Top Ten Games : For Your Non-Gamer Family

0:05 welcome to allies or enemies this time we're looking at games you can play with people that don't really play games which let's be honest is often your family are you heading home for the weekend or a holiday wouldn't that be better with a game or two especially if everyone was actually having fun well we have you covered we've compiled a list of games that can be explained in two minutes have everyone involved pretty much all of the time and won't last all night in no particular order here are 10 games that will work for just about anyone dixit odyssey we are specifically suggesting the odyssey version of the game because it can play up to 12 and better yet everyone is involved pretty much all the time the rules are simple one player chooses a card and says any word or words that might relate to it and then everyone else picks a card from their hand that might also relate and then everyone guesses which was right much like visual apples to apples but what puts this one over the competition is the abstraction and the artwork every answer feels kind of right and every card is inherently interesting it is all kind of weirdly zen and people get so wrapped up in the pictures and the guessing that it is rare that anybody gets too serious about the score cartographers another one that can play for a large group is cartographers the box says up to 100. in cartographers everyone's drawn their own kingdom rules are simple

1:36 flip a card then everyone draws the tetra shape on their maps the only tricky part might be explaining the end of round scoring cards but you can always help with that chunk for the first few times cartographer has everyone playing all the time and it lets them create something which people love and by coloring which people love especially if you spring for some pencil crayons and if you think your family can handle it it also has the option of using goblin invasions for a little bit of interactive family feuding king domino if you like the idea of building a kingdom but have a smaller group we'd also recommend king domino which works for up to four players it's our go-to for an intro to tile placement each turn players draft one tile and add it to their kingdom domino style then at the end you count up points based on largest clumps of similar lands it takes a game everyone already knows and adds a fun level of fantasy kingdoms and if you feel like your family is up for a bit more maybe go for the newer king domino origins instead as it adds the option of a few more bells and whistles to ramp up the difficulty ice cool 2 this dexterity game is a bit of a wild card but with the wright family on the right night ice cool is an absolute blast one player is a hall monitor and the rest are penguins who are trying to skip class while also trying to flick

3:07 their way through doorways to steal fish it gets a plus for getting people up out of their seats and another for being hilarious it's amazing how quickly people get into this one and find themselves cheering a daring escape or a ricochet capture and while the original is great we'd recommend jumping straight to the second which adds the option of trick shots like jumping over doorways which when done right makes you feel like an absolute legend bandido not all families are competitive and some are way too competitive for either case you might want to go with a cooperative game instead one great choice here is bandito a super small super addictive card game about stopping an escaping criminal each turn players play one card to the increasingly sprawling map in the hopes of closing off all the escape routes all you need to explain for the first game is that the lines on one card need to match the lines on the other that's it the fun comes from after you fail a few times and start to get really into capturing the hamburglar s criminal this is when you will play three or four times in a row with people still asking for more five minute marvel for another co-op suggestion that will work well for kids or anyone that loves superheroes and can deal with a bit of time pressure we suggest five minute

4:39 marvel this is an ultra fast and ultra messy card game in which teams of up to five heroes work together to defeat a stack of villains the tricky thing is you only have five minutes to do it and you all play it once all the time throwing down cards with symbols that match the next villain in line and then quickly flipping that one to go to the next the great thing about it is it goes too fast for anyone to quarterback but it also goes so fast that people will be excitedly yelling and throwing cards so you need to be okay with a little bit of chaos sushi go party one mechanic we found that tends to work particularly well for families is drafting because everybody is playing all the time for our money sushi go party is one of the best for getting people into the idea of card drafting without too much fuss even at the full count of eight players each turn players choose a sushi card to add to their meal and pass the rest of their cards around the circle at the end of each round you score even the scoring is easy as all of the rules are right on the board and the different ingredients let you turn down or ramp up the difficulty for your group and scoring is forgiving enough that even players that don't understand what is going on for the first few rounds will still end up with some points plus the art is adorable look at those guys giraffe oh soros

6:10 if you like the sound of drafting but don't necessarily want to be shuffling cards all night another great choice might be draft asaurus which plays up to five all the fun of drafting but with the cool tactile pieces shaped like dinosaurs in draftasaurus you're building your own far less bloody version of jurassic park by drawing dinos out of a bag and then choosing placing and passing scoring is all labeled on the board and you end up with a fun thing to look at at the end and at a play time of only 15 minutes you can do a few of these in a row maybe even ramping up to the slightly harder winter side of the board abandon all artichokes even if your relatives haven't really played board games they have almost certainly played some kind of card game so maybe stay close to that comfort zone with something like a band in all artichokes which works for up to four aaa is more than just a great looking but difficult to store box featuring some terrifically cute vegetable art it is also a surprisingly rewarding game each turn you choose a card play all the cards you can and then dump your hand and draw new cards all with the hope of getting rid of your artichokes by using the powers that are all clearly written on the other vegetable cards as soon as someone draws a fresh hand void of artichokes they win the great thing is just about everything you do gets you closer and closer to

7:41 being artichoke free so it always feels close and almost every turn feels at least a bit rewarding survive escape atlantis some folks don't want to play nice some like a bit of cutthroat competition and for those folks we suggest survive which works for groups of up to four or six with the expansion in survive players are racing to get their meeples off of a sinking island and through the shark whale and sea serpent filled waters to safety on a turn you move your meeples flip a tile and roll a dice which sounds easy enough except that the tiles you flip usually dump opponents into dangerous waters and the dye you roll move sharks and serpents to eat those now vulnerable swimmers there are few things more satisfying than crashing your dad's boat with a whale and then eating his five-point swimmer with a great white this one has a bit more complexity than the others and it won't be for everyone because it is so mean but for the right family this is a surefire hit and that is it we're confident there are at least a few on this list that you could take home for the weekend but it is by no means an exhaustive list so please let us know the ones you think we missed in the comments and as always please like and subscribe and hopefully we'll see you all next time for another game