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Favorite quick play tabletop game recommendations
With Christmas around the corner I'm wondering if anyone has tabletop/card games they enjoy that are quick to play (in my mind less than 30 minutes). I enjoy longer games like Betrayal at House on the Hill immensely, but I'd like to add some games to my collection that are fun and light hearted, easy to learn, and idealy travel easy. I often play games with family over the holidays and want some that aren't as intimidating for my parents and older relatives to pick up and try. I often played with at least 2 other people, but I've been looking for fun 2 player games as well.
Can you please share what the gameplay is like and what you enjoy about playing it? Thanks all!
I can't recommend Skull enough. A bluffing game that boils it down to the essentials, and easily plays in 15 minute rounds. But usually longer, because after one round, people will beg for more! It's always been a hit with everyone I've introduced it to; friends, family, and students all love it.
Oh, and I forgot, it's also on sale right now on Amazon for $12 after a coupon! It's a gorgeous game, but you can easily play it with a deck of regular playing cards (Black = Skull, Red = Rose) if you want to test it out before purchasing it. It is packed into a small box though, but with beautiful components, so it's well worth a buy.
Sushi Go is one of my wife's favorites. One Night Werewolf is also pretty fun, but it requires someone playing game master (or using an app). Forbidden Desert/Forbidden Island are also fun and take about 30 minutes. Blokus is another good entry level kind of game.
Carcassonne is probably my personal favorite out of these, and there are a ton of expansions you can buy that add new mechanics to keep things interesting.
Upvote for Sushi Go. Also, Dragonwood, where you collect cards to play like rummy while rolling dice to see if you stomp on the dragon or yell at the bucket of spinach, etc.
Dragonwood looks so cute! I can't believe I haven't seen that one before. Thanks for sharing.
What's your experience with Sushi Go been? Seen that come up a few times and I'm wondering if it feels tedious after you get the rules down.
Dragonwood really is cute. Nice balance of activities, too (collecting cards, bonuses, attacking enemies in different ways, rolling dice...
I dont think SG is tedious. It's simple, but requires some tactics, which keeps it kinda fresh. It's also a pretty fast game.
We have Sushi Go Party which works just like sushi go, except it has a board to keep score, and you can change our some of thei cards each game to keep everything quite fresh. It plays the same, but with she different scoring, so you just need to update what you prioritize in subsequent plays.
These are great recs! I haven't thought about Carcassonne in a hot minute. I had some friends that tried to teach me when I was little and I just did not have the attention span for it. However, now as an adult, I think I'd have a lot of fun! One Night Werewolf also looks like a fun variant on the original. I played a LOT of Warewolf but using a deck of cards in highschool so seeing a version that makes it so everyone can play without needing a dedicated narrator is neat!
How is Sushi Go? I've seen that one come up a few places and it always looks kind of tedious. Am I misinterpreting that though? What's your experience?
It's actually been a long time since when played Sushi Go (having a kid really put a damper on our gaming!) so I am having a hard time remembering the specifics. However, there's an episode of Tabletop (which is where I first saw the game and ended up buying it) featuring Sushi Go. It starts at the 18:45 point: https://youtu.be/Xu9RB-N4T3g
And other episodes of Tabletop are also a great rabbit hole you can go down. It's tough to really get a sense of games (and whether you'd personally enjoy them) just from reviews and text, but it's quite different watching a group of people playing a game (especially when it's the first time playing it for most of them).
Monopoly Deal is a great game.
It's taken over my family gatherings. It advertises as a 15 minute game, but it's usually longer. The goal of the game is to get three complete properties. Each turn you draw two cards and have three actions. Aside from property and cash, there are also action cards. Forced property trades, property steals, pay rent, prevent actions against you, etc.
There's other rules, but nothing too complicated. Most kids and adults can pick this up and will play much faster than regular Monopoly.
We used to be an Uno family, but this has become a staple ever since my cousin introduced it.
