Games for the Family (Christmas 2022 edition)

I want to buy a new game for the family at Christmas. They like things like Codenames, Welcome To…, Just One etc. Any recommendations?

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Sushi Go!, Railroad Ink, Wavelength, and Knitwit could work. Something like Coup or One Night Werewolf if you enjoy lying to each other and :grin:

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Doodle Dash (drawing game), Happy Salmon (bonkers game), Bohnanza (trading silliness), Decrypto (a gamier word game), So Clover (another gamier word game),Lama Dice (one of the greatest games of all time)

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Monsdrawsity?

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The games I play with my family during get-togethers are:
Chinatown
Decrypto
Flamme Rouge
Letterpress
Lords of Vegas
Men at Work
The Estates
Ticket to Ride
Treasure Island
Wavelength

And Crokinole I guess, but that’s a bit pricey.

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Love it. For some reason, mother in law hates it!

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A couple more suggestions I haven’t seen others make:

Pictomania
Trap Words
Anomia

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As I can so-sign all these I feel like I now have to take a look at Happy Salmon (Doodle Dash is already on my wishlist but once again N.A. over here)

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I am guessing the best we can do with the family this Christmas would be something like 6 nimmt or possibly Just One.

I personally like Dixit very much but it requires a certain amount of imagination and initiative that I feel like is too much for some people despite the game aspect being very simple.

Concept requires a good amount of abstraction but it is good fun whenever we put it to the test.

Maybe No Thanks or as we call it Schöne Scheisse.

(I had some similar musings the other day about games simple enough for the non-gamers in the family and yet good enough that I would want to play)

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I’m wondering about getting wits and wagers for the next family holiday don’t know if it would work with yours.

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It would be easy to mock up Doodle Dash with the cards from Just One, some paper, a random thing to pick up and a D6.

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Quick recommendations (I should be working on my final term paper, but it’s slowly crushing me and I need a mental break):

“Like Codenames

  • Decrypto (slightly more complicated, slightly more paperwork, slightly better)
  • Wavelenght (the only other game than Decrypto that does what Codenames does better, also a little sillier and faster)
  • Pictomania (I usually describe it as “Pictionary, but fun!”)
  • So Clover (honestly, a little too slow and thinky for a proper Codenames-like, but still pretty good)

“Like Welcome To…

  • Cartographers (a little more player interaction, but equally clever, and opinions are split between which is better between it and Welcome To… I like Welcome To… slightly better, but I respect the perspective that Cartographers is better)
  • Ganz Schon / That’s Pretty Clever (lighter, faster, but still solid with a little player interaction and quickly explained rules… the whole series is very good)
  • Fleet the Dice Game (“What if you wanted the most insane, most complicated version of Welcome To ever made?”)
  • Three Sisters (“… and what if that wasn’t insane and complicated enough? What if you wanted to go straight past lightspeed and into ludicrous speed?”)
  • Lost Cities the Dice Game (Nice, light, with just a hint of player interaction and yet very satisfying in a slow, thoughtful way)

“Like Just One

  • Pictures (legit my least favourite Spiel Des Jahres winner, but just because it’s not a great “game”… it is a great activity to play with family! Also co-op)
  • The Crew (either of them, really… fully co-op euchre for 3-5 players that’s really clever but also quite accessible)
  • The Mind (less of a “game” and more of a bizarre party/magic trick you play with people you like… traditionally I described it as a sociology experiment… surprisingly good)
  • Master Word (another co-op word game, and not as silly as you would think from the rules, but still pretty good, honestly)
  • Letter Jam (not “raucous fun” like Just One or Codenames, but a slow, thoughtful puzzle of a word game that’s fully co-op and not super complicated… definitely a brain-burner, but in a satisfying way. Works best with 6, and increasingly less-good as you drop players)
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Nice shit? German names for things are bizarre!

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