. Instead of Lord of the Rings go with fantasy, instead of chickens go with animals. Give yourself enough to work with and a wider breath of games to pick from. It will also make the game night more inviting, because you might have three games about chickens, but if I hate chickens, I might not come, but add in animals of any sort, I would come for games about cats. That’s a silly example but helps make the point. A broader theme is more interesting because someone who doesn’t like fantasy except Lord of the Rings can still come to game night. I always try and say what games I’m looking at as well when inviting people.

Vary The Themes

And vary the theme as well. If you flip back and forth from sci-fi to fantasy and back with maybe a horror thrown in there, it’ll limit what games you can do. It’s fine to stretch a little bit to fit some of your favorite games into categories, but by theming you can also encourage other people to bring games as well.

Stretch The Themes

Now, I am a strong proponent of stretching the theme as well. You do want to play your favorite games, so make themes that they can get into, maybe just barely. It’s a food themed game night, what games have food in them even if they aren’t about food. If you love Agricola, you can make that work. Ice Cool is about flicking penguins who want fish. Or if you’re doing a theme about a school or learning, Ice Cool works for that, or about animals, Ice Cool again works. You can get games into a theme to give yourself more options to play, if you really try.

Theme To The Season

Finally, pick themes that go with the season. At the holidays, make it about party games, if you do it on a weekend evening like I do, that means around Christmas and New Years that people might have other parties as well. Make your game night something easy to drop into. Or in October go with horror games. In July, go with games about food or fireworks or about the United States of America. That’ll help you get variety in your themes as well.

Themed Game Set Examples

Food

• Sushi Go/Sushi Go party – This is a nice starting game, it plays fast and offers time to chat. It’s also enough that groups can continue playing if they want.
• Homebrewer, Foodies, and Heaven and Ale – This is the second wave of games that I’d use in my collection. They are bigger games with more going on, but Homebrewer and Foodies are pretty light weight and easy for someone who might not know the game quite as well to teach. The people who want to play a heavier game, Heaven and Ale covers that crowd.
• Point Salad and Ice Cool – Point Salad is a great wrap up the night game. It plays a decently large group, it plays fast. So a good one for the Homebrewers or Foodies players to play while Heaven and Ale players finish up their game. And Ice Cool plays a big number and is silly fun.

Horror/Halloween

• Zombie Dice – It’s a very simply push your luck dice game about zombies. Sure it’s not actually scary, but it has a horror related theme which is really what you’re going for more than something too scary.
• Dead of Winter, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Marrying Mr Darcy (with Zombie expansion) and Deranged – There are some lighter and some longer games in here, but it gives you a variety of options. And three of them handle a larger group of players.
• Deception: Murder in Hong Kong – Sure it’s not really a horror game but it’s about a murder which has a Halloween feel to it. And it’s a nice bigger group game where the games don’t last too long, people can leave between them and it can wrap down the game night.

Sci-Fi

• King of Tokyo – So this could fall into the next category of games, but the games of King of Tokyo are fast and the Cyber Bunny is definitely sci-fi. Plus since the game is simple, chatting with people who arrive while you’re playing is easy.
• Xenoshyft: Onslaught, Alien Artifacts, Clank! In! Space!, Cry Havoc – All of these are bigger games, though some of them are more complex and drier to play. They give a good variety from area control, a 4x-ish card game, two deck builders, but one cooperative and one not.
• Not Alone or Lazer Ryderz – Now, Not Alone is for if you still have a larger group. But you could do Lazer Ryderz in teams as well which is just becasically the bike game from Tron. A some good goofy fun with that game. Not Alone gives you more of a game but still plays a big play count.

Those are just three examples of what you could do. And that is how I’d build it from my collection. I also like it when people bring games that gives even more variety as to what to play.

Have you themed a game night? What’s your favorite theme?

