Favorite easy, compact, no brainer games for six adults?

[Halftime Hope]

Now that we have adults, babies and puppies in the mix, we tend to gravitate to Uno, mexican train, and other fast, no brainer games.  

Any other suggestions?

[Erica in OR]

What about Pit?

Erica in OR

[fairfarmhand]

Dutch blitz

[JIN MOUSA]

Spoons

[Junie]

Uno is one of the only games that I will play with my kids.  I don't really like games a whole lot and I really don't like games that make me think a lot.  On the other hand complete no-brainer games like Candy Land drive me bonkers.

Some games besides Uno that I enjoy: Yahtzee, Clue.

[Halftime Hope]

For those who have played Left, Right, Center, how many sets do you need to have a good game with six adults?   One set says 24 chips in the package?

[Pawz4me]

3 minutes ago, Halftime Hope said:

For those who have played Left, Right, Center, how many sets do you need to have a good game with six adults?   One set says 24 chips in the package?

I'm confused by what you mean by sets? Each person needs three chips/tokens. So 24 chips/tokens would allow for eight players.

But we always play it with dollar bills. Winner takes all.

ETA: I've played it with as many as 13 players.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Pawz4me

[Rockhopper]

Dutch Blitz!

[Halftime Hope]

3 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I'm confused by what you mean by sets? Each person needs three chips/tokens. So 24 chips/tokens would allow for eight players.

But we always play it with dollar bills. Winner takes all.

ETA: I've played it with as many as 13 players.

Is that all you need?  3?  I can't read the directions for the game without opening the package, so I'm clueless.  

 

[Pegasus]

Whoonu (by Cranium) is way more fun for adults than it has any right to be.  🙂

 

[Tanaqui]

Left, Right, Center is less of a game than an activity. You say "no brainer", but there is literally no room for any decision making at all, not even the decision to roll a second time or not. It's about as thinky as Candyland or Snakes and Ladders. You roll the dice and do exactly what they say, then hand them to the next player.

If that's the level of thought you want, don't let me stop you 🙂

But if you want a tiny bit of decision making rather than no decision making at all, you may want to get something else. Maybe Zombie Dice or Love Letter?

Edited December 22, 2018 by Tanaqui

[Tanaqui]

Certainly, and lots of people really enjoy it! If anybody here thinks that it's something that their group will like doing, they should absolutely try it out. I mean, I don't get Bingo either 🙂

But if anybody here doesn't think that's what they'll enjoy, they should know upfront.

[Halftime Hope]

Just now, Arctic Mama said:

Phase 10!  We just played last night 🙂

https://www.amazon.com/Made-USA-Shop-Phase-2-Pack/dp/B07H4S83D8/ref=pd_sbs_21_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07H4S83D8&pd_rd_r=8d139d80-061a-11e9-9a1f-612069dec60e&pd_rd_w=S5ElB&pd_rd_wg=Ogr7g&pf_rd_p=7d5d9c3c-5e01-44ac-97fd-261afd40b865&pf_rd_r=J0VYW6V1AAR6RKE1W3K1&psc=1&refRID=J0VYW6V1AAR6RKE1W3K1

 

 

We done at about level 6.  LOL!  

[Pawz4me]

1 hour ago, Halftime Hope said:

Is that all you need?  3?  I can't read the directions for the game without opening the package, so I'm clueless.  

 

Yes, you need three tokens (or dollars or quarters or whatever) per player.

 

12 minutes ago, Tanaqui said:

Left, Right, Center is less of a game than an activity. You say "no brainer", but there is literally no room for any decision making at all, not even the decision to roll a second time or not. It's about as thinky as Candyland or Snakes and Ladders. You roll the dice and do exactly what they say, then hand them to the next player.

If that's the level of thought you want, don't let me stop you 🙂

But if you want a tiny bit of decision making rather than no decision making at all, you may want to get something else. Maybe Zombie Dice or Love Letter?

The bolded is what I thought at first (I'm not a huge fan of playing games at all, so I often don't "get" them). But DH and the boys educated me that one should actually be playing with a bit of strategy. I forget everything they pointed out (there was way more than would have ever occurred to me), but one very "duh" thing I didn't even realize is that if one rolls a "wild" die one shouldn't take chips (or in our case dollars) from a neighboring player unless that person is really, really loaded. If your neighbors run out then you're almost certainly going to run out, too. There were several other things they pointed out, that was just the most obvious one that clueless me didn't "get."

But I think there are different versions of LRC, and that not all of the dice have a "wild." And even with it there are various ways to play.

[rebcoola]

Tenzi https://www.amazon.com/Tenzi-Dice-Party-Game-Colored/dp/B004TAAGFQ

Edited December 22, 2018 by rebcoola

[Faith-manor]

We like Apples to Apples for an easy game, and there is a junior edition if you have younger children.

[Carol in Cal.]

Mexican Train is strangely engaging.  It's a domino game.

[Halftime Hope]

I scored a Sushi Go game.  I know we've played and liked that.  CodeNames was fun but won't be much fun with only 6 ppl.  

[Kareni]

If you all have a good vocabulary and spell well, you might enjoy Bananagrams.

Regards,
Kareni

[J-rap]

We like the card game, Up and Down the River.  (Also known as Oh Hell!)  There are variations on the rules, but it's really fun and doesn't take too long.  You start with 7 cards on the first round, then 6 cards, then 5, etc., all the way down to 1.  You can keep the game shorter by stopping there, or you can go back up to 7 again.  

