From ‘esoteric’ to ‘wacky’: eight games to keep big kids (and grownups) off their screens on holiday
With nothing but long, lazy summer days and nights on the horizon, you’re probably spending a lot of time with friends and family at the moment. And eventually, you’re going to need something to actually do in between sessions of eating yourself into a festive coma (especially if it’s raining).
This is where games come in handy! On our weekly podcast, Game for Anything, we – Rad and Paul – regularly talk about games of all kinds. So we decided to whip up something to help you out: a list of conflict-defusing, time-killing, joy-inducing card games, board games, and games with no card (or board) required. They’re perfect for any number of holiday situations you may find yourself enjoying – or trapped in.
(Just a quick note: these games are primarily for adults and families with high-school aged kids.)
If you’re meeting a bunch of new people: Curious Humans
Price: $49.99Ages: 18+Players: 4-10Playtime: 30-90 minutes
Here’s your game-sanctioned opportunity to be your judgiest self. Players read out a statement from the cards, and everyone guesses if it’s true or false for that player. It’s super quick to learn, and has lots of flexibility for house rules. The real magic is in the plethora of well thought-out prompt questions, and how the game encourages lively speculation, swiftly followed by demands for explanation.
The statements are split into four colour-coded categories: everyday, awkward, controversial and sexy. This makes it easy to remove unwanted cards and make the game family friendly. Or you could up the ante and get the Kinky Humans expansion pack. Just decide beforehand how much you want to learn about your friends.
Find it here
If it’s just you and one other person: Inhuman conditions
Price: $73.96 – or free, on Creative CommonsAges: 12+Players: 2Playtime: 5-10 minutes
If you find yourself with one other person for a long period, Inhuman Conditions is a truly esoteric way to kill some time. It’s basically the VoightKampff test from Blade Runner – there’s an interviewer, and there’s an interviewee. The catch? The interviewee might actually be a robot trying to pass as human. It’s up to the interviewer to ask a series of probing, almost surreal questions, designed to bring out odd reactions from the person they’re interrogating.
When you begin, you find out whether or not you’re a human or a robot, and have to make it through unscathed. If you’re a robot, you have to act human. And if you’re a human, you have to somehow seem human, which often leads to overcompensating, which leads to stumbling, panic and a fantastic, frenetic back-andforth as you build towards the game’s conclusion: a robot getting caught, a robot getting away with it, or a human being accused of being a robot and walking away quietly offended.
Find it here
If you want to drink while you do it: Jenga
Price: $29Ages: Kids version: 5 + / Drinking version: 18+Players: 1-8Playtime: Depends on how long you drag it out
Many of us enjoy a little tipple during the silly season, and if you’ve any inclination to make it even sillier may we suggest a game of fine motor skills, manual dexterity and flashes of extreme hubris? We’re talking about Jenga (or, if you’re lucky, his oversized brother, Giant Jenga).
Jenga is an enjoyable game at any time, but with a little liquid courage behind you it becomes a chaotic riot of risky moves and even riskier trash talk. Bonus points for one handed plays, with your drink in the other. And just to be clear, folks: this isn’t a drinking game! But if you’re an adult who wants to make it a significantly riskier affair, a drink in hand can really up the stakes. Find it here
If you’re on a getaway with a
small group: Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
Price: $69.99Ages: 13+Players:
1-8Playtime: 60–120 min
Let’s say you and a group of mates are on a lengthy weekend away. Problem: there’s gonna be a lot of free time over the coming nights. Solution? Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective. Essentially, it’s a box filled with cases for you to solve. In each one you’re given a crime (we’ll be blunt: it’s almost always a murder). Sherlock has tasked you with solving the crime using period-appropriate newspapers, maps and clues inside said box.
Once you think you know who did it (and how), crack open the envelope and find out how you did. The kicker? Every time you hop to a new destination, interview a suspect or search for clues, you lose points – so you’ll want to solve the case with as little information as possible. It’s like a game of golf! A sinister, murderous game of golf. Oh, and the next night, you do the following case – and sometimes, previous cases contain vital clues, meaning before long, you and your friends will feel like the heroes in an ongoing prestige TV series.