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***Disclaimer***
These rankings are the opinion of yours truly, and if you don’t like them, that’s okay. We all have different tastes in games and that is great. There are some games that I’ve only played as a demo, and I felt like I got enough of a feel to put them on the list, thanks GenCon for all the demos. These are living rankings so next year I’m sure that things will change, so I’ll probably be doing another one next year. Thanks to Board Game Geek for letting me enter/rate my collection and games I’ve played. Thanks to Pub Meeple for creating a tool that pulls in those games that I’ve rated and creating a ranking tool. Again, the numbers and names will be linked to Cool Stuff Inc and Amazon if you’re interested in the games.

30 – Star Wars: Imperial Assault
We’re back into a bigger and heavier game. In Star Wars: Imperial Assault, you can either skirmish two sides against each other, but the more fun way to play it, in my opinion, is to play through the missions. In the game, you can play through missions either as a one against all game where one person controls the Empire who are trying to hunt down the Rebels, or you play as no name Rebels who are trying to survive. You can play through different missions, like a Jedi finding a lightsaber, maybe, or more. Either way, if the players win or lose, the story progresses in some way, because the Empire’s objective isn’t always to just kill off the rebels. Or, you can use an app and basically play the same thing, but instead of it being a situation where one person is the empire, the app takes care of that and directs their activations and the players move them on the board using a set-up that lets them know what actions to take based on distance. The game has a lot of little pieces to it, but the game feels like Star Wars, and feels like you’re part of a big story. If you’re a Star Wars fan, it would be a good one that is worth checking out.

29 – Village Attacks
There are a lot of games where you play the villagers or heroes who are going out to defeat the monsters. But do you ever really think about those poor monsters? Maybe they are just trying to live their lives and the villagers are just in the way, do they really deserve to be attacked by these villagers with their cruel intentions with pitchforks and torches? The answer is probably yes, but in this tower defense style game, you play as the monsters who are fending off hordes of villagers who are trying to complete some objective or attack the heart of the monsters lair, which would of course cause the whole building to crumble, bringing doom to the monster and all those around. This is a fun miniature, dice combat, tower defense game. I got to play a special scenario made at GenCon, and then I found out that it wasn’t available, which was annoying, because I really enjoyed it, and the cooperative play is always a good thing. Thankfully, it is back on kickstarter, so the pack that I got for the game with that scenario and some other goodies won’t go to waste and I’ll eventually be able to play the game. If you like playing as the bad guys, this game does a good job with that, but also without it feels too grim.

28 – Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is one of those aesthetically pleasing games, not to say the others on this section of the list aren’t, but with Photosynthesis, it jumps off the table as being pretty. In the game, you are growing trees, collecting light points to help your trees going more and hoping that you’ve set stuff up correctly so that you will be able to harvest your trees when they are old in order to get points and then start the process again. The game is really an abstract puzzle as you figure out where to place your trees and how to grow them, but it does have some thematic things as well. The sun travels around the forest, so that at some points in time, certain spots will get sunlight and spots won’t. That part is cool, and how you tell if an area doesn’t get sunlight is if there is a shadow being cast on it, which you can tell by where the sun is, and how tall various trees are on the board. This game can actually be a little bit mean, because you are probably going to be blocking other peoples trees at times from the sun and they doing that to your trees, so it’s possible to get no sun points if you are unlucky. But the game itself doesn’t feel that mean, because the theme of growing trees isn’t that confrontational. I really have enjoyed playing this game. I think that all the pieces look great and the concept of it works really well and even manages to feel thematic.