[RootAnn]

I wouldn't say no brainer because there is some math, but Farkle is fun.

[Tanaqui]

Quote

If there wasn’t people wouldn’t play it with real money! 

 

People do buy lottery tickets, though.

[PeterPan]

8 hours ago, J-rap said:

We like the card game, Up and Down the River.  (Also known as Oh Hell!)  There are variations on the rules, but it's really fun and doesn't take too long.  You start with 7 cards on the first round, then 6 cards, then 5, etc., all the way down to 1.  You can keep the game shorter by stopping there, or you can go back up to 7 again.  

Up and down the river is popular in assisted living. Rummy is one step up from Uno but still not hard.

[LostSurprise]

Momma Mia. You can play this seriously or completely un-seriously and it's easy to explain. You have pizza order cards and pizza ingredient cards. Every turn you either take an order or ingredient card from the deck or you play an order or ingredient card to the central pile. When you think you have enough ingredients for one of your order cards you put it on the top of the pile. Anyone else can also do this at any time, thus subtracting ingredients from the pile. So essentially you're watching what's been played and trying to gauge what's been used and what hasn't. You can play it like this or you can play it with a 'feel' for what's been played and essentially taking chances and getting lucky. Both ways can be productive, so it's great to play with intellectuals and young children and you can get a lot of groaning around the table as you reverse the pile and match ingredients to cards. 

Tsuro. I think this plays 6. This is a tile laying game where you place tiles to move your character forward. Last player to keep moving forward following their line wins. As the board gets full your path can merge with others making it harder to keep moving forward. 

Incan Gold/Diamont. This is a press-your-luck game where all people have to do is decide to continue searching a tunnel or escape with whatever jewels have been found. If multiple people leave together they must split the jewels. If a danger card repeats (2 snakes, 2 cave-ins, etc.) then you escape with no reward. The person with the most jewels after 7 explorations wins. This is a very easy game, but it does need someone to kind of 'whoop' it up and make it fun. 

Faux-cabulary. This is a bit like Apples to Apples in that one person is choosing a subject and everyone else is performing to that judge. Phonemes (word parts) are on blocks and people grab 4 at the beginning of every turn. The judge picks a card and reads a definition and everyone tries to create a made-up word which best fits this definition. It can be pretty hilarious and I've never had a non-gamer dislike playing it. It's also fun in that small children can choose completely randomly and still bring everyone to giggles. 

Crappy Birthday. Another Apples to Apples-type play. One person has the birthday. Everyone else has a handful of terrible gift cards. Everyone picks the worst gift for the judge. The judge chooses which is worst and play goes  around until someone has 5 (or whatever number) wins. 

[Halftime Hope]

11 hours ago, Kareni said:

If you all have a good vocabulary and spell well, you might enjoy Bananagrams.

Regards,
Kareni

I love bananagrams, Perquackey, and other word games, but two of our group are dyslexic.  That puts a damper on word games.  Sigh.

[PeterPan]

Mystery Board Game The Secret Door by Family Pastimes - Award Winning  Have you looked into cooperative games? This is one we REALLY like, but there are tons and tons of them. I laminated the cards and used a velcro dot on the door. It's not exactly a high end game, but the play is really good. It would bridge your dyslexia issue nicely.

[MercyA]

Taboo is still a favorite in my circles.

[KungFuPanda]

We enjoy jackbox party. There’s no learning curve to get started. You need a phone/tablet/or computer to punch in the answer, but if everyone has one it’s easy. 

I think we have Jackbox Party 4.  The TV acts as your game host and explains everything. Your phone is your buzzer, or you choose A,B,C, or D, or you draw something quickly with your finger. Sometimes you vote on what other people have done. You really need 4 people, but a lot of the games can be played by 8 (or even more with the “audience participation” option.)

It’s as hilarious as the people playing, so it’s generally a big, noisy laugh-fest. For about $20 it’s a fairly risk-free investment as long as you have decent WiFi. You just go to the website o. Your phone and type in the game code from your TV to turn your phone into your game piece. 

I understand the allure of a traditional board game around a table, but we’ve had great success sucking people in by promising “it only takes five minutes” and “there’s no learning curve” and “just one game.”  An hour later everyone is still playing hard. 

[historically accurate]

We played a lot of card games when I was growing up. 

Golf: https://www.bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/six-card-golf/

Nutzee: Apparently, it is a variation of a game called Nertz. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nertz

Aggravation might work - I think it's 6 or 8 players. 

We played 10,000 (a dice game) often growing up; it's similar to Farkle.

Now we do Phase 10 and Skipbo. 

[Zoo Keeper]

Skipbo is good for young and old and those on auto pilot. 

Swap is another not so difficult card game...and so is Blink. 

 

[Emba]

The one that immediately sprang to my mind was Farkle. But there is some math, and I had to actually play a game to understand the instructions, so maybe that’s more learning curve than you want. But even my kids picked up on it pretty fast.

[lulalu]

Dragonwood is fun. You do need to add points at the end, but for adults it shouldn't be too hard. 

Tenzi is great fun get the party size

Dutch Blitz

Do you have a local game store? If you do, I would go there and ask what they have that fits your needs and then you can look close. At ours we can even play some games to try out. 

[school17777]

Three games that were a hit at our Christmas this year were Code Names, Telestations, and Mexican Train - all good games for six people.