A Board Game Playlist: Small Games

Smaller games for smaller timeframes

Not every good game requires twenty minutes to set up, and you don’t have to clear out a block of time or an entire tabletop to play it. Here are a few games with less setup, a smaller footprint, or faster gameplay. I’ve listed my (not at all official) descriptions of various game mechanics below.¹

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Ascension: Deck-building. This game is fairly straightforward. Throughout the game, you use your cards to defeat enemies and gain heroes, which improves your deck. The better your cards synergize with one another, and the more you can get rid of filler cards, the faster you win. My boys usually win this game, but I have been known to smash them on occasion.

Hues and Cues: Asymmetrical competitive. I bought this game mostly because my artistic daughter loved the board, which is a spread of one-inch squares in a gradient from red to yellow to green and all the way over to dark purple. The gameplay is very simple. Each player has a card that shows a square from the board, with its specific coordinate on it (i.e. rose pink, E16). On your turn, you give a one-word hint as to which color you have. Players place their markers on the board, trying to guess your exact square. You can then give a two-word clue to nudge them closer to the right answer. Points are doled out depending on how close each player got to the right square. Since it’s easy to cut the game in half, playing only to 25 instead of 50, this is an ideal game for to fill up a half an hour. (A solid five minutes of that will be picking up the little wooden cone-shaped pieces, which slide right out of your fingertips.)

Fluxx: The rules for this card game are very simple: draw a card, play a card, and win by meeting a Goal. Okay, now buckle up, because Fluxx is a wild ride. Every time somebody plays a card, something changes. Rules change. The winning Goal changes. You lose your cards. You gain more cards. It’s almost impossible to strategize your turns, but it is entirely possible to win accidentally. Some Fluxx games can last over thirty minutes, while others end with the first round. There are many different themed Fluxx decks, from space to pirates to chemistry to zombies. We have the original one, and it’s a good one for a game with no setup time. You can even deal in an extra player halfway through… not that you ever know when the halfway point is until the game is over.

The Crew: Trick-taking, cooperative. You are a space-based crew of astronauts, and you have to accomplish certain goals together with limited communication. The gameplay uses classic card mechanics (see below). The twist is that everyone win or loses together depending on what the goal is. For instance, certain players have to win certain cards of certain suits—sometimes in a certain order. Everyone has to play very carefully and manipulate each hand so that the correct player wins the correct card. Very limited discussion is allowed, and strategizing is important. It’s a game with a simple premise and challenging gameplay, and we always enjoy roping in another couple of players in for a few missions.

Marrying Mr. Darcy: Set-building. You don’t have to be a fan of Pride & Prejudice to enjoy this game. Essentially, you are collecting the correct set of cards for a chance to gain the treasure you want. However, if you do know the story and the characters, it adds another layer of enjoyment to the game. You, as one of the women from the story, accumulate certain traits that will attract the gentleman of your choice. There are various “event cards” that reference plot points, conflicts, and interactions from the story. And the conclusions aren’t foregone: if you as Elizabeth don’t manage to secure Mr. Darcy, you can still do well enough with Mr. Bingley or Col. Fitzwilliam. If you don’t win a proposal from any man, you’re an Old Maid—but even then, if you roll high enough, you have a shot at a comfortable life. I kind of like the way this card game highlights how Austen’s heroines weren’t just in search of love and romance, but trying to secure their economic future. There are two expansions that I know of: Emma, which adds a lot of fun Events; and Zombies, which I haven’t played and the very thought of it torments my poor nerves.

Quiddler: People who like Scrabble or Boggle would like this card game. You are spelling words, and you want to be the first person to play all of your cards and discard a card. At the same time, you want high-scoring words. Each round, everyone is dealt one more card, so on the tenth and last round, you’ve got 13 cards in your hand. That’s lots of possibilities for words, but also potential disaster if you’re stuck with high-scoring cards that you have to subtract from your score. Although it is possible to score badly on a couple of rounds and never really catch up, in general this is a fun game that moves quickly.

Patchwork: Tile-laying, two-player. This game has more moving parts than you’d expect from such a small box, but once you get the gist of it, it’s a smooth little game. You earn currency in the form of buttons; you spend the buttons to buy tiles; you use the tiles to cover your personal grid, and also know how many squares to move on the shared gameboard. You want to end the game with lots of buttons and few empty spaces. It’s a challenge to balance all of the elements, and just because you’re good at Tetris doesn’t mean you’ll dominate at this game. It’s a unique two-player game, and fun to pull out when we have half an hour to fill up.

Quixx: This roll-and-write game didn’t look like much when I picked it up, but turned out to be a pretty good combination of luck and strategy. You’re rolling colored dice, adding up the numbers, and X-ing out those numbers on colors tracks on your notepad. The more Xs you have, the higher your score, so be careful which number you cross off so you don’t block off your chance to X off everything before it. Fun and fast and casual.

King Domino: Tile-laying. My favorite thing about this game is how well the gameplay flows. From choosing tiles, to determining turn order, to moving to the next round—it’s all well-designed and intuitive. The game itself is accessible even to older children, since the idea is to lay tiles of similar types together to multiply your points. The artwork is vibrant, and the tiles feel good in your hand. And it’s all in a small box and takes no more than twenty minutes to play a game. Definitely one to have on your shelf for a quick after-lunch pick-me-up.

Forbidden Island: Tile-laying, cooperative. The island is sinking, so everyone has to work together to collect the four treasures and then helicopter away before the island goes completely under. This was the first cooperative game I played, and I was enchanted both by the concept of playing together to “beat the board,” and the beautiful, fantastical artwork of places like “the Howling Gardens” or “the Phantom Rock” or “the Lost Lagoon.” I still enjoy playing it.

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As I finish this second part, I realize that most posts like this include links to all these games, if not screenshots of the game art. I figure everybody can google as well as I can, so I’m going to skip that whole tedious process, because who needs more tedium in February? Besides, I promised my son I’d play Marrying Mr. Darcy with him.

1. Various Game Mechanics, as I understand them:

Cooperative: All players work together to “beat the board.” They either all win, or all lose.

Deck-building: Each turn, you draw a certain number of cards, each one of which gives you some ability or benefit. Throughout the game, you buy better cards and get rid of lesser cards, so you build a better deck as you go.

Engine-building: Usually a card game. Each card has a certain ability that is activated on each turn. The more cards you play and the better you synergize their abilities, the longer and more productive your turn becomes.

Set-building: Collect cards of matching or diverse suits in order to fulfill a certain goal.

Tile-laying: Instead of cards or tokens, these games depend on tiles. By laying them in certain places, or next to certain other tiles, you build your playing area and earn points.

Trick-taking: Classic card game mechanics. The first player “leads” with a certain type of card. Everyone else must “follow suit” or automatically lose. The highest number wins the “trick”—unless someone has played a trump card that beats all other cards.

Worker-placement: You accomplish goals by designating your markers (“meeples,” usually) to do certain actions. Because you have a limited number of workers, you have to choose your actions carefully so that you’re able to reach your goals.