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What is your favorite board or card game for seven or more players?
I'm looking for some games I can play with my team at work as part of our next team building event. We're 7 people, so finding a game that can seat everyone is challenging (and we don't want to split tables in this case).
My favorite board game is 7 wonders, which obviously is perfect except for the fact that it's pretty rules heavy and my team is mostly not boardgamers, so will probably be overwhelmed.
Cards against Humanity was also mentioned but is probably not PG enough for a work event.
What would you play?
Avalon (and secret hitler) is an option. The only issue is that it can be a little weird if some players are new/casual and some are trying. Avalon and hitler are both games there's actually a very high amount of strategic depth and skill expression. But at least everyone does get to do something, even if it's sabotaging your teammates.
Codenames can be fun. The issue here is that there's a huge amount of pressure on the spymasters. So if there's people willing to spymasters personality-wise, it's good, everyone else is chilling.
Avalon was the first game that came to mind. I've only played it a few times, but each time was extremely fun. Under 5 players it's ok, but really takes off with 5 or more.
If you want seating this is the wrong choice but two rooms and a boom is a great negotiation game that involves bouncing between two rooms and has increasing difficulty to get people in at the shallow end.
I came here to recommend the same!
It's like Werewolf went through mitosis, and now there's two villages and they have to work together to move all the werewolves into one village together.
Nobody gets voted out, they just get moved around. Which means nobody is sitting around waiting, which I love. And it can handle like 6-30+ players which is rad.
That's a great way to describe it. I've always struggled to make it not sound rubbish.
Yeah I love Two Rooms and a Boom, and it has a ton of replay value because you can keep adding in different roles as people get the hang of it. I recommend playing at group sizes of 10+ or 12+ though I hear the expansion helps with smaller groups. It also helps to have a moderator to handle the clock and give a minute warning to prepare the exchange of people.
Many roll and write games work well for this, though they're generally everyone playing their own little puzzle with little interaction. On Tour is a good roll and write, Welcome To is also.
Most party games will work: Codenames , Wavelength and Decrypto are modern classics,
All lot of social deduction or hidden role games play at least 7: One Night Ultimate Werewolf, is fast and fun, Citadels is a classic.
Depending on your group, Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant is fantastic, but it's a bit complex and not everyone likes negotiation games. Cosmic Encounter also goes to 7 players if you have some expansions, but also isn't everyone's cup of tea.
I'll second this one, especially if you have some of the expansions. We've had game nights where we brought like 12 board games, but ended up playing nothing but werewolf all night.
Yeah and One Night is perfect at this group size. I really like Werewords too which is another game by Bezier which is basically One Night plus 20 questions where the questionmaster may also be a werewolf.
All of these are great.
I would probably skip Codenames and just get Decrypto, they are very similar in feel but Decrypto has less downtime and feels more creative. You can always get Codenames if you like Decrypto.
I love Wavelength, it's basically Inane Discussion - The Game. Highly recommend.
I run a boardgames group. Here are some games I get out whenever the group is that awkward size which is too small to reasonably split into two tables (<8) but too big to play an ordinary boardgame (>5):
Cash and Guns
Saboteur
Unstable Unicorns
Exploding Kittens
Werewords (requires an app as well as the game)
Some other large-group games that other people enjoy:
Codenames
Telestrations
Secret Hitler
Werewolf
I definitely prefer the games on your second list, as they're less luck-based. I'm a bit burnt out on Werewolf (after playing it for twenty years) and for some reason I find it difficult to convince people to play Secret Hitler (it's a better design!) but in the past I've experienced Unstable Unicorns going on for far too long, and Saboteur requires certain specific ratios of miners to saboteurs to feel fair.
Time's Up! is a fantastic party game for larger groups. It's split into three rounds, where you use the same set of cards each time, and the goal is to get your teammates to guess the word on the card within a time limit (for as many cards as possible). Round 1 is like taboo, you can say whatever you want except the words on the card itself; in round 2 (again using the same set of cards), you're only allowed to say one word; in round 3, it's pure charades. Lots of fun, probably great for team building as well (since it relies on reading each other).
If you like seven wonders, you may want to look into Sushi Go! - it's another card drafting game, but much much simpler and quicker to play. Great for newbies. You can technically play even just the base game with more than the recommended max player count, but you could also pick up the "party" expansion pack if you want to play it safe.
Codenames is another great game, but it does require a fair bit of brainpower from the two players giving the clues. (You split everyone into two teams, then nominate one person per team to give clues, and everyone else on the team tries to interpret those clues.) This can be either a plus or a minus, depending on the vibe of your group.
As an aside, if you really want the vibe of cards against humanity, Apples to Apples is sort of a simplified PG version.
There's a version of the first one called Monikers with cards already written. It's an absolute blast to play!