Find it here
If you want a game within a game: Don’t Get Got
Price: $34.99Ages: 14+Players: 2-10Playtime: 30 min to the entire night
A barrier many have to board games is the sustained attention required to play, but Don’t Get Got resolves this by being better when you forget you’re playing. At the start of the party, gathering or soiree (and this game works better with large groups of people), each player gets a little plastic wallet with mission cards inside. They can be as simple as “Get a player to tell you their age” or more prop-oriented missions such as “Tell a player something is voice activated. Get them to try it.” Throughout the night your aim is to complete your missions – if you trick your fellow players you got them, but if they call out that you’re tricking them then you’ve been got, and failed your mission.
Don’t Get Got breeds a wonderful sense of paranoia and suspicion as you start, but after a few hours of socialising and no one getting got, people relax and forget about the game. It peppers moments of excitement through the gathering, and encourages people to be generally wacky to try to hide their missions.
Find it here
If you want to teach your kids to negotiate: Catan
Price: $49.99Ages: 10+Players:
3-4Playtime: 60–120 min
Catan has been around since 1995, and is beloved in the world of board gaming. Essentially, it takes place on an island (Catan). You and the other players are colonising said island, and plundering it for its natural resources. Different types of land yield different things: hills give you brick, pastures give wool, mountains lead to ore, grain comes from fields, and forests? Lumber.
As the game progresses, you’re building roads, amassing armies and trying to reap the 10 points required to win. But the real meat of the game is trading. Call it what you will – bartering, conning, swindling – but you’re going to find yourself with something you need, and someone who has what you need. And maybe they need what you have. And perhaps, if you’re lucky, they’ll come to the bargaining table … or, if things go south, they’ll flip that table and storm out of the room. Either way, Catan’s unique, addictive trading mechanics are sure to provide endless hours of entertainment, and/or lessons in the rigours of agrarian capitalism.
Find it here
If you want to make your own game: Fish Bowl
Price: FreeAges: 8+Players: 6 or morePlaytime: 20-40 min
Known by many names, Fish Bowl only requires pens, some slips of paper and a receptacle to hold them in (a fish bowl, perhaps?). Write one prompt per paper – traditionally a celebrity – then fold them up and throw them in the bowl. After splitting into teams, round one sees a player giving verbal clues to get their teammates to guess what is on the slip without giving the name itself. A correct guess is a point, and they have 30 seconds to get through as many as possible before turning over to the next team. After the bowl is emptied, all slips are put back in and round two begins: one word clues. Similarly, once all clues are used they go back in and round three is played with charades.
Fish Bowl combines several elements of classic games, is easy to understand, super interactive, and rewards you for remembering the clues. It’s also great fun to write prompts that are specific to your group, or add extra info for difficulty – like “Grandma driving a race car”. But if you want to do away with the stress of coming up with ideas, you can pick up Monikers for a really nicely put together set of prompt cards.
Find the rules here
If you want to eat up an entire evening: Werewolf
Price: Free (you can buy it, but it’s just as good when done on the fly)Ages: 13+Players: 6 or morePlaytime: 30-60 min
Games of deception are always a great way to inject spirited yelling into an evening, and test your acting and deduction skills. One classic of the genre is Werewolf (also known as Mafia). In this increasingly raucous party game – which requires nothing but a table, chairs and players – there are hidden agents that are trying to sabotage the group, and it’s up to the good guys to weed them out. Werewolf is played in rounds, with voting to deduce who the saboteurs are … or to fling baseless accusations at each other. It’s a great outlet for your more argumentative family members to blow off some steam.
Werewolf is a sweet and simple game, but its simplicity is deceptive: as the game rolls on, the tension becomes truly palpable. Werewolf is high stakes insanity, with drama, intrigue and yel
ling. Lots of yelling.Find the rules here
So there you have it! In the famous words of Girl Thing in their hit 2000 song Last One Standing, “Life’s a game and we all like to play”. Go forth and enjoy play this holiday season. Angharad Yeo and Paul F Verhoeven are the hosts ofGame for Anything, the twice-weekly gaming, tech and pop culture podcast