Any tips for games for two or more players?

We have quite a few games we enjoy playing with just two people and are great for groups as well. We really like tableau/deck building games, so there are quite a few of those listed.

Fort: Card drafting game where you play as kids to collect resources and build an awesome fort. It's easy to learn, fun, and quick to play.

Valeria: Card Kingdoms: Tableau-building game to recruit citizens, slay monsters, and build domains. We like this one because you gain resources during the other players turn, so it keeps you engaged throughout the game. It's not too time consuming to set up. There are a few fun expansions as well.

Parks: Works well as a 2-player game but is more challenging with more players. It has a beautiful design and simple play mechanics. Quick to learn and play with minimal setup.

Distilled: Tableau-building game. Each player is a distiller trying to create their own master spirit. You purchase cards to make your spirits, upgrade your distillery, and age your barrels until it's time to sell. Game is based around simple mechanics and beautifully designed.

Ticket to Ride: New York: This is a quick version game. It takes place in New York City, so the map is smaller and is more challenging than the base game for two players. Mechanics are the same - draw cards, place your colored taxi on routes, and try to complete your destination tickets.

Space Base: Tableau-building game. You are in charge of a fleet of ships and through dice rolling you gain resources to upgrade your ships. Like Valeria, you gather resources on the other players turn as well. I found that this game is easy to learn as you play. There are a lot of mechanics that make a lot of sense once you see the turns play out. Of all the games listed, this is my favorite!

Raiders of the North Sea: You're a Viking raider who gathers resources, builds a crew and then sets out to raid villages to impress the Clan Chief. When raiding villages, you win resources (gold and victory points) but can also encounter a Valkyrie to which you have to sacrifice one of your crew. Fun to play and easy to reset if you want to play more than one round.

Wingspan: Card drafting game. I tend to like this more as a 2-player game than my partner does. There is a 2-person version called Duet mode in the Asia expansion that our friends really enjoy (haven't had a chance to play it myself). There are 3 bird habitats that focus on different areas of growth. You start with 8 movement cubes to determine the actions you take on a turn. The game is played over 4 rounds and you are working to attract birds to the habitats on your board.

Hike: Deck building game. I will say that the main reason we kickstarted this game is that we own Huskies and it was just too cute. It is a quick, compact card drafting game. You draft sled dogs to your team and when both teams are ready, you set out to race through the trail to be the first to reach the finish line. There are great catch-up mechanics, so if you get behind all is not lost.

Mystic Vale: Deck building game. You start with a base set of cards and use your turns to purchase new cards to upgrade abilities you already have or slot them on blank cards to build new powers. There are so many expansions for this, but I recommend not purchasing all of them. We did and it made the game way too cumbersome - there were too many abilities that could never be activated because their synergies were never drawn. There are recommended starting decks with the expansions, so we have had to slowly sort out the cards to be able to play.

7 Wonders: Duel: If you have ever played 7 Wonders, this is exclusively a 2-player game based off of it. It is quick to play and uses many of the same mechanics as the 7-player game.

This last one is difficult to find, but worth it if you can grab a copy:
Dead Reckoning: Tableau building game. We have spent more hours playing this game than I care to admit. The mechanics make it a lot of fun, even if you're losing badly (which I usually am). You're a pirate setting out to gather a crew, discover new areas, pillage islands, and attack other ships. The expansions for this make it even more fun, as they are saga expansions. You follow along with a new story and slowly add new cards to the game.

What kind of games do you like?

If you like narrative games, co-operative games and puzzles, one of my favourites is the good old Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective series. Best enjoyed with a pot of English tea and some cookies. And lots of voice acting by the reader!

I suck at most games and for everyone to have a good time playing, we need to play games where our goals are not all the same thing: if you need me to perform at a certain level we're going to have a bad time.

So it depends on who you're playing with, if they're at about the same level, and if they're wildly competitive, if they're impatient gamers etc.

Carcassonne is famous for being both crazy competitive OR co-op chillax shared experience depending on your players.

Agricola can be played the same way: pick alternative goals like "I'm going to raise geese" or "I'm going to have the biggest family and herd of cows" and help each other out. Or be cut throat as the game intended.

I prefer competitive, tactical/strategical games. I need lots of interaction with other players, so no "multiplayer solitaire" games, where everybody does their own thing as well as they can.

All my favorite games from that category work badly or not at all with 2 players. So by necessity, I always come back to the one, maybe obvious, exception: Magic The Gathering.

Traditionally a two player game, but it works well with 3 or 4.

And yes, Chess and Go are the other obvious 2 player GOATs, but you can't play with more players and also the skill ceiling is a real problem. It's just no fun stomping someone with a fraction of the experience you have.

I think two-player games are mostly in a category on it's own. But the card game THE GAME works for 2-5 players. It's an intense coorporate card games with very simple rules.Get the gritty darkish version. Don't know what the deal is with all the other ones.

