How To Host a Children’s Games Party

Making Sure Everyone Can Play

I’ve played many games with many children. Being a teacher, introducing modern games to my classes has been one of my greatest wins! Letting them know modern gaming goes beyond Cluedo, Monopoly, Guess Who and Snakes and Ladders has knocked their socks off. Heck, I’ve accidentally created a group of 30 Kickstarter backers based on a preview copy I introduced them all to!

But the excitement they’ve shown and understanding they’ve had at their own levels has shown me that they generally thrive on low mechanic numbers and frequently changing elements. Chaos of dice rolls and card shuffles as a prime choice for of these games. The removal of needing to consider what’s coming up as the main focus when choosing.

Now I know there’s always going to be that one ‘Child Einstein’ who’s been playing Vitaal Lacerda’s collection of heavy weight worker placements since they were six. That one kid who was brought up playing the BGG 100, legacy games and is no stranger to a quality RPG. And that’s awesome! But we’re trying to cater to a wider audience of varying experiences. Both in life and in tabletopping.

As such, as we’re going to be suggesting games that are quick play, easy access and low maintenance as a primary. We’d rather everyone could access at some level than have one player have a blast whilst the rest act as tourists. We’d also suggest avoiding games with knowledge as a resource or bespoke themes. Quizzes with singular answers are a no go. No two children will have the same life experience and, as sad as it is to say, some will have lived very sheltered lives in comparison to others.

My partner didn’t watch a Disney film until she was an adult so she’d have been absolutely pants at Disney Colourbrain! Of course, if you’re going for a themed party then it may very well fit the bill for you. And using Disney Colourbrain as an example I’ve had excellent games of it with my class of 30! But not all children love the Disney classics, so a niche focus of game needs the right gamers.

Start Physical

My go to for a children's games party is to pick a game nearly everyone can access. Dexterity. It’s centred on physical movements and can be scaled in complexity based on how dexterous you need to be. What’s more is it’s incredibly low stakes in terms of commitment. This is the safest set of choices in terms of player retention, as someone losing interest and leaving often doesn’t break the game’s flow. You just skip them! Not all games will have this luxury and you can never predict whether a child will see something shiny and simply wander off from a game, so ensure you’ve got some of these to hand!

As a simple standard for choosing some games to get started, it’s important to ensure you begin with basics. Easy access and low maintenance as a massive focal point. These suggestions are ones I feel work regardless of the context and skill level of the players – the all rounders!

Obvious ones in my head focus more heavily on a dexterity and physical level. Ice Cool and Ice Cool 2 are superb choices as they can be combined to increase player counts and are lovingly themed! Rhino Hero and it’s Battle counterpart are two more dexterity games that are superbly easy to play – both centred on stacking but with Battle requiring more decisive actions.

Get More Dextrous…

Taking it to the next level with dexterity centres on more constraints or more competition. Men at Work is a great example of those games with more constraints. It adds lots of scaled difficulty elements and forces you to play tactically and carefully. One that may require some adult support for explanations, but one I’ve taught children and then had them run themselves.

Another alternative here is Flyin’ Goblin. Hilarious goblin launching fun. We often forget about winning and focus more on impressive feats of in air accuracy.

Or go full hog and turn the table into a battle field! Throw Throw Burrito is literal madness across the table. Just watch for breakables, the literal throwing of the burritos can cause some collateral in the heat of war!

As for more competitive as the difficulty upper, you’ll want clear cut winners. Jungle Speed is absolutely brilliant with smaller groups! Playing pairs until someone sees one then grabbing the totem – it’s an incredibly simple concept, but endlessly fun and one that’s very low maintenance. An alternative here – a messy one at that – is Table is Lava. Throwing cards, claiming islands and controlling zones. A great one so long as you don’t fear losing a meeple or two!

Move Onto Thinky Puzzly Chaos!

Now we get to the more tactical games. The ones where choices matter more than actions. And, once again, we’ll be suggesting games that have minimal mechanics and lots of uncontrollable elements. These are the ones where it may be beneficial to have a grown up to hand to guide the rules a bit. Not micromanage – but ensure the legality of all rules and help with scoring. I found playing a sample game with them or having someone who knew the rules play along helped, but I know that’s not always feasible. We’ll start by suggesting some super low level ones and move to some with a bit more meat on the bones.

When hosting a children's games party, the first game I would try to introduce for groups is Kingdomino. It’s dominos at its core so super easy to teach, but it’s competitive and excellently fun. And it’s easily scaled! If your little gamers aren’t against a bit more weight in their game, throw Queendomino into the mix and you’ve increased player count and complexity all at once. It never becomes an impossible feat to play and causes next to no stress. What’s more is that, because scoring is done at the end, it’s unlikely to cause mid game losers trauma. Win, win!

Of course, if you need to turn that complexity down but enjoy dominoes as the focal point, why not delve into Dragomino? It’s simpler, faster, more streamlined and has dragons!