Edit: To answer some of your other questions... the deck is no bigger than Uno. So it travels real easy. I find it to just be a fun game to play. The game is straight forward, but has depth. Most people will be invested in winning or losing.
Fascinating suggestion. As an admittedly "Not a Monopoly Guy", I'd never considered Monopoly Deal. After looking it up though it looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing!
We have really started to enjoy more "party style" games when we are playing with people who only play board games casually. These are games that are fast to set up, easy to explain, and involve people on every round so that you aren't waiting your turn; everyone should always have something to do.
Hues and Cues - this game features a board that looks like a colour picker tool in your browser, showing 480 colours in a grid. The clue giver receives a card with four colours on it; they pick one of the colours and give a clue to everyone else to try to get them to correctly choose the colour.
Priorities - you get a deck that has a bunch of items on cards. One play turns over 5 cards - you might get something like this list: "$100, a $10 Flat White, Constipation, Awkward Silence, The Lord of the Rings". That player secretly writes down their rating of these things from 1 (best) to 5 (worst). Everyone else debates and ranks where they think that player would put them. You get a score based on how accurate you do as a team. This can be a delightful game, but be warned - you might have to explain to your mother-in-law why your heathen children rank Apple Pie better than God (true story).
Hot Seat has a similar vibe to Priorities. One person reads the topic, and it might be something like "Who is my celebrity crush?" and everyone else writes down who they think you would say on a piece of paper and pass it to you. You read them out, and then people go around and try to guess which one is the correct one. You get points for being right. This is another fun one, but be warned - you might hvae to explain to your mother-in-law why your heathen children have crushes on Zendaya and Tom Holland at the same time.
Wavelength gives you a card that has two opposing concepts - good superpower / bad superpower for example - and a random spot on that spectrum that you have to get people to guess. The game has a specific game gizmo that enables this guessing, and it's kind of hard to describe, so this is one to look at a video or the pictures on BoardGameGeek. This is my favourite of all the ones here. We always have several big laughs and often have interesting discussions when playing this game.
The Mind. You play as a team. There's a deck of 100 cards. Each person gets a relatively small number of cards, and all you have to do is play them in order. The catch is that you cannot communicate at all. You just have to vibe it out to figure out when you play your cards. There are definitely ways to cheese the game - you have to discourage people from tapping toes or nodding heads to really get it to work - but this can be a lot of fun.
I love The Mind for that simple fact that I can’t understand how this idea were pitched or even thought of in the first place. It’s so simple and still hard to explain to others because it honestly sounds dumb.
+1 for Wavelengths. Great conversation starter.
Every time I explain the game in brief, I feel like I'm going through the elevator pitch for the game.
"You just play the cards in order?"
"Yes!"
"That sounds dumb."
"You don't have all the cards, so there are gaps."
"But you understand that people can count?"
"It's not that simple. Try it!"
Wavelength has a great free official app too! https://www.wavelength.zone/
It seems like this is actually a full implementation of the game, is that right?
My family and I are so freaking terrible at Hues and Clues.
Wavelength is super fun, but the box/setup is bulky, so I feel like it doesn't travel well. It's super fun though!
always a great party game!
I really like the physical box, but @Minori pointed out the app, which seems like it could fully replace the game? If everyone has a device, it looks like you can just use the free app to play instead of taking the box with you.
Fluxx is a lot of fun and pretty chaotic, so each game goes in a different way. It can be played with 2, but I think works best with 3+. The rules and win conditions are constantly changing, so it keeps you on your toes. And there are a lot of different flavors of Fluxx, although some of them are out of print. So you can play the original, or the original with add-on packs, or you can play Fantasy Fluxx or Star Fluxx (sci-fi) or Marvel Fluxx or whatever. Most versions are just a pack of cards in a box, so it's easy to transport.
