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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Let’s get to the games:

Marvel United – 5 Plays

Marvel United only got played one evening. But we played it a lot because the game is so fast to play. It’s great to pull out whatever hero you want, whatever villain you want and just get going on the game. And it was fun to play around with other villains and heroes. The different villains in particular really change up the game.

But one really nice thing that I’ve found about this game is that I can get it to the table in a minute. Finding a villain figure and their cards, and then heroes and their cards is so fast, and there’s so little set-up for the game. It is extremely accessible and I’m excited to get it back to the table, though, thus far in November, I haven’t.

Werewords – 4 Plays

Werewords is a word based social deduction game. It’s basically playing twenty questions, but you can ask more, with someone being a traitor, or werewolf. I wrote up my thoughts on the game here. For me it was an okay game. I actually want to sell it, either to a friend or my FLGS (friendly local game store) because I don’t see pulling it off the shelf more.

Yes, it has more interesting going on than a game like Secret Hitler, The Resistance, and One Night Ultimate Werewolf. But it is still kind of a guessing game based off of no real information, in the end. And for me, that doesn’t work all that well. I want something with more meat to it, like Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, if I’m going to play a social deduction game.

Hanamikoji – 3 Plays

There is a new version of Hanamikoji on Kickstarter right now that I’m backing. It seems to add in some level of area control, more so than the base game has. And there are mini expansion for base Hanamikoji, which I’m tempted to get as well.

This is an abstract game about winning the favor of Geisha. The game plays so fast and only at two players that it’s one I need to break out more often. It’s a good filler to either end an evening or start and evening. And I have even brought it into work because it’s a nice lunch break game.

Tainted Grail – 2 Plays

Less plays of Tainted Grail than normal. We finished up Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon campaign, so we took a week off to just play other gamers. That is where five plays of Marvel United came from and some plays of other games as well. But we’re back to playing Tainted Grail, this time playing the Last Knight campaign.

This one we’re doing in story mode again, and honestly, I think this one needs to be played in story mode. I’ll write about it as a whole later after we get a few more plays of the game with what the new stuff is. And, the new stuff in the game is interesting. It is extremely challenging but again the writing is good and the story is good.

The Night Cage – 2 Plays

Of course had to play The Night Cage around Halloween. This is a cooperative game where you are going through a labyrinth but you can’t see much. Only the spots around you and as you lose site of spots they drop off the map and it twists and changes.

This game is fairly abstract, but it does create a good sense of tension. You carry candles which illuminate the board around you. That can go out and then you are moving around blind. But also all the tiles sit in a candle holder so as you remove tiles it looks as though the candle is burning down. The tension of it burning down works really well.

Dice Throne – 2 Plays

Dice Throne got a couple plays in. One king of the hill and one two player. The more I play King of the Hill style the more I enjoy it that way. I know I talk about Dice Throne quite often but mainly in the two player context. In King of the Hill, you get a benefit, an extra card, for attacking the player with the most health. It’s a nice twist and a good way to keep players from ganging up on a single player and knocking them out.

Hats – 2 Plays

Another game that hadn’t hit the table in a long time. Hats is an abstract game that I prefer at two players. It can play more, but with more players it becomes way more chaotic. With two players you can plan and push for things to go your way. The game play is a lot of fun for it, and it’s one that is tricky to wrap your head around. Especially the idea of the cards you play down influence what scores but aren’t the cards that you score.

Cross Clues – 2 Plays

This party game only had been played on Zoom before. Playing Cross Clues in person is a lot of fun. You are trying to come up with a one word clue to get people to guess the intersection of two words. It could be something like cat and taco, what word would link those two.

When playing with a big group, you only get one coordinate card. That means that sometimes you are stuck without giving a clue for a while. But the game moves quickly enough that you never feel like you are holding up the game. And sometimes you need something else, another clue to be given, before you can give one as well. It’s a newer party game, but one I highly recommend.

Clank! In! Space! – 1 Play

I busted out Clank! In! Space! again, this time with an expansion. And I have to say, the expansion we played with is fun. The black cubes that you pull now matter in the expansion. Basically it is a mission that can happen which makes your life harder as the game goes on. So, a game where you can already die and have zero points at the end of it becomes even tougher. But it is still a good game with that expansion and it’s a nice twist.

Tiny Towns – 1 Play

First game, not of Tiny Towns, but of Tiny Towns with more than two players. Two player Tiny Towns sometimes ends up with one player controlling everything. With three players, it makes the game more random but in a good way. Players diversify what they do more in a three player game which is good. It means that there are more things you can get stuck on, but also more interesting decisions to make. I still need to play with expansions.

Letter Jam – 1 Play

Another game that sat on the shelf for a long time. I love Letter Jam. It’s a cooperative word game that uses some of the mechanics of Hanabi. You can’t see your cards. But everyone else can. And you give clues that are words putting a marker in front of each letter that makes up the word. So if you did FROM, and my letter was the M, I’d see the word FRO* and need to figure out my letter.

The number of clues is limited. So you need to be smart about how you give them. And everyone needs to figure out their letters and words, so one person can’t give all the clues. The game works really well and doesn’t require a massive vocabulary or knowledge of how to game the game like a lot of word games do.

