Not everyone is dedicated enough to sit down and learn the rules of The Resistance or Catan and have the patience to see multiple sessions through. These games, work as a great way to introduce everyone to tabletop gaming and are suitable for parties. What makes good party games? Any number of people can play, people can leave and join in the middle of the rounds, each of the rounds are short, there is endless replay value, and people can be sorted into teams – these are some of the considerations we had when putting together this list. All of these games are incredibly fun and have rules so simple that anyone who is merely observing people play a round or two can instantly pick up the mechanics and join in the fun.
In Codenames, you are given a grid of words. Some of the words represent secret agents, others represent commoners, and there is an assassin. Two teams have a spymaster each, who has to reveal the location of the agents on their teams, by using codewords. A single word has to describe multiple other words, for example, the “Euphrates” for Turkey, River and Water. In this game, the spymasters have to be aware of the knowledge and vocabulary of their own teams, so it is best played with close friends. There are also two special rules that are almost never used, a spymaster can give unlimited guesses to their own team, and also eliminate the assassin card or other cards by saying a word, and then saying zero, which means none of the words is related to the concept. This is one of the most fun party games on the list and will have people laughing and fighting in no time, very often at the same time.
Exploding Kittens is fun, over the top game with lots of cartoon violence. People have to move through a deck of cards, using special actions indicated on each of the cat-themed cards. The challenge is to avoid being the player who draws the bomb card, the possibility of which increases as the cards in the deck reduce. The base game is for two to five players, but picking up two of these will let you play with ten players. Each of the rounds is extremely short, less than 10 minutes. People can actually leave or join the game in the middle, as the bomb card is always in the deck. The game is modular and has a number of expansions, all of which are fun. If you like The Oatmeal webcomics, are into internet culture, are a cat lover and have a secret wish to be a pyromancer or an arsonist, then this is a game that is right up your alley.
This game is a combination of dumb charades and coffee pot. You are given a card which has activity or verb on it, and you have to act this out to convey to your team members what the word says. But that is not all, you are also given a role to play or another action at the same time. There is a timer, and you have to beat the clock while acting or drawing, according to the cards drawn. The rounds are short, the cards are always funny and sometimes bizarre, you never know what you might get next. Like you might have to milk a cow by using another player’s hands. So even if the same group is playing with the same cards, you keep getting all kinds of new things to act out. This is the adult version of the game, with some of the cards not suitable for very young children.
This is the essential quiz game and can accommodate up to six players. Players have to answer questions in different categories and answer the corresponding questions to acquire shards. Once a single player acquires a shard in each of the six colours or categories, they can go on to answer the final bonus question and win the game. The six categories are “Geography”, “Entertainment”, “Art & Literature”, “Science & Nature” and “Sports & Literature”. There are more than 2,400 questions, so you will take some time to burn through all of them, The way the description is worded, and the use of “and” within the categories makes it difficult to understand what the categories actually are, but we have them listed here for you. The questions are mostly simple to average, but with a few difficult ones thrown in. Good for ages sixteen and up.