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Board games can be a great way to relax and spend time with friends. They can also be a great way to start a screaming match or poke at the cracks that are already forming in a rocky relationship. Lifelong grudges have been formed from a single game. Any game can turn into a fight, if you try hard enough. Here are the top 7 board games that could destroy your friendship at any moment.
Monopoly
The classic game of capitalism and every man for himself. In this game of acquiring property and making money, you have to antagonise the other players in order to win. Whoever is lucky enough to get Mayfair will be looked at with anger and resentment by everyone else around the table. It is a game where it is easy to get richer and hard to pull yourself out of poverty. Tension and frustration fill the game, and it definitely doesn’t make it any better to triumphantly shout “RENT” whenever someone lands on your property. This is definitely a game that could start a few arguments!
Catan
Any game that partly relies on the roll of dice can cause bitterness. Catan is based around building on territories and gaining resources from them. Irritation builds as the dice turn against you and your resources slowly deplete. There is so much strategy involved in winning this game that it is easy to have it destroyed by someone else unintentionally, however, the Robber and the Knight cards mean that you can also target other players intentionally and with fervour. No friendship can survive stealing Longest Road, Largest Army and placing the robber all in one go.
Jungle Speed
Jungle Speed is essentially a more violent version of Snap. Everyone goes around the table drawing a card until two people have a match. At that point, the people who match both grab for the totem in the middle of the table. Whoever is slowest picks up the discard pile. It might not sound that divisive, but as the tensions builds, so does everyone’s competitive spirit. The rules say that whoever is holding the majority of the totem is the winner, but in the heat of the moment this gets lost. I have seen people come away with cuts, bruises and once a bitemark. Take off your rings before you start this game if you value your friendships and your corneas.
The Resistance
The Resistance splits the group into two teams: Resistance Operatives and Imperial Spies. Each team is trying to win, but only the Spies know who is on their team. The Resistance are left in the dark. As much as you try to stick to logic and use the elements of the game to try and work who is on each side, it never works. By the end you are screaming at your friend of 12 years because they look shifty or smiled at the wrong moment. It is a great way to find out who you actually trust and who you don’t...
Risk
The less said about Risk the better. It may be a classic, but I have only played it once. I value my friendships too much to ever play it again; it brought out a side in people that I didn’t need to see.
Exploding Kittens
Each turn you draw a card, hoping desperately not to get an Exploding Kitten, because when you do, you explode and are out of the game. Luckily the other cards have powers that mean you try to avoid your fiery demise. Unluckily for one member of the group, it makes sense to pick one player and attack them until they explode. You can steal, attack and NOPE until you have all their good cards and they are in pieces. Of course, it is completely random who you picked. Or was it? You will never know and you will never forget.
Secret Hitler
Very similar to The Resistance, Secret Hitler splits into two teams, Fascists and Liberals. On top of that, one of the Fascists is Hitler. Again, each team has got a goal and the Fascists are secretly working to make sure the Liberals don’t achieve theirs. The gameplay gives you more information about the other players than The Resistance, which should make it easier work out who is on each team, but it doesn’t. The more clues you get, the more unsure you become, the more you yell at each other. You will learn which of your friends can lie with ease and which ones crack under pressure. That level of uncertainty creates great animosity. Some friendships just can’t survive having “Shut up, Hitler” shouted in their face.