Five party games your family will love
These party games are fun, engaging and inclusive.
Finding games to play with family can be a tough thing. I’ve written about it quite a lot for one reason or another, and it’s something I’m always thinking about. Part of that’s because most of my game playing happens with family these days, but I think it’s also that it’s just fun to play games with people you love.
But while in the past I’ve focused on games that are easy to teach and approachable but still largely not party games, I’m trying to do something different here today. I’ve written about five party games that I absolutely adore. These are games that are sometimes a bit chaotic that do something unique or interesting in the party game space. They’re not card games you can talk while playing. They’re not quick-teaching strategy games. These are games that will make you laugh until your sides ache.
Importantly to me, you can play nearly all of these games with anybody of nearly any age. (Monikers, the sole exception, has some optional cards that can be removed quite easily if there are content concerns.) You won’t have to worry about young ears, and you don’t have to worry about offending sensibilities.
Don’t Get Got
One of the absolute best party games out there is, without a single question, Don’t Get Got. Each player takes on six secret missions they’ll work to accomplish throughout the course of play. That play is always happening in the background of your activities, so you might end up playing Don’t Get Got and, say, Carcassonne simultaneously. It’s neat.
Anyway, those secret missions? They’re weird. They will put you in strange positions. If you want to complete them, you might have to (lightly, safely, and appropriately) embarrass yourself. But if somebody thinks you’re trying to complete a secret mission, they’ll ask a simple question: “Are you trying to get me?” And if they are, they’ll flip that mission over to a “failed it” side. If your mission is completed, you’ll declare, “you got got!,” and they’ll turn their card to a “nailed it” side.
This is a game that promotes unusual situations, but it does it in a way that feels friendly, inviting, and hilarious.
Designed by Zoe Lee and James A. Vaughn. Published by Big Potato Games.
Monikers
I understand that Monikers is basically an updated version of the classic party game Celebrities, which I have probably played once or twice 15 years ago. Basically, it’s charades and Taboo combined. Sort of. After dividing into teams, players will guide their teammates toward guessing the subject on a card you’ve drawn over a series of three rounds. In the first round, the clue-giver can describe their card in any way they wish, so long as they don’t give the name of the clue outright. In the second round, the clue-giver — who has kept the same cards — gives just one word. In the third round, they’ll enact their clue with charades.
This is a weird, wonderful game, and it’s a great reminder that you can bring new life to tried-and-true party games, and it doesn’t have to be overly complicated.
Designed by Alex Hague and Justin Vickers. Published by CMYK.
Gussy Gorillas
I don’t know what I expected when I backed this game on Kickstarter, but I’m pretty sure this wasn’t what I thought I was in for. And that’s not to say anything negative about the publishers — it says more about me than it does them, certainly. I mean, I understood the game on a mechanical level, but I really think this is a game you have to play to understand.
See, in Gussy Gorillas, you’re playing a negotiation game with up to ten players in which you are trying to trade your cards for other players’ cards. Simple. But you can’t see your own cards, and you can see your opponents’ cards, so you always know what you’re trading for, but you never know what you’re trading with. Sometimes, people won’t trade with you. Tough luck — better add another card to sweeten the pot. Except you still can’t see that card, so you might be continuing to offer nothing — or you might have just made an extremely good deal for somebody else.
Cards are worth points. Some are worth negative points but can be made positive by special cards. Sometimes you might not have negative card, but you still have to reverse the polarity on a card, giving you negative points. Oh, and if you get two of a single card? They’ll cancel each other out. Most of the time.
Gussy Gorillas is not overly complicated, but it is overly chaotic with high player counts. If nobody’s trading with you, you’ll be asking yourself one simple question: Is it me, or is it my cards?
Designed by Nick Murray and published by Bitewing Games.
Wavelength
This rapidly become my go-to party game upon its release. It’s a highly social game in which one player secretly and randomly turns a big ol’ dial with a little range of points on it. (See photo above, if you’re able.) They’ll have a card representing a spectrum in front of them. It might be something like “cold food” on the left and “hot food” on the right. You’ll have to give an answer corresponding to where on the spectrum the dial has been randomly turned. Maybe it’s right in the middle, so you might give the clue “cheese puffs,” or maybe it’s more to the left, so you could give the answer “cheese slices.” It takes just one or two rounds to really grok what’s going on, so there’s plenty of room for a great time while learning.
The best part is that there’s also an app, and if we’re being totally honest, I think it’s as good as the physical game — plus, it’s totally cooperative. That’s a rare thing, a digital adaptation of an existing board game being as good, but that’s absolutely the case here.
Designed by Wolfgang Warsch, Alex Hague and Justin Vickers. Published by CMYK.
A Fake Artist Goes to New York
I was just getting really into games when A Fake Artist Goes to New York dropped and made big waves. It’s an inventive little (literally! It comes in a small box.) party game with a social deduction element that never feels combative or angry. Released in 2011 in Japan by Oink Games, this was released not long after runaway hit The Resistance, but its form of social deduction was friendlier and more relaxed.
In A Fake Artist Goes to New York, each round, a clue-giving player (the Question Master) will deliver write one word within a category on dry erase cards, which are delivered to each player. But one player actually didn’t get the word — they got a big X instead. They’re the fake artist. Each turn, you’ll draw an unbroken line on a piece of paper then pass it to the next player around the table. Each piece of paper goes around the table twice.
After two rounds of drawing, everyone will simultaneously point to who they think the fake artist is. If a plurality of players have pointed to the fake artist, they’ll reveal themselves. They’ll try to then guess what the word for the round was — if they get it right, the Question Master and the fake artist both get points. That’s the case if they’re not caught, too. But if they’re caught and they can’t figure out the word? All the artists get one point.
This remains an enduring success. It’s certainly something you could make on your own at home, but the components make play considerably easier, and I tend to think it’s worth supporting artists.
Designed by Jun Sasaki. Published by Oink Games.
Thank you, as always, for reading Don’t Eat the Meeples! If you’re new here, welcome — I hope you find this as fun to read as I find it fun to write.
I’ll be back with you next week, and I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be writing about. Maybe I’ll take a look at some trick-taking games I’ve been getting to the table lately. Maybe it’ll be something else entirely. (Life threw a bit at us this week, so this idea came from discussion with my wife at the end of a long road trip with an unplanned extended end.)
Drop me a note (via email or a comment on the site) if you have any feedback, questions or thoughts. Maybe around the holiday season I’ll put together a mailbag if I’ve got enough of them.