Calico – 1 Play

I played Calico with my wife and parents, and we played it in the simple version. That means that instead of having quilt blocks that determine any scoring, you only score buttons and cats. To me, it made the game too simple. But it is a solid way to learn the game. The basic concept of matching colors and patterns isn’t that hard to get. But adding in the scoring from quilt tiles adds a lot to think about.

Zombie Dice – 1 Play

Zombie Dice makes a great filler for a Halloween game night. Well, it was the October game night, but I did horror themed. That is why it came off the shelf. Zombie Dice is a basic push your luck dice game. And if things go poorly. people push too far, it can take way too long. But it is fun to pull of the shelf. And it is an easy game to teach and play. It is even easy to have people join part way through the game. I don’t own expansions for it, and I’m not sure I’d want to.

Yearly Gaming Stats

So, in October I added in 27 more plays. Slightly less than a play a day, but I was over that threshold already, so I am still on target. Currently, I am 98% of the way to completing the challenge, so a chance that even this month I finish it and then everything else is a bonus.

Now, because we are mid month, I do have plays on the list from November. But Orchard is still my most played game, up to 90 plays. And for all 356 plays that I have, there are 71 different games that I’ve played. Hitting 100 different games played would be great, but I doubt it will happen.

I have enjoyed this challenge a lot. I think that next year I will try it again, but also might put a focus on playing games in my collection that I haven’t played before. There are lots of games that need to get played on my shelf. Some are getting played, but I have 31 Kickstarters coming in and I’m sure more games than that, so a lot to get to the table.

Which of these games would you like to get played from my October plays?

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What Are Social Deduction Games?

Social Deduction games are games where you generally have two groups. One group is the “bad” group who are trying to complete some objective. Sabotage missions, kill the deputy, whatever it might be. The “good” group is trying to figure out who the “bad” group is and deal with them.

To expound on my issue, most games give you your rolls and then immediately, before anything else happens, you talk about who is good and bad. There is 0 information to go on, and unless someone is bad at lying. So, you spend a few minutes, do something that gives some information and repeat the process. But let’s stop on the negatives, what do I look for is a better question because I do have some I like.

What Do I Look For in a Social Deduction Game

1. Mechanics
2. Information
3. Theme

Mechanics

This might surprise some people to see the order of the list. When I do make these lists, I try and put the more important ones towards the front. And honestly, for social deduction, mechanics for me are very important. I talk about the blind guessing as a negative in the games. And with good mechanics, you don’t need to start out with that. It gives you some interesting things to think about. Some games give you a bunch to start with, and some games give you nothing, but having more than just guessing at the beginning is key for me.

Information

That first one ties into information. I don’t like games that just give you limited information. If in mafia Tony is killed and I know I’m not part of the mafia, that doesn’t help me narrow it down. It just means that Tony wasn’t. I want the information to be meaningful and to build over time. The longer a game or round goes, the more information I should have available to me. Not always making it easier but to at least make more informed decisions. Too many of these games provide double blind information which isn’t that useful.

Theme

Theme really does matter in these games too. Let’s just use an example for this one, spies trying to infiltrate and sabotage an evil corporation, cool theme. Avalon where some people are bad, way less cool. I love Arthurian legend games, Tainted Grail, but The Resistance Avalon is not nearly as good a theme as the regular Resistance has. Mechanics might be the same, but theme makes a difference.

Are All Criteria Equally Important?

For me, theme is probably the least important. If the game has good mechanics and information the theme matters a little bit less. Like I said, I really want more going on than just sitting around a table accusing people. If you give that to me in a package where it makes sense for mafia, monsters, or whatever it might be, I’m probably going to be fine with the theme.

Let’s Do An Example

So we’re going to go with one that I do like in Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. But let’s see why and how it meets my criteria.

Mechanics

The main mechanic of the game actually is just for one player, the forensic scientist. There has been a murder, as the name would suggest. And one player, the forensic scientist is sending up reports to help the detectives figure out the correct murder weapon and piece of evidence. They, however, are not allowed to speak, they just give out a clue that might be a location from a list of locations or the age of the victim.

Information

The clue giving works because with every new report the players get new information. However, the information isn’t always going to be ideal. The age of the victim, well, if they were killed with a school supply, that might help us. But it also might not be useful. And the forensic scientist doesn’t get to pick out which reports they send up, that is already determined. Plus the murder (and possibly accomplice) will use that information to try and throw all the investigators onto other weapons and evidence as they go. And everyone is doing that as more information comes out.

Theme

Solving a murder is a fun theme. Generally, though, I like that theme in deduction. Here it works well in social deduction because, well, there is an element of deduction worked into this as well. I don’t know that the theme is amazingly tied to the mechanics, but it’s one that sets up a fun scenario.

Maybe what I like is social deduction games that have a bit of deduction to them as well. But this one is really somewhat social as you try and read who might be lying. If people are directing away from a person what that might mean. So the social aspect around the table is important.

Will This Work For You?

Probably not. Why, because most people who really like social deduction games don’t care that the game aspect might be lacking slightly. They are there for the banter around the table. I don’t mind the banter around the table, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong has some amazing banter. I just want the banter to mean something. So, if you are like me where you don’t like most social deduction games, maybe checkout Deception: Murder in Hong Kong or Grimm Masquerade. But for a lot of gamers, things like The Resistance and Werewolf, and One Night Ultimate Vampire are going to be great games.