I also have liked a couple of co-op games in the last year or two:
The first is Forbidden Island, in which you're cooperating to find all the treasure on an island and escape as it's slowly sinking under the sea. You can play this with 2, but again might be best with 3 or 4. (There's another version, Forbidden Desert, that allows up to 5 players.) This one does not travel so lightly, but the box is not huge (approx. 9" x 6.5" x 2.75", or 23 cm x 16 cm x 7 cm). I have played this with family members who had no clue how to play at the beginning, and usually you get a win on the easiest setting, though it feels well-earned.
The second is Hanabi, which is a card game in which the goal is to set off as impressive a fireworks display as you can. Once the game time runs out, you add up all the points for each color of firework, and the higher the score, the better you did. The catch is that you can only look at everyone else's hand of cards, and other people can only give you a limited amount of info about your own hand. It's a game of psychological strategy (what would give the other people the most info through the context of what you aren't saying?). I have only played this with 2 people and I think it might grow pretty complex with 3 or more! Technically this game travels well, because it's just a small box with a deck of cards and some tokens, but I find it helps immensely to have card stands to put your cards in, rather than trying to hold them up for everyone else's viewing all the time. We also take notes because there's nothing in the rules against it, although I think the implication is that you're supposed to be able to keep all the info in your head (but with our family ADHD, not a chance). We use small dry erase boards to keep track of the info we've learned about each card, and erase and redo as cards get shuffled in and out of our hands.
In the digital implementation on Board Game Arena, all the clues visually mark the cards, so no memory is required. I originally got the same implication as you, but it doesn't change the game much to have a record of hints.
There's a domino tiles version of Hanabi that my wife and I use. It works great because the tiles stand up on their own, but it is a bit heavy and doesn't travel great. But if you've got the space for it, highly recommend that version.
I’ll recommend Zombie dice. Simple and pretty fast game that’s fun especially if you punk and push each other a bit for playing too safe.
Second most pick would be Las Vegas dice game about money. A lager set than Zombie dice but still easy to take with you and great if you’re 3 or more.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Coup yet! It’s a quite short and deceptively simple game of information asymmetry and bluffing.
Each player has just two cards, indicating roles they are allowed to play, and an accumulating stash of coins they collect as they go. What’s fun is that each player’s roles are secret, so they can publicly claim whichever they want. One role allows you to collect more coins on your turn than anyone else; one allows you to steal coins from another; one allows you to spend some coins to assassinate someone (destroying one of their role cards); one allows you to survive being assassinated, etc. If any player accumulates seven coins they can perform a “coup” which is an un-blockable assassination and very dangerous. The game ends when only one player is left standing.
The game has players studying each other closely for contradictions and lies. There is a finite number of each role card in the deck so you can try to deduce who is holding what. Some players will set up alliances but in the end only one can win.
I actually have Coup and have played a few times. I think it's a clever game and appreciate the playtime. Maybe I haven't played enough, but despite playing in a few different groups and settings it never clicked for me. As far as bluffing games go it may just not be my style. I think it's an essential recommendation for a list like this though!
One of the things that changed the game for me was when my son blocked an assassination attempt against someone else by claiming to be the Contessa. I had a real "wait... what... ?" moment and we realized that you can actually make protective alliances and play an even deeper game. He said he would protect me from assassination if I kept stealing from the people who wanted to coup him, and he totally changed how I understood the game. Which he did... until he didn't, which ended me, and allowed him to win. What a sneak!
I definitely get that it can be not to your personal liking though, and that's fine. I think it's also one that requires a bit more explanation, and part of it is because of how they worded the instructions.
I'm not a huge board/card game guy, but I fucking love Coup. The ultimate "easy to learn, hard to master" game. Takes all of 5 minutes to learn how to play and has given me hours of fun over the years. I know there's an expansion and likely will pick it up someday, but the base $15 game is IMO the perfect card game.