For a two-player (only) game with crazy depth, try out GO. Rules explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZTdT8MQexk

TIMELINE is also a pretty fun game. You take turns trying to place various inventions and historical events on a timeline. Simple and easy, I pretty much explained the rules here. I think I'd prefer playing it with more than two players, though.

SKULL requires at least 3 players, is likely the most pure bluffing game, with very simple rules. Much fun!

The Light in the Mist is a puzzle-venture on a deck of tarot cards. It could work solo, with 2 people, or more depending on what you like to do.

Project L is always a hit whenever I bring it out, it's really satisfying and plays up to 4.

If you want a bit heavier games, try stuff like Spirit Island, Ark Nova, and Scythe.

A lot of good recommendations already, so I think it comes down to what KIND of games you and your person (or bigger group) actually like playing. Beyond the ones already mentioned:

Lords of Waterdeep is a really fun worker placement game that can be as cut throat or laid back as you'd like. The D&D themeing is actually really great, but if you aren't into that it's by no means required to enjoy. The Scoundrels of SKullport expansion adds a ton of depth if you like the base game.

Viticulture is another great worker placement game, if you think your group might like running their own winery in Italy as a theme over fantasy stuff.

If you wanted more of a dungeon crawler/action adventure feel something like Marvel Zombies (or one of the fantasy or classic versions of the game) is a great "tons of figures on the baord, throw buckets of dice" games that can scale with two people playing a single or multiple characters to decent sized groups.

Been playing a lot more games with my daughter, so games that can be 1-1 but scale to 3 when my wife is home are good.

Dutch Blitz - this is a speed game, rather than turn based. You are playing something like solitaire, but the stacks you make that could up in each suit starting with one/ace are common to all players. It's a lot of fun and very competitive, but not very good for chatting or multitasking.

Farkle - a simple but surprisingly fun dice game. All you really need are 6 dice and the online rules.

Dominion - a great deck building game that plays just as well with 2 or more, excellent replayability bevkcause each game has a different set of cards. There are a ton of expansions (I think we have two now) that also keep it interesting.

Catan - plays well for 3-4. There are about 1000 two player variants, but my favorite are Nichols Borko's.

Ticket to ride - a fun game for two or more, but not very replayable IMO, so we play it and then put it away for while.

I'm going to add a vote for Agricola, a euro worker placement game where you are each managing a family trying to make it through the seasons and gather enough resources to grow your farm and feed your family. It is well-balanced as a two-player game, and even has a one-player solo campaign mode that I've really enjoyed. The rules are a little more complicated than most games we reach for (I think the box says 12yo and up?). The meeples are adorable.

Scythe

Very cool 1920's-ish alternate history resource gathering/territory expansion game with different factions that have different bonuses regarding both mech and hero character mobility. There are a few ways to collect/move resources and there are combat elements as well. For me the most fun way to win is through intimidation tactics since the game has a combat element. The best way to win is to 'pick six things to be good at', which is faction dependent assuming you want to play that way. I made a thread about it a couple months ago here: hot singles in your area lol

I'm all about co-op games:

I'm a huge fan of deck-building games, so in addition to the previous mentions of Dominion, I would like to add Arkham Horror LCG, as well as virtually anything in the Legendary series from Upper Deck. While I have EVERYTHING Marvel, they also made one-offs like Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Big Trouble in Little China, and even full spin-offs like 007.

You may also enjoy the 'Horrified' games, and there are three now: Universal Monsters (the old 1930's movie ones), American Monsters, and Greek Monsters. More of a traditional co-op game in the vein of Pandemic, where each player gets a turn followed by the 'game' getting a turn to strike back.

In either situation, you do not have to collect or buy all of the games (unless you get it into them). You can pick and choose from what you like.

It's only two players, but I think everyone should give Jaipur a try. It's a smash hit with everyone I've ever played it with! It's pretty cheap too, so it's not a big investment.

If you like co-op games, Décorum is pretty solid. My family loves it as a slightly-passive-aggressive cooperative game. It has a campaign for two players and as well as scenarios for 3-4 players.

I’m more into kickstarter games for some reason.

Verdant Card game builder. You select cards each turn to slowly place plants next to rooms with the perfect lighting conditions. It’s turn by turn, so the more players there are, the longer it will take.

WinterHaven Woods Another card game. The goal is to pick cards each turn from other player’s hands to build your perfect woods. Players will play their turns as the same time, so it can be speedy even with larger parties.

I’ll give another vote to Agricola and add there is a rule set to reduce some of the complexity of desired.

Castles of Burgundy is also great with 2 players. Each player is building out their own board based on dice rolls from a central share board.

I have a few pretty fun recommendations.

Skull King
Cover your assets
Exploding kittens (think this one works with 2 players)

Are the stand out ones