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I wanted to write this post because this situation happens to me and my partner a lot. It will either be Friday evening or an evening in the middle of the week when I want to play games, my partner would rather play a video game, and we agree that we’ll play something that doesn’t take too long to play and doesn’t require too much thinking. We also find this happens when we have friends over during the week, so it might apply to number of different scenarios.
Here is the list of games we have agreed don’t require too much energy to play:
Fun Facts
Players: 4 – 8 players
Playing time: 30 minutes
Fun Facts, by , is a very light party game where players secretly answer questions about themselves, and then have to rank themselves against other people at the table. The more answers that are in the correct order, the more points you receive.
We love playing this at the end of an evening when we want to keep playing games, but no one has the brain capacity for a long game or a new game. This game always makes us laugh and is unpredictable when playing with different groups of people.
Hogwarts Battle
Players: 2 – 4 (or 2 – 5 with Charms and Potion expansion)
Playing time: 30 – 60 minutes
In Hogwarts Battle (by Sean Fletcher, Forrest-Pruzan Creative, Kami Mandell, and Andrew Wolf) players take on the role of a Hogwarts student (Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and other characters if you have the expansions) and work together to defeat iconic Harry Potter villains. In this cooperative deckbuilding game, players will collect spells, magical objects, and allies to help them battle the dark arts, and ultimately vanquish the villains.
I cannot tell you how many times we’ve played Hogwarts Battle! It’s our favourite go-to cooperative game when introducing cooperative games (or just modern board games in general) to friends for the first time. It’s also our annual New Year’s Eve tradition to play an absolutely ridiculous marathon game with both expansions. However, for a slightly more chill game, I recommend years 1 – 4, without any expansions. As well as being a massive fan of the theme, we really love this as a gentle introduction to deckbuilding as it starts off with straight-forward rules, and then builds up in complexity as you progress through the years. We have a ridiculously fun time every time we play this.
Unlock! Adventures (level 1 or 2)
Players: 1 – 6 (some are 2 – 6)
Playing time: 45 – 90 minutes depending on which game you choose
Unlock! Adventures, by various different designers, is like an escape room in a box. Players work together to search for clues, combine objects, and solve puzzles within a fixed time limit. This game is app-based so you will need an electronic device with you while you play.
We have played almost all of the Unlock! Adventures now and each one is a completely different experience. If we are after something short and sweet, we normally opt for a low level (level 1 or 2) adventure as we know this is usually only 60 minutes maximum. Unlock! Adventures have recently added a series of short adventures to their collection, including 30 minutes games, which are ideal for a quick game during the week.
Horrified
Players: 1 – 5 players
Playing time: 60 minutes
In Horrified, by Prospero Hall, players work cooperatively to save the villagers, collect items, and defeat the monsters that are plaguing the village. Each monster provides their own challenges and needs a unique mechanic to defeat them. So different combinations of monsters provide different gameplay.
As you can see from most of the list, we love a cooperative game in our house as it means you can share strategy ideas and you don’t have to think as much as you would if you were playing a competitive strategy game. Horrified has simple rules, but each turn is engaging and becomes more suspenseful the more monsters you play with.
Animals Gathering
Players: 2 – 5 players
Playing time: 20 – 40 minutes
Animals Gathering, by DuGuWei, is a light-strategy game that combines dice rolling and tile placement with beautiful geometric animal artwork. Players become mages in the magical kingdom of Crystal Forest and must gather magical stones, by rolling dice, to revive long-lost animal companions.
Animals Gathering is very easy to learn and, as it’s a dice game, no two games are the same and you often discover new animals each game. There is an element of push your luck when balancing the number of cards and dice, which I think adds an exciting mechanic to the game. I find Animals Gathering to be a very relaxing and satisfying game.