My partner and I bring So Clover whenever we go to a gathering in case there's an opportunity to play. It's easy to explain, easy to learn, and supports up to 6 per box (but can add another box for more ppl). It's also relatively short, like 30-40 mins for 6 ppl, and co-op. And no one has to "wait until it's their turn". The main limitation is it relies on understanding (simple) English words. It's kind of like Code Names but easier and more fun imo. Most of my ESL side of family can play.
Edit: I forgot to mention a big bonus is that ppl can easily drop in and out of this game
In the same vein of word party games, my family and friends all love Just One! It's a bit more social since one person is guessing a hidden word, so the clue givers can give some pretty targeted hints that only the guesser would associate with the hidden word.
Multiple upvotes for So Clover! It's the reason we got covid earlier this year at a wedding we attended. It was by far the most popular activity among the guests at the secluded sleep away camp weekend wedding over Labor Day weekend. Everyone wanted to play, but we only had one copy of the game. Since then, I think Mr. Tired has "sold" at least 5 copies of the game to people we know to buy it, purchased at least 3 copies for family and friends, and he occasionally works at a local board game cafe where they can't keep the game in stock, it sells out as soon as it comes in.
I also highly recommend Sushi Go, Carcassone, Just One, Letter Jam, Spot It, and of course, Uno (if you want to pick a fight with your family).
Edit: Cards against Humanity, Munchkin (I can add more as I think of them - Clearly we like, and play many of them). If you're up for a digital aspect, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.
2 player games I've been enjoying recently:
The Fox in the Forest: Super light, trick taking game that isn't very complicated to learn but has some decent strategy
Kelp: a fully asymmetrical experience where one player plays a shark (dice bag builder) and one player plays an octopus (deckbuilder). It's pretty thematic IMO and very interesting!
In pods of 4 I've been playing Mahjong because it's addicting and very easy to learn (Taiwanese rules for me)
Lately I've also been playing Scout, which is 3-5 players though I think they have a 2 player variant, that one is pretty fun as a competitive trick taking game with match 3 elements!
Someone else mentioned Scout so I'll second that!
I also really enjoy Kariba. It's a breezy card game where you're playing animals around a watering hole. Plays in maybe 10-15 minutes.
Lastly, I finally played Take 5 or 6 Nimmt last night with 7 people and it was great! Appealed to hardcore boardgamers as a fun, quick game but also the family around the table who WON'T play boardgames found some joy in it.
Thirded! It explains in 1 minute and is super fun to play. It's been our go-to for warm up games or games at the end of the night.
My wife and I have had success introducing people to ShipShape. Easy to pick up and learn, doesn't have issues with runaway leaders, everyone has a shot to win through a combo of planning and smart wagering.
Essentially, the game plays over three "voyages" which are each 3 rounds. The goal is to fill your cargo hold by stacking tiles that you win through bidding with your cards. Sometimes you want the top tile, so you bid with your highest numbered card, but sometimes you want the one in the middle of the pile, so you have to consider whether others will want the top tile more and bid lower or risk getting a tile that doesn't fit your needs.
7 Wonders is usually our short go-to, though until you learn the symbols it's probably a longer game.
7 Wonders Architects is quick and easy to pick up. I've only played it digitally, but I can't see it being much more complicated in person.
I played Gelatinous over Thanksgiving with my (mostly non-gaming) family, and it was a hit.
It's for 3-5 players, the rules are dirt-simple, and it plays very quickly. There's no thinking here, only luck, so it's best as a filler or last-one-of-the-night game. If you buy a second set, you can play with up to 10 people.
A thread I made last year asking for 2-players recommendations.
Thanks! I did a bit of searching to see if something similar was posted and didn't turn this up. Really appreciate you sharing!
Jaipur is an excellent 2-player game, and I've yet to find someone that hates it. Super easy to teach with a good give-and-take flow.
Hive is a bit like chess except with more interesting hexagonal movement and unique piece set-up which makes games highly variable. Great 2 player game with a good mini pocket version for transporting.
