While once board games summoned up images of rainy afternoons spent inside gathered around a beaten up copy of Ludo (boring!), now board games have a whole new lease of life. They’re not just for when it’s raining either. They’re a great way to get a party going, or as a party in itself. Get a few good ones together and have a board game evening! But which ones to choose?
Here are some of our top picks for board games to get the party started!
Reverse Charades
A variation on the classic game that makes for wonderful, and vaguely organised, chaos. Rather than one person acting out clues for everyone to guess, players split into two teams and a team acts out clues all at once for one person to guess. The aim is to guess as many right as possible in 60 seconds.
Codenames
This will test your guests’ lateral thinking and give you all plenty to discuss. This game has teams working together to identify the 8 or 9 words which their team’s spymaster is referring to within the 25-word grid, but they only have one-word clues to guess multiple words from. The first team to locate all of the words which have been assigned to their team (via a hidden map) wins.
Jungle Speed
It’s like a complex form of snap – one which will get everyone’s adrenaline pumping as they all race to spot if there are any matches on the (very similar) cards which players take it in turns to flip over. The game comes with a totem stick which has to be grabbed, so beware of anyone with long fingernails! It has a simple premise, but plenty of expansion packs, and even more entertainment value. It’s highly addictive.
The Game of Things
Players take it in turns to flip over a card which has a prompt on it (an example prompt might be “things you can’t do in an aeroplane”). Everyone else writes down the first thing that they think of and passes it to the card-flipper, who then reads out the answers people wrote. Then players have to try and work out who said what. It’s an excellent ice breaker, but even better as a way of getting to know your friends and family even better!