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The List

This list was a little bit tricky to put together. I think I have generally valid reasons for not liking these games, though some more than others. Or often, I know that they are solid games but they just aren’t the game for me. I did leave a few off the list that I feel like I didn’t give a fair shake to, or something like Cards Against Humanity which I liked as a fine game. It just has a very limited life to it.

1. Concept
2. Codenames
3. Dominion
4. Forbidden Island
5. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
6. Red Dragon Inn
7. The Resistance: Avalon
8. Spot It!
9. Tsuro of the Seas
10. Dr Eureka

I’m sure that I have some on that list that you really like. Dominion, Codenames, The Resistance: Avalon, Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game, and Concept, I know people like those a lot. And, I think I do have some valid reason for them, though you likely will disagree with them.

The Beer

The Key Lime Supreme from Surly Brewing in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is a really enjoyable beer. It’s what I’d call crushable. I can get through three or four of those pretty quickly if I wanted to. They are especially good for a hot day. It also isn’t too tart, it’s more like drinking a nice tart lemonade than something like Duchesse where it has almost more of a vinegar flavor to it.

Upcoming Streams

So, I will try and get all of these onto the calendar so you know what is coming up. But I want to, I think next Monday, do the follow-up Top 10 to this past one. 10 Games that I like that I’m probably wrong about.

Wednesday, 8 PM Central, I, of course am playing more Aeon’s End Legacy. I’m excited to dive into the next chapter of that game.

And I talk at the end of the video of wanting to do a Pub Meeple Ranking Stream. The idea for this would be to stream, probably on a weekend, and just chat with people while I go through and do my Pub Meeple rankings for my played board games. To be determined when this would happen, probably a Sunday evening would be my guess.

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What Do My Ratings Mean

The baseline that we should get started with is looking at what the numbers means. Obviously a 10 is the best and a 1 is the worst. However, it is more nuanced than that. I do use the half point scale as well. So right now I have everything from 10’s to 1’s, but no 0.5’s in there.

A 10 is a game that is as close as perfect for me as you can get. And I say for me, some board games are objectively good and some are objectively bad, but when rating games, so much as to do with taste. So a 10 is a game that is as close to perfect for me as you can get.

A 9 is a game that I love, and I’d always want to play it. 8 is a great game for me and I’d likely not say no to playin that game. 7, I like and I’d play, but I won’t seek it out. 6 is a decent game but I probably am not that interested in playing it often. 5 is okay and I’d play it if people want to. 4, I’ll try and recommend another game to play. 3, I don’t want to play it. 2, I actively don’t like the game. 1, I wouldn’t play that game again ever.

The Breakdown

10’s –

I have 12 games that I rate a 10. That is 4% of the games that I’ve played and rated. I’m sure that I’ve missed a few games, but likely not tens. There is also a wide variety of games in there, I have a massive dungeon crawler with Gloomhaven and then I also have a dexterity game with Ice Cool. But 67% of the games really immerse you in the story and world of the game, which I think will be a trend for these high spots.

9.5’s –

21 fall into the 9.5 category, this 7% of the game that I’ve played. We again stick with a lot of story with games like TIME Stories and Arkham Horror: The Card Game. We also get some lighter games like Sushi Go Party and The Lost Expedition and our first party game with Just One in this category.

9’s –

38 games fall into the 9’s, all the way up at 13%. I wonder if this might be one of the higher percentile groups out there. This is where we start to hit a lot of roll and writes with games like Clever Hoch Drei, Doppelt so Clever, and more. We also get a lot of games that aren’t as story driven anymore. More games like Letter Jam and Super Fantasy Brawl that give you more of a classic board game experience. We also get A Gentle Rain in this section.

8.5’s –

16 out of 283 are rated as 8.5’s. That is about 6% of my rated games. The trend holds pretty steady from the 9’s with a lot more of the classic board game experience. Another party game with Wits & Wagers makes the list. And we have a new game that I just played recently a few times with Merchant’s Cove.

8’s –

We likely have it the big number here, 50 games that are 8’s, which is 18% of my collection. So as you add up the percentages, keep in mind I am rounding up or down so it might not equal 100% in the end. But I feel like in the 8’s we get a number of games that are in that lighter category, more filler games. Things like Skull and Fruit Picking are easier to play and teach than a lot games earlier.

7.5’s –

At 20 games in the 7.5’s, we are at 7% of the collection again. While other sections have had games that were previously owned, with the 7’5’s, I definitely noticed a few more. Machi Koro, Winter Tale, Krosmaster: Arena and at least one more were in my collection and have left. It’s not because they are bad games, but I have other games that do it better. And with Krosmaster: Arena, I got rid of that before Super Fantasy Brawl, but I just didn’t have anyone to play it with.

7’s –

Sitting at 12% with 34 games out of 283, we again see a number of previously owned games. But we also see games that I grew up playing. Set, Dutch Blitz, and Scrabble all make it into this category as well as the party game Scattergories. I obviously have some level of nostalgia with these games, but at the same time, I’d still play them again right now.

