And if you want to know the criteria that I’m using, or the conversation starting point, you can read that article here.

What Party Games Do I Own?

Let’s go through and make a list of everything, keep in mind this list is split into two parts. The first part is party games I’ve owned and played and the second part I still need to play. And also, let’s see what Board Game Geek calls party games.

• Deception Murder in Hong Kong
• Sushi Go Party
• Skull
• Just One
• Take 5/6 Nimmt
• Wits & Wagers
• PitchCar
• Spot It
• Flip 7
• Ready Set Bet
• Zombie Dice
• Scattergories
• So Clover!
• Tumblin’ Dice
• Letter Jam
• The Gang
• Cross Clues
• Medium
• Green Team Wins
• Fun Facts
• Blank Slate
• Doodle Dash
• The Table is Lava
• Beat the 8 Ball
• Plakks
• Dungeon Party

And now for the ones that I haven’t played.

• Boy Band Builder
• Mutton Bustin
• Mojo
• TAGS
• Crash Octopus
• Wavelength
• Cockroach Poker
• Master Word
• Draft’d
• Ito

Just as a reminder, I am generally going to keep the ones that I haven’t played. Why, because I want to give them a try, so they get a free pass.

The Played Games

So now we need to look at the games on that list and you can break them down into some different categories. There are push your luck games like Flip 7 and Beat the 8 Ball. There are the more classic write something down or trivia style. And then there is a hidden role game on the list because I like Deception: Murder in Hong Kong and dislike basically all the rest of them. And then dexterity games.

Classic Party Games

Let’s really stick to talking about the classic party games here. I think some of the others will show up at other times. And there is not a ton of overlap with them. But that classic write something down or do trivia games, let’s talk about them and see which ones should stick around.

Let’s just put that list together. We have Just One, Wits & Wagers, Scattergories, So Clover!, Medium, Fun Facts, Green Team Wins, Blank Slate, Cross Clues, and Doodle Dash.

The Cooperative Classic Party Games

Then I want to look for where there is overlap. And there is pretty light overlap. But I also want to look for ones that have that element of fun factor that I keep on wanting to come back to as well. Does it feel different and unique enough. Games like Just One and So Clover are always a hit, so even though they are cooperative they both are going to stick around. However, I feel like Cross Clues, another cooperative party game, is a lot of fun, but I like those two cooperative ones better.

The Competitive Classic Party Games

Looking at that list it leaves us quite a number more. One question I think needs to get answered in the long term is do I need both Ito and Fun Facts. Both of those seem like they hit kind of the same thing, even Wavelength also seems to fall into that category. But I haven’t played Ito and Wavelength yet. Green Team Wins is also kind of in this category, and it feels like the loser of the group.

There we have to look at the word based games, Medium and Blank Slate both offer that matching words. But I like both enough that I plan to keep both of them. Scattergories is also in this category ,and I think it’s leaving finally. It stuck around because it was solid as a remote game, I could show the sheet on camera. But there are websites that do that just as easily and we play in person mainly.

Doodle Dash and Wits & Wagers are both kind of different in the group, but still have that classic party feel. Doodle Dash is speed drawing which is a blast, I need to play it again. And then Wits & Wagers is number based trivia with betting. It is one that has been a hit a good number of times, but it hasn’t come off the shelf in a few years at this point, so it is going to leave because while I like it, it just isn’t getting played.

What Party Games are Leaving

So let’s talk about the ones that are leaving here to just recap it. Cross Clues, a fun cooperative party game but won’t get played over So Clover! or Just One. Green Team Wins, kind of that same get to you know you type of game like Fun Facts and Ito, so it is the odd one out. And then Wits & Wagers just because it hasn’t gotten played. And Scattergories is a classic, but I think it’s finally hit end of life for me.

Would you make a different decision than I did? And what are some party games that you own that you know you’ll never get rid of.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.