5 Board Games for Any Party Anywhere

Posted on January 16, 2020February 2, 2020 by E.R. Burgess

Photo courtesy — twenty20.com/duangbj from Reshot

Everyone loves a party but what do you actually do there? Not a birthday or anniversary — just a gathering. Sure, you talk to people. But if you don’t really work the room, you can miss the chance to connect with most of the people there.

That’s why the party game exists — to bring people together. Party-style board games give you an excuse to interact and laugh with people you like, love or even you just met. These days, we spend nearly a quarter of our time in artificial social spaces. Do I even need to quote research to say that’s not a good thing and we need more time with friends IRL? (okay, here you go.)

The great news: Party games have gotten so much better than even just 15 years ago. If you pick the right ones, you get half-hour experiences that can wonderfully bring a party of people together.

So let’s get to this list of excellent party games that have given me hours and hours of joy with friends both old and new:

Telestrations

Not so much a game as a fun activity, this drawing game doesn’t require you to be an artist at all. In Telestrations, players draw a picture of representing the word on their card into a dry erase book with multiple pages and passes it to the next player. That player looks at the drawing and writes a word or two to describe it. Then, books are passed again and the next player draws based on those words…and so it goes, varying between a word and a picture. When the books reach the original player, they are revealed and everyone gets to see the hilarious interpretations. Telestrations is a riotously fun experience for up to twelve players.

The 12 player pack, also available in an 8 and 6 player edition.

Codenames

This award-winning game from Vlaada Chvatil is a team-based word game, but one with minimal ‘word nerd’ pressure. Like the classic game Password, each of the two teams has a clue giver providing a word to their team to elicit one word responses. The catch in Codenames is that the clue giver can clue more than one word each turn, in a race to identify all your words on a 5×5 grid before the other team guesses theirs. You need two people willing to come up with clues, but the rest of the team can enjoy the game without feeling any pressure. There’s no upper limit on players if everyone can see the cards. You can even get bigger cards with the XXL edition.

Wits & Wagers

An award-winning trivia game that won’t frustrate people without a Trivial Pursuit mind. Every question in Wits & Wagers is a number you can guesstimate. Furthermore, if the question is just not your thing, the second part of a round involves betting on who got it right. This excites the gambler in your players and gives people a second chance. Wits & Wagers is enormous fun and it has been a hit at our parties for many years.

Just One

The newest game on the list, Just One is probably the easiest of these games and it’s also cooperative. That means everyone is just working together to do well and laugh it up. Each turn, the active player has to guess a word based on one word clues from everyone else (written on individual display stands). However, if the players come up with the same clue, they aren’t revealed and that limits the information the active player gets. You play to see how many of thirteen words you can get. While Just One requires a little thinking, it’s noto so much that you can’t do it after a couple of glasses of wine. A definite winner for up to 7 players.

Dixit

— Maybe you know Apples to Apples (or its NSFW cousin Cards Against Humanity). A wonderful similar game is Dixit, which has the same “judge picks the one they like” concept but uses gorgeous and unique images on each card. The active player plays a card and gives a creative word or phrase to describe it. Everyone else puts a card from their own hand into the mix, and players then guess which one the active player added. The goal is to not be too on-the-nose so everyone picks your card. Ideally, you want just one person to get your hint. Poor guessers can still get points for people picking the card they submitted instead of the original. Dixit is a blast and has many expansions available.

Why We Party Game

Let’s be clear on one last point: Party games are not about winning! They are about having fun in a shared experience, not crushing your competition. It doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time competing, it just means that you should focus on the fun and the people first. It’s a party, folks!

So toss out the old Trivial Pursuit (unfair advantage), Bunco (boring), and Taboo (tiresome) and replace them with the winning choices above. Turn your next party into a great experience for everyone and build those real-life friendships that we all cherish so much more than a zillion “friends” online.

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REVIEW: Sparkle*Kitty Delights With Its Message & Silliness

Posted on October 18, 2017October 19, 2017 by E.R. Burgess

Sparkle*Kitty is a cute game I wish I’d had years ago. Simply put, I had an easier time getting my son to play board games over the years than I ever did with my daughter. Sure, when she was younger, my daughter delighted in any time with Dad. But it’s not really her fault; there are never enough games with girls in the driver’s seat (although I will soon talk about the amusing One Deck Dungeon, which pushed the other way). That’s one reason why Sparkle*Kitty is delightful. SK tells a story that makes sense for the girls, with self-rescuing princesses that are in control. More importantly, it’s a charming party game that rides the theme well for both families and kids-at-heart.

Sparkle*Kitty is designed by Manny Vega and published by Breaking Games, who have had past success with Letter Tycoon and the wildly successful Kickstarter for Rise of Tribes earlier this year. The game allows for 3 to 8 players and works fine for ages 6 and up. Generally, you can play it in 15-30 minutes (depending on the number of players) and I say the more, the better.

Players in Sparkle*Kitty get to play as one of seven cool princesses with various personalities. Each player gets a hand of nine cards that are used to build a tower with four of them, with their princess on top. The remaining cards become their starting hand and they begin play with the goal of getting rid of first their hand cards and then the tower. Generally, players will need to clear their hand card first, then they can disassemble their tower to gain freedom and win the game.

How do you get rid of the cards? That’s the amusing part. The tableau in the center has two cards from the deck with funny or quirky words that are said together on player turns – this is ‘casting a spell’. When the active player would like to play a card, they need to match the color or the icon of one of the cards, then say the words. This is funny stuff as the words tend to be quirky and cute stuff like:

Okay, not all of them are sweet, but that’s part of the fun. Some cards will offer players an advantage (like playing as many cards as possible or forcing other players to draw), but many of them (black cards labeled “Dark Magic”) will require players to say another word whenever they cast their spell. While people don’t mess up all that much, you can decide how tough you want to be on them for partially flubbing a word here and there.