6.5’s –

13 games in this number, for 5%. I think this is where we’ll start to see the numbers dropping off in terms of number of games rated in the area. It is also a lot of games that I don’t own but have played in this area. I guess that means that I buy games that I like a lot. Donner Dinner Party and Flapjacks and Sasquatches are two that I’d definitely play again, but I have games that I like better that do something similar, especially with Donner Dinner Party.

6’s –

A tick up here with 24 games which is 8%. Most of the time the whole numbers seem to have more than a half numbers ,I guess. I own a few games in this section, though some of that is nostalgia, or with a game like Splendor, it’s because I know other people who like it a lot. I probably won’t ever pull Splendor off the shelf to play myself, but I know my wife likes it, so I won’t remove it from the collection.

5.5’s –

5 games make up the 5.5’s which is just barely 2%. We are reaching the social deduction game area, I feel in the 5.5’s, and 5’s. Where I would play them again, but I won’t seek them out. They tend to be the very simple social deduction games like Secret Hitler, While that game does have a little double blind fun going on with it, the theme doesn’t interest me, and it’s just a fine game.

5’s –

Down in the 5’s we have 21 games at a whopping 7% again. Again more social deduction games like The Resistance and One Night Ultimate Vampire. These two really do what I don’t like about a lot of social deduction games, they don’t give you anything go on right away or in general much to go on at all. We also have all of Red Dragon Inn, a fun game but often is played with too many people. I think 4 is about my max for that game, maybe 5.

4.5’s –

1 out of 283 which is 0% for those keeping track at home. And it’s Seafall. I feel like it’s fair that Seafall falls into this spot by itself. It is a game that I want to like more, it is a game I can see the potential of it. It just ends up being a flop. The story doesn’t play out as it should, it is a just a bit too random, and the games are way too long. And the more you play the longer the games get. Yet, it’s just on that cusp of I’d play it again without an AP players.

4’s –

9 games or 3% of what I’ve played. This is where we get into a lot more of a mass market or mass market adjacent games. Not that there haven’t been some before, but we have stuff like Guesstures, Forbidden Island and Dominion. Yes, I have Dominion as a 4. It is a game that I’d play if you twisted my arm, but it is also a game that if you know the game extremely well you will win, and it’s not interesting enough for me to know it that well.

3’s –

You might be wondering where my 3.5’s are, the answer is there were none. Instead we have 10 3’s. That is 4% of what I’ve played. Again a lot of mass market games, and a lot of games I grew up with. This goes back to growing as a gamer, stuff like Malarky and Pit had their place getting me into the hobby, but I don’t need to go back to them.

2’s –

3 games or 1%. Monopoly falls into this group. It isn’t the worst of the worst, but it is very bad. Another super popular or at least well sold game, Exploding Kittens lands here as well.

1’s –

Finally, I have 5 1’s, or 2%. I really don’t like these games, and most people won’t like most of them. The two that will probably surprise people are Cards Against Humanity and Concept. Cards Against Humanity at one point in time I would have rated higher, but now I consider it a worse version of Apples to Apples because the jokes are created for you and often not funny. Concept is one that I know a lot of people like. It just didn’t work for me. It has this group feel to the game, but ends up just being boring.

Alright, there we have it, all the games in my collection rated. What do you think should be rated better? Or what do you think that I should rate lower?

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Draftosaurus: Marina
Draftosaurus: Aerial Show

You can see my full thoughts on it here, but let’s talk a little bit about how it works here. Draftosaurus has you drafting dinosaurs from a handful of meeples. You then place them into pends to score points in certain ways. Some might need as many dinosaurs of the same type as possible. Others want you playing down pairs of dinosaurs or unique dinosaurs into the pen. You are only limited in where to place the dinosaur you pick by area of the map that the dice is rolled for. Unless, you roll the die, then you can place it anywhere.

Draftosaurus is a really fun drafting game. I like that it’s not card drafting. That is extremely common in board games like Sushi Go Party! and Seven Wonders. Draftosaurus gives it more of a tactile feel because the dinosaur meeples are great. The Aerial Show and Marina add on small boards and new dinosaurs that you can play with. it creates more spots to place dinos and just more variety to the game. I like that Draftosaurus already has a double sided board but more things will be lots of fun.

Werewords

This is a social deduction style of game. I don’t love most social deduction games. They basically turn into people talking until the group decides on person is lying based off of little to no information. At least for games like The Resistance and One Night Ultimate Werewolf. However, I really love Deception: Murder in Hong Kong because it has more things going on and gives you something to work off of.

Werewords is a word guessing game, basically 20 questions, and the goal is to come up with the word, but one person can be asking bad or misleading questions if they are the werewolf. I forget all the details of how the werewolf can win, I think by keeping people off track with questions for a certain amount of time. And the rest can win by guessing the word or figuring out who the werewolf is.

You can only ask yes or no questions and the person who is “it” gives out tokens for the answer, So you can see who has asked more questions that lead down the right path maybe or the wrong path to help figure out the werewolf. Granted, it is possible that the person answering the questions is the werewolf, in which case they can lie in their answers. But make it too obvious they are doing that, the rest of the people guess they are the werewolf.

This just feels like more of a game than a lot of social deduction games, so I’m excited to give it a try coming up here soon. And I want to see if it scratches that same game and social deduction that I get from Deception: Murder in Hong Kong as well.

