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Played Taboo with my friends
Like the title says, I played Taboo with my friends yesterday. It's decently fun, but every time I play it, the thing that sticks with me is how shocked I am that some players don't know what certain things are or how bad they are at thinking on their feet. On the plus side, it's also a chance for people who you'd unfairly judged to make a good impression.
What are some other games that have consequences like these that you haven't heard people discuss before?
Not physical, but games like skribbl.io can also be fun to see how other people think on their feet. They show the intentional and unintentional ways people present their ideas. But the more fun part, in my opinion, is playing it with friends that are closer to each other. You can make references to inside jokes, or sometimes you can make awful assumptions that lead to hilarious moments.
One time I thought a friend was making a very politically incorrect joke, and everybody else was laughing at it, getting the name right before me. I said "You guys are awful," and typed in what I thought was the correct answer. Turns out, it wasn't the answer. Not by a longshot. I was the one who had the rotten assumptions, and my friends -rightfully so- laughed at me for minutes. I did too. It was fun.
I love games like that. They are especially fun to play in person but remotely also works pretty well. I've been hooked on Jackbox games for a long time.
(Shameless plug incoming).
I've been building https://gametje.com to capture those same fun moments. I have a drawing game similar to skribbl but then you have two people drawing at the same time. It's really amusing to see both drawings coming to life simultaneously and the different ways people think. The site also has 4 other games in the same simple to play vein. The UI could use some work but I think it's still pretty fun. I'm still actively developing it on a weekly basis so more games to come eventually 🙂
Cards Against Humanity can be a great way to get people to put their guards down. I’ve played it with coworkers and (while I wouldn’t recommend this as it is very explicitly NSFW) it helped break the ice and reveal more of the true people behind the “professional colleague” mask I was used to seeing. But again be careful with this one, even outside of work settings it can backfire if a player is more on the conservative side and feels really uncomfortable with it. I’d still say the game is successful at illuminating that aspect of someone that might not otherwise be apparent, but it can also cause them to feel alienated or resentful if everyone else is getting into it.
Apples to Apples is definitely a "dumbed-down" version of CAH, but it's along the same lines (and iirc came out quite a while before CAH).
Also, for my family... "Cards Christians Like" is a pretty legit option that mimics CAH just a little less sinful by their standards. But hey, I never thought I'd see my family loosen up and be amused by "my youth pastor's skinny jeans" or "Jesus' temple whip". It's a step up from Apples, but still not CAH level.
I played a game called Dixit this year with colleagues. I think it's pretty similar to what you describe with Taboo in terms of finding out new things about people based on their answers etc. in Dixit, I find it really interesting to try to get into the clue givers head to try to predict their card. It's one of those games that is more fun with people you know better though and it's a bit difficult to explain the rules initially until you've done a round or two.
Dixit can be infuriating with people who think very differently though! I have friends who seem to go out of their way to overthink things.
You might also enjoy Mysterium, which is an asymmetric Dixit-like (Dixit meets Cluedo I guess?) in which a "ghost" gives clues to detectives through image cards.
Mysterium is one of my favourite board games of all time. We have Dixit too, and you can just swap the cards over. Dixit-with-Mysterium cards is dreamier, and Mysterium-with-Dixit cards is funnier. I guess you could shuffle them together too if you wanted.
They are both fairly infuriating when your so-called friends can't figure out you meant the RED SQUARE YOU IDIOTS, NOTHING TO DO WITH THE HAMMER!
Bohnanza, Catan, and other games that require semi-co-op gameplay or establishing your own trade decisions. My friends seem to agree that I'm an agreeable, pleasant person until I play anything of the like, in which I turn into a cutthroat, calculating lizard.
Or at least, that's what my wife says to get everyone believing she's a trustworthy partner right before she flips something on the table to reveal she's a step ahead of everyone else...
Tri-Bond was an interesting option uh, about 20 years ago (I presume when it first came out). Some friends and I visited another friend living on a boat. We had Taboo but were getting too noisy and some folks in the marina complained. So we went down inside and played Tri-Bond. Turns out, it was a sleeper hit, and we were all amazed we came up with some amazing "guesses". Sadly, I have only played once since, and it definitely takes some thinking minds, but fortunately I guess we were all on our game that night.