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Easter is almost here and after the food has been consumed and the easter egg hunt has finished there is that time when no one quite knows what to do and everyone sits around making polite conversation. As gamers we know what to do, play games, so with this list of 5 games you will be able to convince even the most dubious relative to join in and have a go.
Just One
Anyone can play this 3 to 7 player game from Repos Productions about words. The rule set is so simple and even though there are scoring objectives no one really keeps to them and instead just keeps on playing for laughs. One person holds a card facing away from them and picks a number between 1 and 5 and then all other players look at the word associated with the number and in secret write a single word clue that will help the guessing player.
All players who were writing the clues now compare their words and any duplicates are removed from the game leaving the guessing player with unique clues. They have a guess and get it right or wrong and then play moves on to the next players. It doesn’t matter how many you get right; everyone is having fun the whole time.
So Clover
This 3 to 6 player game, also from Repos Productions and about words, steps up the difficulty just enough. Once again, the rules contain a description of how to score points, but no one really cares who is in the lead whenever we play this game. Everyone is just having fun. All players receive a clover-shaped playing board and then in secret four cards are placed on the board.
These cards have a word on each side and as they are placed on your board each side of the board will now have two words. You have to find a single word to write on the clover leaves that connect these words. Finally, you take the cards off the board, shuffle in 1 more random card and all other players then have to try to place the correct 4 cards in the right place.
Codenames
A great way of getting everyone involved is by playing in teams and this 2 to 8 player game by CGE only takes 15 minutes. In this game, two rival spymasters know the secret identity of the 25 codenames laid out in a 5 by 5 grid. That grid corresponds to a key that shows which ‘names’ are with the blue team, red team, innocent bystanders, or the deadly assassin.
The objective of the game is to get all of your team’s codenames covered up by giving a single word clue that will point your team to the correct name/s to cover up. But watch out, if you accidentally point them in the direction of the assassin it is an automatic win for the other team.
Draftosaurus
Have you ever wanted to build a dinosaur park in 15 minutes or less? I know I have and I now can with Draftosaurus from Ankama Games. This 2 to 5 player game is really easy to teach and play. At the start of the game, everyone has 6 dinosaurs secretly in their hand and they choose 1 and place it in a paddock according to the location on a dice roll.
Everyone must obey what the dice roll says except the player who rolled it. Then you pass the remaining dinosaurs in your closed hand to the player sitting to your left and the next player rolls the dice and all players place another dinosaur.
You continue like this until you have used all of the dinosaurs. After which everyone is given 6 more and the game continues. At the end of the game (when you have placed 12 dinosaurs in total), you will score points based on the locations you have placed the dinosaurs in, which other dinosaurs are in the same paddocks and another simple to understand objectives. A great game to help introduce people to the drafting mechanism and the cutest dinosaur meeples you have ever seen.
Sushi Go Party
Now everyone is used to the idea of drafting it is time for a party, a Sushi Go Party. This 2 to 8 player game by Gamewright takes just 20 minutes to play and the basic ruleset is so incredibly easy to understand. Shuffle the cards together (according to the menu you are working from) and deal each player with 10 cards.
Then each player takes 1 card and plays it in front of their face-up whilst passing the other 9 cards to the player on their left. Each card has a unique scoring objective such as having the most of something or only having 2 copies of the card etc. You continue like this until everyone has played 10 cards in front of them at which point you score for that round.
All cards except for dessert cards are reshuffled into the deck and then everyone is dealt 10 more cards. You play 3 rounds in total and the player with the highest score is the winner. You can increase the difficulty by using the harder menus and there are so many combinations of cards you will never get bored of this game.