Which of these two looks the most interesting to you?

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There are two different types of deduction games, the first is based off of the game Clue, where you are trying to figure out who-done-it. It isn’t a particular person in the group, it is a part of the game that there is some character that has done something. You are then using logic and reasoning to determine and guess a result. This can be done in a number of different ways, it might be that you are using reasoning while looking at a card. Or it could be trying to acquire information that other people know as well. These games typically end when someone figures out the solution or everyone gets it wrong.

The other type is social deduction. Social deduction is where you are trying to find out about which players at the table are the “bad guys”. These games normally have some way for both sides to win. These sorts of games are based off of Mafia or Werewolf where some people are normal citizens who are trying to figure out who the Mafia or Werewolves are before all the normal citizens are killed. This sort of game originally had a moderator who would run the game as you’d have to close your eyes and have secret information as to who was going to be killed. This has been built up over time for additional difficulty and intrigue to the game versus primarily being a conversation around the table.

The first type is much more pure deduction because all the information you’d need to know is available. With social deduction because the players are the ones who are lying, or telling the truth, about their role, the information is going to be less perfect as you try and read the people in the room and determine who is on what team and who is trying to cause the group as a whole to lose. So depending on what your style is, more social or logical, that’ll help determine which one is better for you.

So, let’s talk about some of the games that fit into these genres.

Gateway Game:

The Resistance – In this game it’s a simple social deduction where you are going on missions. However, depending on the numbers of players, some of the players are spies from the evil organization who is trying to stop the resistance. If they go on a mission, they can cause it to fail. But if they aren’t careful how they do it, they can reveal who they are. And if they reveal who they are, or people at the table guess who they are, they won’t get sent on anymore missions, because no one trusts them, and then it’ll make it harder for the spies to be able to fail missions. So it’s a balancing act for the spies to fail missions covertly so it’s harder for it to be pin pointed to them. The game plays fast, and you can put some theme into what is basically voting on a team and then team doing the mission if you want. The game scales well as well and is enjoyable.

Medium Weight:

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong – This builds and I would say is kind of between the two games on my list. While Resistance is completely about the interactions and being able to guess and read the other players, this game still has hidden roles, one person is a murder and one is a witness, and you might have an accomplice and everyone else is investigators who are trying to solve a murder. To do that, the game runner, who has the role of the forensic scientist, is sending up reports. These reports are will give the investigators clues, like, the murder took place at a hospital, or the murder victim was old, things like that. And the investigators are trying to piece together these reports in such a way that they can figure out which of the murder weapons and clues left that the scene, in front of each player, make sense for the murder. The murder and the accomplice are trying to deflect or suggest things that keep suspicion off of themselves. While the witness is trying to quietly keep people on track, because if the murder is caught, the murder and accomplice still have a chance to take out the witness which then still gives them the win. This game has more moving parts to it, and while the Resistance builds with accusing people, from the start of the game, people are trying to puzzle out what it might be from the first report that is sent up. Plus, figuring out who the murder is, you might have it narrowed down, but you still have to get the combination right of weapon and clue.

Heavy Weight:

Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game – Now, this one is the first of the deduction Clue style games where the information is out there, it’s just if you can piece it together. This is a big box game that takes you through a series of cards, based off of how you as a group want to investigate and you are trying to get through five different cases. There are expansions that add more cases. You, and your fellow players, then will spend your time carefully investigating a case, talking to witnesses, digging through evidence, and going through the games online database. And the cases can be very different from working a cold case to finding evidence of people being framed, to a kidnapping. And they can do a whole lot more. I really love how this game blends the digital portion where you are using a database they’ve created for the game, looking up real events and history, as well reading the story off of the cards. There is so much to dig through, and in the end, you are answering the best that you can. And then the cases build off of each other as well, which makes it even more fun. It’s a bigger and heavier game and you won’t be able to solve the cases perfectly just because there isn’t enough time, but I highly recommend this if you’re looking for a meatier deduction game.

Do you like deduction games? Have you played Clue or games like Mafia? What are some of your favorite deduction games? There are a lot of good ones out there, and while I don’t love social deduction, I really love the more logical deduction games.

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The criteria that I’m looking at is the size of the game, the complexity of the game (though that matters less), and the components of the game. To a less extent I’m going to consider the length of the game. Sometimes you just want to play a quick game.

Cribbage – Might not be the game that you expect, but it’s a fun game and one that a number of people are familiar with. I think that helps get it to the table because people will at least recognize it. It also has the small footprint because you have the board, but beyond that, you are just using a deck of playing cards, so those are easy to replace if you spill a drink on them.

Skull – Now, with this game just don’t confuse them with your coaster, but in this game you have five cardboard discs and you are playing them face down, eventually someone is going to say how many they can flip over without hitting a skull. It’s a simple push your luck game and bluffing game, but it works well and while the discs are coaster size, that is it for the game, so each person just needs a little room in front of them.

Love Letter – I’d be tempted to sleeve this game as there are only a few cards in the game, and that will keep it in better shape longer, but this simple deduction game works well as the rules for the cards are on the card. Plus there are player aids. With this game you are just playing down cards trying to knock out your opponents so that your love letter gets to the princess. There are other variations on the game as well, such as Batman Love Letter if that’s more up your alley. This game has almost no footprint.