27 – Letter Jam
Letter Jam, when I saw it played, was going to be a game that I loved. I knew it. It’s a word game and a puzzle as you are getting clues about what letters you might have and trying to guess them as time goes on to figure out the word that you have. So I demoed it at GenCon, and the experience was bad. It was the first day at GenCon, one of the other people demoing didn’t want to be there, the person running the demo didn’t want to be there, and one of the people, because of the person running the demo didn’t realize the game was cooperative until half way through. So that was a poor experience, but then I tried it again with a different person running the demo, and it was a ton of fun to sit down and play the game, I was just sad that they were sold out at that point. In Letter Jam, you have a word made of between 4 and 6 letter cards (I believe), that are face down on the table. At the start of the game, everyone puts one upright away from themselves, and then people give clues as to what the letters are. So to do that, you spell out a word using tokens that are placed in front of peoples letters. But, of course, you can’t see your letter, only the other players, so you might get the word “F*IGHT”. If you got that word, and your letter is the asterisk, you can guess that your letter is probably an “L” or an “R”. Once you think you know what your letter is, you can flip it down and go to your next letter trying to figure out your word. But everyone is trying to do that, so everyone has to give clues. The game is a ton of fun, plays quickly, and I really love word puzzles.

26 – Hats
Another GenCon release, this one I did pick up. I wrote a TableTopTake on it a while ago. This is an Alice in Wonderland themed game that is a bit trippy, which is something that I am always looking for. In the game you are at the Madd Hatter’s tea party, and you are trying to get the best scoring collection of hats. To do that, you are playing down a hat from your hand and putting it in place of a hat on the Madd Hatter’s table. The trick is, to replace a hat, you need to either have a matching color or a higher number. And the scoring of the game is interesting as well. You only score the colors of hats on the Madd Hatter’s table, and it’s possible that certain colors won’t end up on the table at the end of the game. So the work that you did collecting them might be worth nothing if you can’t hold back a card so that you can make sure that color is being scored at the end of the game. The other trick to the game is that the cards in your hand are cards you might not use for scoring for yourself, in fact, your opponent(s) might get all of them. So how do you manipulate what is in your hand to end up with the scoring that you want and to use what is on the table to help drive your strategy. I feel like every game of this is different and a really good puzzle.

25 – Sword & Sorcery
And after a small game in Hats, we have Sword & Sorcery, a massive dungeon crawler with characters with cool powers who are heroes of old and brought from the past in order to stop something that is horrible that is happening now. There’s a lot going on in the game, and you can find information about that in my TableTopTakes post. But it’s a dungeon crawl game where you are rolling dice to fight monsters, looking for soul gems to level up your characters or to bring them back if they turn into ghosts. The game has a book of secrets as well that helps the story unfold without making it linear in each scenario because you have different things that you can do. And I’m not sure, maybe some of the choices you make in the earlier games can influence the future, we finally had something that felt like it might do that, or possible two things in this past scenario. The game, I wouldn’t say, is extremely difficult, or with a little bit of luck in terms of what treasure you get, it can make it easier. We’ve also done a good job rolling dice, so getting lucky, that has made them easier, but it’s still a lot of fun to play through the game, think about combat and go through the scenarios. If you want a big dungeon crawl where you are chucking dice, this one is good,.

24 – Small World
Small World, as I normally put it, is Risk, but fun. In Small World, you are trying to control areas with your fantasy race, collect coins, and at the end of the game, have the most coins. But, Small World is a ton of silly fun. In it, you are picking from various fantasy races, like Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Tritons, etc. and they are paired up with a power. So you might have something like Seafaring Elves or maybe you have Wealthy Dwarves or Flying Giants. These combos change up every time, which makes the game really diverse. You place your race tokens on the board taking over territories and once you’ve expanded or been attacked enough that you can’t go any further, you put them into decline and then pick a new race. The game is good silly fun, because, unlike Risk, if you get wiped off the board, you can always come back in. And if people are attacking you, you can put your race into decline and then come in with a new strong race and attack the people who attacked you, and that’s going to happen in every game. It’s fun to figure out all the different combos and which one might be the best from those available. This is another good gateway game and a gateway game for people who like Risk but maybe find it too long or too mean.

