This is an all time classic board game cafe conundrum… You love board games and want to share them with all your friends. In one go. You book a table and ask EVERYONE to come and… weirdly… they do because, well, board games are cool… You now have a table of LOTS and are looking at the collection of games and they all seem to be for 2-4 players… Whaaaa? Help!
Let’s pause for a second… if you have a high player count, imagine how long it would take between turns while people wait for all the other players! Yikes… you know that at least one of them will lose interest and get their phone out. Whilst we’re at it, we should also consider how complicated those rules are… we don’t want people getting bored and not ‘get it’.
So, let’s see if we can solve this for you!
Colourful and creative… HUES AND CUES (3-10 players)
How hard could it be to describe a hue? The crossover between language and colour, has never been this much fun!
Since this came out in 2020, this has been a staple high player count game at all our cafes. The board is stunning, 480 colours on a board in the middle of the table, eye-catching! At its heart this is a limited communication, description game.
The Cue-giver describes a colour with a single word with some restrictions and everyone guesses a different hue. A second round then takes place and two words are allowed to describe the same hue, secondary guesses are then placed by everyone. Points are given for being close and the Cue-giver gets points if people do well! Everyone has a go at giving cues, it really is that simple. We love the conversations people have after each round about the choices people make.
We’ve even seen colour blind people of various levels play this game… It’s an education for the others around the table about how each other sees the world. So, play this, don’t throw shade on our choices! You really should get the tint and give this a go…
Adrenaline pumping… JUNGLE SPEED (2-10 players)
The clue here is in the name of the game, reaction speed is key and it really does feel like you’re playing by the rules of the jungle.
This is manic but oh, so good. Any age can play this and kids, with their ninja-like reflexes, can totally beat the adults. Divvy out those cards equally and take it in turns to turn your top card over. Got a match with someone? Beat them to the totem in the middle and you give them your cards. No cards left? Winner! Grab the totem at the wrong time though and get everybody’s cards. Dang!
There have been a few different special cards and rule changes since 1997 when the first edition came out, in our humble opinion the best change has been moving away from plastics and towards eco-friendly materials without changing the game in any other way. Good job.
Do bear in mind when adrenaline runs high and games get physical, sometimes people get carried away and minor scrapes can happen. So don’t monkey about too much, we’d be lion if we said this game was no good.
Working together… JUST ONE (3-7 players)
Want to work together for a change? This co-operative masterpiece is so simple that you’ll be asking yourself, ‘Why did nobody think of this game sooner?’
This 2018 game was very well received, in fact it won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award in 2019. That’s basically the Oscars of the board gaming community. Yeah, it’s that good.
So, play goes like this… a card is placed out facing away from the guesser and the guesser calls out a number between 1 and 5. Everyone but the guesser writes a clue on a board to hint to the guesser the corresponding word. The clues are revealed and the guesser has to guess the word. There’s a twist… if anyone writes the same word as anyone else then both of those words are deleted, ‘Just One’, get it?
Be obscure but not so much that it will cause the guesser to get it wrong! Play 13 times and score, that’s the basics. Isn’t that ridiculously simple? We’ve seen two sets merged together and played as a 14 player game, now THAT is a high player count.
We normally suggest playing again and trying to beat your previous score… So we guess it’s more of a ‘Just Some’ kinda game…
Knowing people well… GREEN TEAM WINS (3+ players)
Here’s another game where the title says it all. You want to be on the green team. They win. So, get on the green team, stay on the green team and win!
So, how do you get on the green team? A question will be asked everyone, not a trivia question, a question that is purely opinion. You’ve got an opinion or two? Yeah? Well… this game is for you then!
Everyone reveals their answers and if you’re in the majority then you’re on the green team. Get it wrong… you’re on the orange team. If you get on the green team, you get a point, if you stay on the green team, you get two! So.. you think you know people well? Try this out for size…
It’s quick, daft and leads to some very interesting conversations, you can even merge two sets and play up to 12 players… Orange you glad we made this suggestion?
Describe, listen and draw… MONSDRAWSITY (3-8 players)
You’ve seen a Monster! Blimey. Luckily the D.R.A.W sketchers are here and are ready for you to describe what you saw… now… was it grinning? What were its hands like and how many did it have? Quick, you’ve only a short time to describe it!
Don’t worry if you can’t draw… this game is really about listening… The ‘Witness’ only sees the monster card for 20 seconds and has 2 minutes to describe it. Points are awarded a number of ways and there are some variant rules too so you can spice it up.
The monsters are so varied and detailed, it’s very tricky to remember everything and some of the results will be hilarious. This is another of those conversation starting games, as well as being great fun!
I think you get the outline… sounds sketchy enough for you?