Welcome To… – This could probably be a number of roll and write or flip and write games. I just happen to have this one. Yes, you are writing on fairly thin pieces of paper, if you wanted to make it more hearty, you could laminate them, but because it’s just a sheet you use for a single game, if it gets damp, it isn’t that big a deal as long as it doesn’t get soaked. Welcome To… does have a few cards in it as well, but you could use the box lid to protect them by setting the cards in there. It’s also a relaxed game so that you can take your time playing it, and like Skull can do a high player count, in fact, this is the going to be the highest player count game.

Zombie Dice – All you’re doing is rolling dice, keeping track of brains you’ve gotten, and hoping to roll a few more brains. But if you roll enough shotgun blasts, you can’t bank your brains, so you have to decide when to push your luck. It just has dice, and those are going to be fine around liquid. I could have put something like Farkle here as well, but in Zombie Dice you’re just keeping track of the brains that you’ve collected, so you don’t need a score sheet.

Just One – This party style game does have cards, but you just use 13 of them (I believe), and you end up with them standing in a holder most of the time. Besides that, people are just writing clues on little white boards. It’s a fast game, it’s a simple game to teach, and it’s one that basically everyone will enjoy. It’s also good because you have time for conversation while playing it. I’m tempted to recommend Stipulations, but that one you need to be able to hear each other.

The Resistance – Final one is a social deduction game, The Resistance has you going on missions to bring down the corporations. This game doesn’t need a moderator, and you have a tiny little board in the middle plus a few cards. You just decide who goes on a mission and then if the mission succeeds. You’re seeing if enough missions will be failed before enough successes happen. It’s not complex, but that makes it easy to teach on the fly.

What other board games would work well at a brewery? Kristen and I have played some big games there, but that depends on you getting a large enough table. There are games like Dice Throne that would work well, because they don’t need too much room, but they are bigger than I was trying to list, but if you try, you can play something like Dead of Winter or KrosMaster there.

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So, what is this type of game?

These games have someone(s) who is actively working against the party.  However, no one knows for sure, besides the person/people who are it, who the other people are. You are trying to figure out through the game play but also through conversation and peoples actions who might be working against the teams. These games tend to be more about the social interaction than about the game play itself.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

In Deception, we are a group of detectives working with our forensic scientist to figure out the who done it. However, it is one of us at the table who committed the murder. The only person who knows, besides the murderer and their accomplice is the forensic scientist, however, they can’t tell us what they know directly. They have to send us messages from the lab that might or might not be extremely useful in figuring out the crime. Through this series of clues the detectives discuss what possible combinations of clues and murder weapons who is the murderer.

Secret Hitler

Secret Hitler revolves around setting up and enacting policies either that are fascist or liberal policies. One player per round is the president and another is the chancellor. The president nominates a chancellor and everyone votes on it. Then the president and chancellor get to enact a policy, but the president grabbing three policies off of the top of a policy pile, picking two, passing them on the chancellor and the chancellor enacting one of them. Through that, you can start to figure out who might be a fascist and who might be a liberal. If the liberals get all their agendas taken care of first, they win, so you can figure out who might be a fascist and avoid them. But you better not let Hitler become the Chancellor too late in the game, or the fascists might just win.

Donner Dinner Party

Lost in the woods it’s a bit snowy, but what could go wrong, there’s plenty of food in the woods, isn’t there? In this game you are part of the Donner Party stuck in the woods, most of you are respectable and wouldn’t consider eating the others in your party, but a few of your are cannibals. Each night you send out everyone into the woods to look for food and if you can come back with enough food, you survive another day. But if you don’t have enough food, someone gets eaten. Each person gets two cards while exploring the woods for food and gets to choose which one they are going to play. However, the party leader just gets a random card put in for them. So you can start to figure out who might be putting in cards that aren’t helping the party, but you don’t want to make it too obvious.

The Resistance 

It’s the future and evil corporation has taken over the rule of the world. You are part of the Resistance and are going on missions against the corporation. However, your group has been infiltrated, so each time you go out, you have to put a team together and vote on that team. If the team passes, they get to go out and either help the mission succeed or someone can cause the mission to fail however, you don’t know who on the team. So accusations are flying around as you try and complete enough missions, before too many are failed.

So you’ve seen how these different games work, let’s watch them continue to duke it out.

Similarities/Differences

Well, there are a lot of similarities, they are all based off of the game Mafia or Werewolf, so can probably pull all of these games out with the same group and play them all easily. However, I would say that Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is the most complex out of all of these games with the role of forensic scientist really really helping to create the story. The Resistance is by far the most simple so there’s a wide balance on the list, and it unintentionally went from the most complex to the least complex. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong also has the unique aspect of having the forensic scientist who has a fairly different role from everyone else since they know who is the murder.

The Results

I’m going to start off by just eliminating The Resistance. They are the light weight in a match full of heavier weight social deduction games. The Resistance isn’t a bad game, it’s just fairly simple in it’s mechanics. There are some pretty basic strategy that goes into it, like the first mission should always pass so that the infiltrators don’t tip their hand too early. Like Werewolf, which I’ve mentioned in passing, it’s a pretty good introduction to social deduction games, it just doesn’t hold up too well.