Regicide is a fantastic 2-4 player co-op game that you can play with any random deck of standard playing cards. It's not a deck builder and it's technically just solitaire, yet it feels like Slay the Spire or a modern co-op roguelike. Pretty simple to teach by demoing a round or two.
Timeline Twist is a good choice if you have any history buffs in the family. It's a cooperative 2-6 player game where you work to make a timeline of historical events by playing event cards that happened closest to events currently on the timeline.
Dixit is a popular modern party game where 4-8 players give clues to make some (but not all) players to guess their card from amongst a set of cards with surreal images. Works well with young and old players!
Bandido is a 2-4 player cooperative game to build a maze around an escaped bandit and close off all the exits. It's super easy to teach and play in under 15 minutes!
(Most of these games also have implementations you can try online on BoardGameArena!)
Dixit also has a large variety of extra decks - I'm having a vapid moment, because the only thing I can think of is DLCs but that isn't right. We have two or three different decks to play with, and it's fun to switch it up.
Edit: Expansions is the word.
My favorite is Dungeon Mayhem! Fun little card game up to 4 people. You do what it says on the card, or sometimes what the helper card says. Rules are fun and Intuitive.
My 7.5yo and 6yo love it, and my wife and I enjoy playing with them too.
My wife and I have been enjoying Azul as of late. We were also a big fan of Jaipur but haven't played it in a while.
A lot of great games already. One so haven’t seen mentioned yet is Set. Quick to set up, fairly quick to play a round, technically a very simple game, and never downtime for any players.
There’s a grid of cards on the table showing 1-3 objects of a certain shape, color, and shading pattern. Everyone plays at once with the goal of finding sets of cards; “A set consists of three cards that are either all alike or all different in each attribute”. When a set is removed, fill in the gaps with three new cards. Game ends when the deck is exhausted and there are no more valid sets on the table.
It’s a real brain twister with a nice amount of competitive stress/thrill from trying to identify sets before everyone else. Difficulty - and comedy - ramps up significantly when alcohol is involved.
Ohhh, great addition. There is a [Numberphile video] (https://youtu.be/EkFX9jUJPKk?si=R9xsNlgKJvgg3sSr) about the maths of set for anyone interested. This is another one that is really quite simple to explain (as shown by the explanation given).
Deep Sea Adventure. I love every Oink game I've played but this is the one we go back to the most. You are divers attemping to recover sunken treasure, but there's a limited - and shared between all players - air supply. The rules are simple to learn but allow for a decent amount of strategy, and while quick to play it's so tense. Once the air starts ticking down it doesn't stop so games take maybe 10-20 minutes at the most, but it feels longer when you're not sure where your next breath is coming from! Also the little diver meeples are adorable.
I was recently given Just One which is a word-based party game and it's dead simple but good fun. Game length is limited by the number of cards you start with so games clock in at about 20 minutes. Suitable for all ages, and non-gamers too.
Definitely more of a card game, but Five Crowns has taken over our family game time. It's like Phase 10 without the bullshit. You're trying to get either a set or a run to go out first. The cards left in your hand at the end of a round are worth their face value in points and the winner is the person with the fewest points at the end. The gimmick is the number of cards per round. First round, everyone gets three cards. Jokers are wild cards and 3s are also wild. Next round, everyone gets four cards and 4s become your wilds instead. This goes on until you get to Kings/13 cards. It sounds like a lot but rounds move fast and your biggest challenge is generally making sure you don't accidentally discard a wild. It's fun and easy to teach. I got my set online but I've seen it in the card game section along with Uno and games like that
At work so don't have a lot of time at the moment. Card games my family enjoy:
Cribbage: 2-6 players - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cribbage
Pitch: 2-9 players - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_(card_game)
Tic: 2-6 players - https://thevspotblog.com/2013/07/how-to-play-card-game-tic-and-other.html
Golf: 2+ players - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_(card_game)