23 – Criss Cross
The smallest game on the list, Criss Cross is a little roll and write. However, it is one of my favorite roll and write games. In Criss Cross you are placing different shapes onto a five by five grid based off of what comes up on the dice. There are two tricks to this game. The first being that you are scoring symbols that are next to each other in both the columns and the rows. So if you pay too much attention to the columns, you won’t score well in the rows or vice-a-verse. The other thing is that when the dice are rolled, and everyone uses the same die rolls, you have to place the two symbols next to each other. So you might end up with two symbols that work perfectly or you might end up with one symbol that you really want and one that you really don’t. So you have to figure out where to put them to give you the most scoring chances and also make sure that you don’t accidentally end up with a space by itself, because if you do that, on the last roll, you won’t be able to place the dice symbols since they need to be next to each other. The game goes by really quickly and I rarely play less than two games in a single sitting. I would say that this game is a bit tricky too teach, because you can place the dice symbols anywhere, but the two symbols need to be next to each other, and people either think that you have to always put the symbols next to another symbol you’ve written, making their game harder, or they try and split up the dice, or they forget that symbols score when they are next too each other. It’s not a complicated game once you get it down, teaching this simple game, for some reason, is just tricky.

22 – Just One
This should be the highest party game on my list, and the newest party game on my list. In Just One, it’s cooperative and you are all working together but separately to get the guesser to guess their one word answer. Maybe they picked, unknown to them, the word “Emergency”. All the players, separately, have to write down a one word clue. So everyone does that and then, without the guesser looking, the players compare their clues, and any of them that are duplicated are hidden, so say, for “Emergency” that two people wrote down “Hospital”, the guesser won’t see either clue of “Hospital” and will be left with whatever other clues might have been given. The game plays fast, but it’s a fun challenge. in many ways, it has a bit of a Scattergories feel where you are trying to be clever with your clue, but not too clever so that no one can guess the word from it, or too clever that you match up with someone else with went that clever route. And you don’t want it so that, in the case of the word “Emergency” that no one puts down the helpful clue of “Hospital”. It leads to some great moments where people guess a word based off of way fewer clues than you would think that they could. I remember the first time that we played it, a friend guessed the the word “Karate” based only off of the clues “Discipline” and “Style”. Those moments make this game work well, and with the limit set on how long the game is, 13 word cards total, it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

21 – Ice Cool
I had Ice Cool 2 lower on the list, but Ice Cool is almost a top 20 game for me, and I would play it anytime. I love how silly this game as you are flicking around penguins trying to either catch those silly penguins who are skipping class or the class skipping penguins trying to get their fish snacks. I’m waiting until my son is old enough to play this, probably 3 years from now, where we can just flick the penguins around and have fun with it. But the game is also a blast with adults. I’ve had it out at several board game nights and it’s always a success. I love that you can now combine it with Ice Cool 2 and play a massive eight player game. Since I’ve talked about this before I don’t have as much to say, but if you want a game that is just a lot of silly fun, Ice Cool is amazing for that, and the fact that you can get the penguins to jump over walls, if you do it right, or you can put spin on them and get them to go through multiple doors or a spin towards a penguin who is skipping class who thought they were safe, it’s just a blast. I know this game won’t work for more serious gamers, but if you have a group that is up for a fun time, I highly highly recommend this game.

I get to play one of these games tonight as my bi-weekly Sword & Sorcery game will happen. I’m excited to get it to the table, and now I want to play some of these games again. Maybe I can make a way to work them into the next board game night coming up in a few weeks. I really love all of these games and hopefully you can find some on here that you want to try as well.

Thank you for keeping up with this list with me. Let me know in the comments below if there any of these games that you love or that you really want to try.

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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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I actually went in there looking for a roll and write game that would accommodate a large number of players. But they didn’t have any, and I saw Just One on the shelf. It’s a game that I’ve been interested in, because it’s a cooperative party game. We got it to the table two times for that game night, so we clearly liked it.

Just One, while being a party game, does a few things differently. It follows the pretty normal trope for party games where there is a word and players are trying to guess the word. However, in this game, the person who is it picks a number, one to five, and on their card that is the word that they are trying to guess. The other players can see the word and must write down one word clues on their boards. But if any of those one word clues are duplicates, the person guessing can’t see that clue. For example, we had the word “Karate”. Two people wrote down the word “Kid” and the other two people playing wrote down “Discipline” and “Style”. We got lucky on that one, and the person guessed “Karate” but was definitely a tricky one when getting words eliminated.

