next »

[Capntastic]

Let's get this rolling.

Or uh

Let's deal with this?


Love Letter is probably one of my favorite card games to bring to almost any friend gathering. It takes almost no time to explain at all - "end the game with the highest value card" and "you can only have two cards in your hand, and you have to play one card every turn".  Each card tells you what it does.  Each round takes maybe two minutes max to play.  Great to kill time while other games are being set up or while waiting for pizza to arrive.

I have the special Japanese edition where the art is sort of anime-ish and there are Prince art you can swap in for the Princess card. It's always good to present your friends with options.





I really enjoy shorter games that take no setup or explanation time, because the hassle of getting uninitiated people involved in some of these games is a real strain.

[Capntastic]

Monopoly Deal is an awful game for sociopaths and conartists and I have a deck in my trunk for when I am over with friends goofing off.

Monopoly, the original, was  game designed to remind you that Capitalism makes one winner at the direct expense of making many losers who no longer get to play.  Monopoly Deal is all of the anxiety and friendship-ruining animosity of that game condensed into a ten minute card game.  The goal is to get three complete sets of properties through buying and trading.  Also you can get cards to just straight up steal stuff.  Hopefully you can call for a ride home after you get kicked out for bringing this cursed game upon your friends!

[JWK5]

The various BattleCon games/expansions (Devastation of the Indines, War of the Indines, Fate of the Indines, etc.) are pretty awesome. They are designed to mimic a fighting game (Tekken, Street Fighter, Soul Calibur, etc.) and they do it very well.

Each character in the game is a prebuilt small deck of cards that combines with a base set of action cards. There is a board which has seven spaces the characters can move across (there is a character token for each character) and movement is very important in the game. Each round the players pick two cards to form an attack (or defensive move) and then play their sets against each other at the time which are then resolved based on their priority value, damaging soaking ability, etc. and can also move the characters along the board (for example, if you have priority you can potentially move your character out of range before the other player's attack hits).

It's a really well-constructed game and good for both short spits and long play sessions. There are a few different ways to play, including 2v2 tag matches or a Marvel vs Capcom style 3v3 and also a cooperative dungeon exploring type game variant. You get a lot out of it for the price you pay.

[s0]

!!!!HIDDEN GEM ALERT!!!!: Peloponnes Card Game

ok, so this game looks like a normal Euro tableau building game (think 7 Wonders or Race for the Galaxy, both great games btw) on first glance. buy cards and use those cards to buy better cards and build up your ancient greek city state, that kinda thing.

BUT: not only does the Peloponnes Card game boil down some really deep strategic decisionmaking to only 8 decisions on which card to bid for over the course of about 45 min, it's also fucking NASTY and BRUTAL. this isn't your standard polite euro civilization builder.

the nastiness and brutality is due to 2 things: 1. the designer plays guitar in a grindcore band, 2. this game has a mechanic called catastrophes. catastrophes have a certain chance to hit each turn and if you fail to protect yourself against them by getting the right cards, they will absolutely WRECK YOUR SHIT. built up a nice stash of luxury goods (the game's "wildcard" resource)? TOO FUCKIN BAD, you just got hit by decline, taking away ALL of them and limiting your maximum luxury goods to 3 for the rest of the game. need to feed your people next turn? you just got hit by a drought, destroying your highest food producing card.

keep in mind, this is still a Euro though. there's no "combat" or anything like that. the only direct player interaction is bidding for cards each turn, but you can still do some mean things there, mainly jacking up prices and forcing your opponents to pass (robbing them of a card that turn, which with a max just 8 per player is a huge deal).

the only bad thing here is that the art is pretty drab

[pelle]

Star Realms and Hero Realms. Very good deck-builders with some fun player interactions (ie you get to launch attacks against the other players a lot).

But I have not jumped on the latest Star Realms kickstarter because I really think I have enough for a long time. It is very replayable. I have not even bought all the old expansion packs. Will get the coop/solo campaign expansions for Hero Realms though.

[quantumpotato]

I want to play more Star Realms. Only played thrice but was starting to get the hang of it. I feel like Evolution (also card) may be more strategic than SR but the gamefeel was good.

"Brutal euro" sounds up my alley, I'm looking up Peloponnes! I want to play Mint Works but it's over $40..

Love Letter is :ok_hand: , I have not played that enough. Accidentally skipped the part where you burn 1 card to start my first few times.

My friend made a game that I love, brings memories of Coup (careful timing of who you attack) + Love Letter (seeing / trading cards). Prayers & Pitchforks -- Print n Play https://zachreytd.itch.io/prayers-and-pitchforks . You don't see your own card but you see the next player's card. One of you is Possessed, one's a Priest, the rest are Villagers.

Spend your (limited) Prayers & Pitchfork tokens aiming to kill the Possessed and score points, pray on the Priest to get points.

What makes it interesting is you can trade cards with a player of your choosing, throwing off other's strategies and making interesting mindgames. Cap / anyone if you try it out, please comment or post here and I'll relay the feedback!

[ViktorTheBoar]

Sushi Go is a fun, simple, fast paced game playable by children and it secretly teaches math and gambling and stuff! Okay, not really gambling, but probability. Same thing!

[quantumpotato]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machi_Koro

[Capntastic]

I agree with both of the above

[theitguy]

I think UNO cards nowadays are in too. Especially UNO cards today has new features. Your thoughts?

[Tanner]

the fox in the forest is my favorite simple card game. really tight and some fun mindgames, even against yourself

[quantumpotato]

fox & sushi look neat.
machi koro kind of breaks with 4 or more players.. we even tried an unsanctioned 6 player game - red attack cards were way too good. stick with 3p.
btw. http://boardgamedesignlab.com/

[michaelplzno]

I was just playing 5 card draw poker, that is a great game imo.