There are games for which–after the first play most of the time–we are not counting VP. Apparently, this is not how everyone is doing it → you know who you are.
So here are some games–others may call them ‘activities’–for which I never count points:
Dixit
Concept
Top 10
So Clover
Just One
I enjoy all of them far too much to be stopped by counting points and declaring someone the winner. Because we’re all winning when we’re having fun I want to note, that 3 of the above are actually cooperative games anyway.
Are there games for which you don’t count points, or do you always count points?
Anything that’s a party game where the manual just gives an arbitrary points system and often there isn’t a defined “end” of the game.
Anomia, Jazz, and Ghost Blitz all have easy endings (you run out of cards in the deck) and you each end up with a stack of cards in front of you that you can compare.
Monikers has similar, but does have point values on the cards. I don’t think I’ve ever used them though.
Spyfall and A Fake Artist Goes to New York, I’ve always ignored scoring and just played for an arbitrary amount of time. Same for Concept, as already mentioned.
Champion of the Wild, I’m barely using the “actual” rules any more. Let alone scoring.
For something with more rigid rules: I don’t think I’ve ever used the “voting” in Mysterium. I’ve generally just had everyone see all three cards, discuss them, and then give a collective answer (rather than each player answer privately).
It’s just less complicated (and removes some extra faff from a game that already takes a while to set up) and doesn’t add needless competitive elements into an otherwise fully cooperative game.
Mysterium (-ed by @bruitist). Unlike the SVWAG crew, who prefer the original Tajemnicze Domostwo, I do enjoy the sub-game of betting on fellow players’ guesses, but I’ll always play through to the end game even if technically we’ve run out of time.
We vote each round, but I return the vote tokens to the players after we learn who was right and wrong, making the whole mechanism nearly pointless, other than for bragging rights and to keep everyone involved. And then regardless of anything else, everyone gets to fully participate in the final round.
Batman Love Letter is the only one that really comes to mind. Sometimes we score, playing to 7 points as per the rules. Other times, we just play rounds and enjoy the game.
We never keep score in Telestrations or in Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective.
The former because it’s a party game and the aim is to have some silly fun, the latter because to reach a high score, you basically need to ignore half the questions (the bonus ones), otherwise you wind up losing a boatload of points due to too many leads pursued. And that’s no fun.
Did you know Rhino Hero has a scoring system? When the tower collapses, player with fewest roof cards in hand wins. Whenever I’ve played it: when the tower collapses, the table breaks up in laughter and we either play again or switch to something else.
We never keep score with Concept or Wavelength. I think Concept is the only game I’ve ever played where the manual admits that people stopped keeping score in playtesting.
Just realised that I missed Flipology from my list of not counting VPs or wins. I played it last night with my youngest daughter, a bunch of times. I reckon she won at least 4, but it could be 5…?
→ you know who you are.
I want to note, that 3 of the above are actually cooperative games anyway.
-ed by 