The big reason for picking this game up was because we needed more games that can go to higher player counts. Technically the game is 3 to 7 players, because that’s how many player boards there are, but I think you could go higher than that. You’re going to have more clues that can’t be shown at a higher player count, so I don’t think that it should make it too much easier. While I like games like Scattergories, Sushi Go!, Wits & Wagers, Tsuro, and Stipulations, there is only so many times that you can play them. Basically, at times, how the games work, just kinds of runs their course, so it’s nice to add in some more starter games for a night to the collection.

So clearly I like this game. There are a couple of reasons that I like this game. The first being that it is cooperative. It’s rare to find a cooperative party game like Just One. Most party games are a race to points based off of guessing or team based. That’s fine, but it’s nice to have a game that you feel the tension for, but isn’t cut throat or won’t end up with one person falling so far behind, like you can in most other party games.

I also like it because while it is a word guessing game, it makes it simple. Something like Balderdash, you are writing definitions to words, or what Acronyms mean, you have to think more about it. In Stipulations, which I love, you have to write a complete Stipulation and come up with that weird, funny, or good stipulation by yourself. Here, it’s simpler, because you’re coming up with just a single word. Sure you have to think about how clever you want to go, or try and guess what one word other people might be writing down, but it’s still only a single word.

I think where this game will really shine is that kicking off a board game night or with people who don’t like to play games as much. This is the sort of party game that most everyone is going to be able to understand and play. There is a bit of reading, and there are a few words on the cards that are tricky. So I would say that is one downside to the game, there are going to be some words on cards that people don’t know. And I think, I’d preface the game by saying, if someone picks a word that someone doesn’t know, and this is by blind luck, the person picking the number can be asked to pick again.

Overall, definitely a fun game. Definitely a game that will go into that party game rotation. Was one of the highlights of gaming that night, though I did play another new game that was an interesting twist on push your luck dice games, what game was that, you’ll have to see. Just One is a game that seems like it should work in most any group, and I’d definitely recommend going and finding it online or at your FLGS.

Overall Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: A

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Part 1

Part 2

Zombie Dice is one of the simplest games on the list, but it works well because you can be gaming while you are talking. There’s every little involvement by people in the game when it’s not your turn and that works out just fine. Even when it is your turn you don’t have to pay that much attention as you are just grabbing dice, rolling them, and then deciding when to stop and cash your brains in. It’s a simple die rolling game of push your luck where you are trying to be the first player to 13 or 15 or whatever number people pick, by collecting brains, because that’s what zombies do. But you got to be careful, because if you get shot three times,  you don’t cash any brains for the round. Once someone has passed the end game total, then everyone has one turn to try and beat them. It’s very much Farkle like, but simpler and less math.

Tsuro is another game that falls into the simple and fast games. You can plan out your turn in advance, but normally that’s a pretty simple process. Tsuro, the game of the path, is about staying on the board the longest and can play up to eight people. You play a tile in front of your pawn and move it each round and you can only use the tiles you have in your hand. It’s not a highly interactive game between players until later in the game when you have to put your pawns fate into someone else hands. A nice thing about this game too is that you have a limited number of tiles, so if you have two people or if you have eight people, the game is going to take basically the same length. Just with more people the game is more interactive earlier on in the game. It’s also a game where when you get knocked out, you know you aren’t going to be sitting there long. This can be an issue with some of the social deduction games that eliminate players.

We Didn’t Playtest This At All! Legacy also falls into the category of very simple games. It’s a draw a card play a card game and be the last one standing. There are several versions of this game, but I prefer the legacy version. It adds to fun of the game which is extremely simple otherwise. We just got rid of our non-legacy version, so just We Didn’t Playtest This At All!, because it’s a little too simple.  However, I do think for some groups there is a good spot for this on their shelves. It’s a good game for when people are showing up, because a single game lasts only a few minutes before everyone is eliminated. It’s also a goofy game, so it’s a good ice breaking game as well for people to interact a little bit.