I actually prefer apples to apples over cards against humanity. I’ve always felt that CAH is fun for a novelty play but it feels like it’s trying too hard to be edgy. I think I’d almost like a combined game where the shock value only comes sometimes
Dixit is pretty cool if you have that many players. It’s easy for new players to jump in which is pretty important if you don’t have a constant squad of players.
Tsuro, skulls I think has an expansion to 7, in vito mortem, resistance
I think for a work group I’d head towards party games. Things like wavelength, codenames, so clover, just one, sushi party, etc.
or perhaps something like captain sonar?
A couple I haven't noticed yet:
No Thanks! it's good with larger groups because it's simple choices - you either take the card showing (cards numbers 2-35 with some randomly secretly removed) or put a token on the card and pass making it cheaper. When all of the cards are out then the lowest score wins ( add values on all cards minus tokens). The trick is cards you collect that form a sequence you only count the lowest numbers card in the sequence so if you have 25 26 27 you only count the 25.
Camel Up is great fun - everyone is making bets on a camel race where the camels can stack on top of each other leading to wacky unexpected outcomes.
Bang! The Dice Game is a social deduction a bit like old West werewolf with dice. It plays pretty quick so even with player elimination you're only out for a few minutes.
Bang is so good! I like the dice version for a quicker game that's easier for new players to pick up, but if your team is into a longer game with more strategy and thinking the card version of Bang (comes in a big bullet shaped container) is also fantastic.
Spyfall is one I've used at work events that does really well as well as Just One.
Secret Hitler! It's kinda like Mafia / Werewolf, but with a bit more structure.
Everyone is split into two parties, Liberals and Fascists, with the Fascist party having one member that is Hitler. The fascists know who else is a fascist and who Hitler is, but Hitler doesn't know who the other fascists are. Liberals don't know anything about anyone.
Every round, the next person in the circle is made "president" and has to select a chancellor. Then everyone votes on whether they are ok with both of these people being in power. Once in power, the chancellor draws three "policies" from the draw pile (they're all simply labeled Fascist or Liberal), discards one, then hands the remaining two to the president. The president then selects one policy to be enacted.
As more policies get enacted, new actions are unlocked such as viewing a players party affiliation, or killing a player. Either party can win by getting the required number of policies enacted. Additionally, Liberals can win if Hitler is killed, and Fascists can win if Hitler is elected chancellor.
I find it more compelling than typical Mafia / Werewolf type games because there's a bit more strategy to it.
Diplomacy is, imho, the greatest 7-player game ever made. It's effect on team building could be...interesting...
Team building or team burning?
I've got to give it to Wavelength and Codenames as two of my all time favorites for large groups.
Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is good as well!
Superfight has been a go-to for my friends group for years for big groups. We've always played it in the Apples to Apples/Cards Against Humanity style (rules as written are more of a one-on-one deal with the table voting), so it can fit that bill while staying PG.
Poetry for Neanderthals sounds like a solid bet here. Fast paced and easy to learn, it gets up and running quite quickly.
I'd vote for:
Don't mess with Cthulhu, and Leaders of Euphoria.
Both are social deduction games that set a goal ancillary to discovering one or more players identity. Don't mess with Cthulhu requires finding a number of hidden objectives. Leaders of Euphoria not only requires finding the leader, but also killing them (in game).
Hellapagos fits up to 12 players, it's not as straightforward as other games because it starts off cooperative and then turns....not sure the right word...utilitarian? (hah)
The premise is that you're shipwrecked, and each day you see the weather (ie will it rain) and can individually decide on what you want to contribute for the day (in terms of gathering water, going fishing, checking the shipwreck (basically pulling a chance card). The goal is to get off the island by staying keeping everyone long enough to build enough rafts, but at the end of each day you must have enough food and water as a group for everyone to survive the night, or else you must choose one person to die. There's also the option to "prematurely eliminate" someone prior to nightfall if you have the right items.....it's a fun game that rides the line between collaboration and Lord of the Flies. My friends and I have fun with it, but it probably depends on your coworkers' personalities whether they'll like it.
Seven Wonders is good for seven players, but not more. It's a card drafting and engine building game, where you take cards from a hand, then pass the hand to the next player. It's relatively straight forward, and there are multiple viable strategies for winning.
Apples to Apples is the PG version of Cards Against Humanity. It's certainly acceptable for just about any group.
Wits & Wagers is a trivia game with betting - each trivia question has a numerical value, everyone gives an answer, and you lay out the answers and bet on what is correct. It's a good time that doesn't actually require any knowledge about the questions being asked.
Captain Sonar
Two teams of four, a submarine per team and an island peppered ocean to track each other down in. Each team member has a role. Engineers try and keep the systems running, first mates bring weapons and stealth online, radar operators listen for the movements of their opponents and try to work out their position and captains take plot the course and take actions based on what everyone else has achieved. It's in real time and it really ramps up the tension. Great for team building I imagine as everyone working together is essential for success and everyone can take a leadership role.