Next getting eliminated from the match is The Donner Dinner Party. In the Donner Dinner Party, the game is just a bit too random. With the leader putting in something blind and the fact that you could just end up with poison and a cure of poison in your hand as a good player instead of any food means that you could just be short food no matter what. It seemed a little heavily weighted towards the cannibals.

The final two are Secret Hitler and Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. I think that both of these are very good games, but we can only have one winner.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Secret Hitler loses points because it has a bit of the same issues that The Donner Dinner Party does, it’s weighted slightly towards the fascists, but it is less so. Also, it’s a theme that isn’t going to work at every table as well as Deception will. For good reason, it’s going to rub some people the wrong way, it can also lead towards more political discussion at the table, which can be a bummer on a game night depending on your group as it can kill a lot of the fun. However, with the right group, and if they don’t treat it seriously at all, the game can work quite well.

However, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is just so clever. The Forensic Scientist really gets a chance to craft that story of what happened in the murder and it has a great puzzle aspect to look at as well as you try and figure out if the information you’re getting from the scientist is for the clue or the murder weapon. And as the scientist it’s cool to see people figuring out the clue and then to rough when the murderer or accomplice is able to move the focus from the actual thing onto something else and the witness tries to subtly move it back in the right direction but doing so without being too obvious so they don’t get caught by the murderer. Obviously, this also has a heavier theme, but when the murder weapon can be a shark with a laser on it (I believe that’s a promo card), the game can be pretty silly.

What’s your favorite hidden role game? Have you played these ones before, do you agree with the winner?

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Starting with the most popular

Roll and Write: This is a genre of board game where you are rolling dice and then filling in numbers, lines, areas, of a game board that is probably just your game board to try and get a higher score than other players. The original example of this game is Yahtzee. Yes, roll and write is that simple of a genre, but it’s having a huge moment now with the biggest game being a German game, Ganz Schong Clever. They’ve evolved past Yahtzee in their scoring, and while it’s a genre I haven’t gotten into, they tend to be a bit more clever in their game play versus Yahtzee which is just telling you the numbers.

Then moving to the classic

Euro Gaming: The next is also a genre of games, they can also often be called worker placement games, though that is a slightly separate genre. These games are the ones where the result of the game all comes down to math. You can figure out an optimal strategy and there isn’t going to be all that much that can be done to stop that strategy. They started to change that, as of late, with making the boards tighter so that you had to plan out things a bit more or taking it away from everyone having to do everything to score enough points to win.

Point Salad: I wanted to put this one next to Euro gaming as a lot of them can be point salads. What this means, is like a salad, you can have a ton of different things in there. So in a game, that means you are scoring points at the end of the game in six or seven different categories that make up your total score. Games like Five Tribes and Seven Wonders are two prime examples of those games. It allows you to customize your winning strategy based on another a things.

And now to one that’s more a favorite

Card Drafting: Card drafting can be a mechanic in a game or the basis of some games. The idea is that you have a hand of cards, you are selecting one card from that hand to play and then passing it on to the next player who is selecting a card from that hand either until all the cards have been played, or there is one left in the hand. This can be done several hands during a game, or it can be a lesser part of the game, maybe just at the start of the game. Two games that use it as the basis of the game are Sushi Go! Party and Seven Wonders. In those games, drafting is the whole game as you’re trying to make sets and score points based off of different criteria. A game like Blood Rage uses it at the beginning of each age to help you strategize and then you play with those cards, it’s similar in Near and Far where you draft cards at the start of the game.

Hate Drafting: So, clearly tied into the one above. Normally when you are drafting, you want to draft cards that are best for you. But in games like Sushi Go! Party and Seven Wonders, you will have an idea of what the other players want or need, so you might draft a card that doesn’t really help you, but it stops other players. Generally, this isn’t a great strategy for the person doing it, unless all the cards are equally as bad for them, but sometimes you do it to stop a large number of points just to keep yourself in the game.

The another genre that was popular and still is going strong

Deck Building: It’s a genre that has cooled off a little bit, probably more so because there are fewer games coming out in the genre that are new, and more expansions instead for older games. In these games, you have a base deck, or some resources to start buying cards, that builds up your hand and your deck. So by the end of each game, the players deck is personalized to them. The biggest game in this genre is Dominion. It has a pasted on theme of medieval times and is really about quickly drawing cards, getting money, and buying victory points. There have been a lot of games since Dominion got the genre to take off that have come out like Marvel Legendary, Xenoshyft, Hogwarts Battle, Clank!, and many more. This also can include games like Arkham Horror LCG and Magic the Gathering. They take it a slightly different way in that you are building your deck before the game is played, but the deck can still be customized to what you want.

Abstract Game: These tend to be the logic based and puzzle based games. A game like Quoridor or Blokus fall into the abstract game. It’s about thinking through and figuring out the puzzle for your given game situation. They also tend to have little theme on them, or if there is theme, it’s pasted on and there is disconnect between the theme of the game and the mechanics of the game. Dominion is a solid example of a game that could be an abstract game without any theme and it would still function just as well, but the theme makes it a more visually appealing game.