That’s part of the amusement, in my book. More special cards exist, with some rule-breaking options, some wild cards and even the super-cool Sparkle and Kitty cards that let you draw back to your hand from your Tower instead of the deck. But the real fun is everyone repeating the silly spells each turn while trying to get rid of their cards. Many tongue-twisty moments came up, especially with the Dark Magic cards in use.

Sparkle*Kitty ends when that happens and the princess who discards her last tower card wins. The game from rules to finish is less than 30 minutes with typical players. I love that designer Manny Vega built this game, which could have been done with a variety of themes, specifically with the empowered princess in mind. As I said, I wish my daughter could have played it as a younger person and seen us all need to play self-rescuing princesses with such a funny theme. Even with kids in the game, who stayed engaged in our game due to the bright colors, funny words and great artwork of powerful princesses, we played the game quickly. The under-10 year old players wanted to play again immediately and asked about how soon they can get the “Kitty Game.”

The answer is right now. Sparkle*Kitty is just bursting out now after a limited run back at Gen Con 2017. It’s now on Amazon for $20 and at your local high-quality hobby game store. If you have young kids, maybe bump up that rating by one level because you may just need the game with the rainbow-vomit kitty box.

**Boardgame Babylon Rating for Sparkle*Kitty**

BIN (Buy It Now) PIN (P)lay It Now TIF (Try It First) NMT (Not My Thing)

Disclosure: Publisher Breaking Games provided a copy for independent review.

Session Review: Bring Your Own Book from Matthew Moore and Luke Nalker and Gamewright Games

Posted on July 16, 2016July 16, 2016 by E.R. Burgess

Bring Your Own Book (subtitled “The Game of Borrowed Phrases”) had me at the title. As a voracious reader, I knew it was going to be a game that I’d enjoy. I wasn’t prepared for the game to play so well with our entire group, including some I’d describe as ‘non-readers’. It’s 2016 – what can you do? Although bibliophiles will embrace the game quicker, you need not be obsessed with books to enjoy it. Originally released as a self-published game, Gamewright has snapped it up. Thank goodness they did because it’s fun and we laughed a lot while playing.

Bring Your Own Book is amusing for the reason most party games are: you get to inject the personality of the people playing into the experience. On the surface, it’s a pretty straightforward. Like Apples to Apples, Dixit, and Cards Against Humanity, players submit an answer based on criteria set by a game card. That player selects their favorite option and awards the card to the player who selected it. The subjective selection of ‘good’ answers based on whose turn it is drives the mirth in these games. Bring Your Own Book is no exception here.

Yes, You Literally Bring Your Own Book

The innovation here: Instead of a hand of cards with possible answers, players arm themselves with a book. The book’s text is the source for their answers. Once the game card is read, players scour their books to find a phrase or line to match the card. Categories are all over the place, which is amusing. Some examples of the witty card selections: “A line from an unpublished Dr. Seuss book” “A pickup line” or “The title of a romance novel.”

One might read that description and think the game is more interesting for readers who pick their favorite book to use. Not so. The real fun comes out of the truly bizarre answers people try to pass off as a reasonable answer. I did well in our first game with a book on Irish history (I’m a mutt but more Irish/English than anything else). One of our players had a picture book about gnomes, which was a great source for ridiculous responses. Considering the card picker can select the winner based on their own criteria (funniest or the most appropriate for the category), going the funny route can often work and it almost did for the gnome book-wielder.

If you’re one of those folks who have moved on from deadtree books to the ebook world, you can still enjoy the game. While we had people raiding a few of our bookshelves, there’s no reason why players can’t just bring up a book on their Kindle or iPhone to use. Furthermore, you can get many free books online from your local library or online resources to use in a snap.

(Yes, BGB listeners who know me to be a total tech-head might ask about these bookshelves in my home. I do mostly read e-books but the deadtree variety are so cheap these days that sometimes, I just buy them instead…hey, I got this Morrissey biography for $.08 plus shipping!)

Oh, yeah – the winner is the first one to four or five cards. I think that’s it. Seriously, if you care about who wins, you’re missing the point of party games.

The Final Word on Bring Your Own Book

If you like this style of party game, you’re bound to enjoy Bring Your Own Book. While I love and admire clever party games like Codenames, games where you submit answers that rely on player relationships are the biggest source of laughs. The delightful bonus for Bring Your Own Book is how it allows players to get even more creative in their selections. Yes, it’s lower-effort creativity than the likes of Balderdash (another of my favorites), but it works. The game is now on our Top 10 Party Games list.

Bring Your Own Book plays in 20-30 minutes and with 3-8 players. Of course, you can control these factors by simply handing out more cards or increasing the threshold for winning. The packaging is also delightfully bookish, another fine detail for us book-lovers. I’m jazzed by the packaging Gamewright has been using, although my favorite has been the dice games boxes with the magnets you’ll find housing Qwixx, Dodge Dice and Rolling America. Not anymore – look at the cool addition to Bring Your Own Book just below. You track the books used to play the game as you go. What a terrific idea and one that is unique to Bring Your Own Book.

Bring Your Own Book is available now from Gamewright and you can follow the author here.

Boardgame Babylon Rating for Bring Your Own Book

BIN (Buy It Now) PIN (Play It Now) TIF (Try It First) NMT (Not My Thing)

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Disclosure: Copy provided by the publisher for independent review.

Boardgame Babylon

Thoughts on Modern Board Games, Gamification, and Hybrid Electronic/Tabletop Play Experiences

Tag: Party Games