Sushi Go! Party falls into a different category of game with the card drafting mechanic and is a bit more complex. It also lasts longer than most of the others that I’ve mentioned in social deduction and in this post (the party games can last a long time if you want). As players you are drafting a card in three rounds, each round is a full hand of cards, and then passing the cards to the next person. It’s a fun game with a lot of variability in it if you have the party edition. I highly recommend that. It’s also a game that is a bit thinkier, and people can form strategies, but because the artwork is very cute, people who haven’t gotten all the strategy with a particular set of scoring food items will still enjoy it because of the artwork. It’s a game that is quite aesthetically pleasing, and for all the cards and options you get for the game, it’s quite cheap as well. This is the first game where I’d say there’s less luck involved with it than a lot of others.

Say Bye to the Villains is one of my favorite resent purchase games that I think works well on this list. It has a maximum of eight players and is a cooperative game. You play a group of samurai who all have their own powers trying to defeat a bunch of villains. You have ten days per character to get your samurai ready to fight. You can do this by increasing your stats, speed, health, and power, or by finding out information on the villains. It’s a very tricky game to win, I think in three games I haven’t won, though it’s been close a couple of times. But it’s cooperative, so even if one person finishes up their days sooner, they can still be part of the strategizing. This game plays as a puzzle but you never know if you’ve cracked it, because you don’t know if you have all the information that you need, which inevitably you won’t.

Magic Maze and Captain Sonar are two games that fall into the same category in some ways. They are both real time games that can handle a large number of players. I’m not sure what the max is for Magic Maze, but Captain Sonar can play eight, and I think Magic Maze is similar. In Magic Maze you, as a group, are trying to get an adventuring party through a mall and out after they have stolen the adventuring goods that they need. Yes, it’s actually that and actually that silly. Each player has a specific action or two that they can do which is moving the adventurer meeples (small wooden pieces representing the characters) on the board. So someone can only move them north, someone can only move them east, and so on. There is some overlap on things, but not that much. It’s a timed game and everyone is in there, trying to work together to get them on the gear and  then get them out.

Captain Sonar is also real time, though can be done turn by turn, where there are two teams out trying to sink the others submarine. The captains are barking out orders, the first mate is trying to keep the systems prepped and ready to go, the engineer is trying to keep systems in working order, and the radar operator is listening to the opposing teams captain trying to figure out where they are on the board. This game is stressful and hectic, as is Magic Maze, but a ton of fun. There’s some strategy that can be employed and there’s some luck that goes into it as well. There’s also an expansion for this game, but I don’t know what it adds.

Both of these games are a lot of fun as they get the blood pumping for people, however, because they are stressful for some people, you have to know your group. In the case of Captain Sonar, there is also fairly high lower bound limit as while the Captain and First Mates jobs can be combined, you are going to want to have at least six people to really get the full experience of the game without it becoming too confusing. There’s also the issue with these two games that they are a bit more complex than some of the others on the list. They have good themes for the games so good ways to explain what is going on without it seeming like too much, but be careful not to over explain it.

This isn’t a comprehensive list of all the games that you could play with larger groups and each group is going to have their own sweet spot for games. Try and branch out and try a number of these games and see what works the best for your group. With these games it also helps keep you from getting stale. And if you want to play something heavier, like I said before, split into smaller groups, but a lot of these games are great for kicking off a game night before jumping into heavier games, or closing down a game night as people slowly leave.

One game or type of game you’ll see that I left off of the list is Escape Room Games. While these games can technically have an infinite number of players, they say that six is the max. I would say that is a pretty good maximum otherwise people won’t be able to see the cards being played. Id’ recommend splitting into groups if you have more than six for games like Unlock and Exit.

What are some larger player count games that I haven’t mentioned that you enjoy?

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