That takes us to one of the last overarching genres

Ameri-trash/thrash: It’s really Ameri-trash, but Ameri-thrash is more fun to say. These games are all about theme, whereas a lot of Euro games, their big genre counterpart, focus in on a lot of minute details and figuring out logically how to win, Ameri-trash have more luck involved. They also tend to be a lot more steeped in theme and have theme tying into the mechanics of the board game. Games like Gloomhaven or Near and Far are two prime examples. Ameri-trash games also have more randomness in their games. While Gloomhaven doesn’t have too much randomness, for Near and Far, you are rolling a die quite often to find out if you can complete a skill challenge or win a fight. You see the randomness more so in dungeon crawl sorts of games, such as Star Wars: Imperial Assault.

Gloomhaven takes us into another genre of game as well

Cooperative or Coop: These games are as they sound, you are all playing together on the same team and playing against the game to see if you can beat it or not. There’s no special mechanical piece that is tied into this, beyond that you are all on the game team. The game that caused this genre to take off was Pandemic which has come out with a ton of version and variations on the base game. Gloomhaven and Star Wars: Imperial Assault are also games that fit this genre, but Imperial Assault only does because of an app, before it fit into another genre.

One versus All: This is the other genre. Classic RPG’s fall into this as well as dungeon crawl board games. In these games one player is playing the bad guys, or the antagonists, and everyone else is playing cooperatively against them. In an RPG, that is going to be the game or the dungeon master and it’s a similar situation in dungeon crawl games.  So Star Wars: Imperial Assasult, can be played as a dungeon crawl where one person plays the imperial characters and the other players play the heroes against the bad guys. The app changes that so that no one has to miss out on the story. There are also other games that don’t fit into either the RPG or dungeon crawl genres, like Not Alone where one person controls a monster that is trying to track down all the red shirts from a crashed alien ship.

I probably should define this category next

Dungeon Crawl: I’ve mentioned it a few times, so you probably have some idea what this is, so I’ll talk about it fast. This is a game where you are going through a scenario or going up against bad guys moving through a game board, exploring new areas, and trying to complete some objective(s). Games like Gloomhaven, Descent, and Star Wars: Imperial Assault fall into this genre. You might be thinking that you don’t remember any dungeons or many in Star Wars, but that’s more of a genre given name now that a specific.

Back to more coop games for a second

Semi-Cooperative Games (Hidden Traitor): This is a genre that is closely related to cooperative games and probably wouldn’t be as strong if it wasn’t for cooperative games. In these games you are basically playing a cooperative game where all the players have the same objective. That is, all of them but one (or more depending on the game). Those players are trying to sabotage the mission for the players or have their own objective. However, they are trying to not be found out. Games like Dead of Winter, Shadows over Camelot, and Battlestar Galactica are the biggest in the genre that really needs to get more games.

Social Deduction: This is the category that seems to be stealing a lot of the hidden traitor games. In these games, you have players who are in secret roles and you are trying to figure out who the werewolves, fascists, cannibals, or whatever the games theme says the bad guys are. It is similar in some ways to a hidden traitor game but there is one huge difference. These games are built around trying to draw out that information and all the mechanics are around that deduction piece. So games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf, The Resistance (Avalon), Donner Dinner Party, and Secret Hitler are all examples of this, but the best one, in my opinion, is Deception: Murder in Hong Kong as there is more game to it than games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf or The Resistance.

That brings me to one final trio of definitions. There are so  many more things that I could write about, and I might do a part two, but this will be enough for now.

Light Weight: Probably an area that I could have described games sooner, but games are generally put into three different categories of weight, though the last one you never really hear the weight added to it. A light weight game is going to be a game with fewer rules and fewer options in the game. There can still be more strategy to the game, but it’s simple to sit down and play that game. weight in game can refer to strategy, complexity of the rules, and length of set-up/number of fiddly bits, but generally mainly the first two. Games like Splendor and Ticket to Ride are light weight games to me. While they are a bit more complex than the standard of Monopoly, they don’t offer that much strategy and complexity. Interestingly enough, a strategy abstract game like Quoridor also falls into this category even though it has a lot of strategy and thinking too it, because the rules and game play are very simple.

Medium Weight: Medium weight games are, shockingly, a step up from light weight games. They are going to offer more complexity in their interactions. You have to think through more of what you are going to do, and you can plan out multiple turns, but are more apt to have to adjust on the fly. They still aren’t getting into the area where they are too mathy or too much strategy where you are having to plan out a lot of turns in advance. Five Tribes is a great example of this where you have a number of decisions and options that you can do, and someone can take your move from you but also might not. Century Road: Golem Edition, is another game that is a bit on the lighter side of medium weight games, but builds up good strategy in the game and gives you quite a number of options.

Heavy: Heavy games are steeped in strategy and complexity of the game. A game like Gloomhaven falls into their category. There are a lot of rules to keep track of, there are a lot of little fiddly bits, there’s a lot of set-up, and there’s a lot of strategy. A lot of larger Euro games also fall into this category because you have to figure out what is going to be your best possible turn to get the most possible points from the game. I do want to point out that these games don’t always have to be the hardest games to play, once you know how to play t hem but they can often be more difficult to learn and have strategy that you need to know to be able to play the game well.

There are a lot of definitions, are there some terms that I’ve missed (or haven’t gotten to yet), that you are curious about?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
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