Help: Advice for geeky card games

Once a month or so I get together with some friends to play Talisman. The game is great but lasts what seems like a very long time (tonight we had 6 people playing). The games sometimes go fast but today's went a bit slow. Because of that you get people who start standing up, sidebar conversations, and just a loss of interest in what is going on. What I'm looking for is a game that would last a shorter amount of time (30-40 mins would be great, an hour wouldn't be so terrible either) that is easy to learn. My wife has never been much of a boardgame geek but did awesome tonight playing! To make life easier I would like to get a good card game going that we can play. I looked at Ascension and Dominion as I've heard good things about them but they say 2-4 players. I need to be able to accommodate 6-7 people tops. We've got a solid group of 5 people but sometimes we get a stray who shows up with beer. How can we say no to the guy with beer?!

Anyways, we've played Munchkin but I've found even that can get kind of long with too many people. I did see a game called Killer Bunnies that looks fun (http://amzn.com/B0002V82O8) but don't have any experience with it.

Any help you guys can give would be awesome. To summarize

1) Card game
2) Accommodate 6-7 people
3) 60 minute games would be tops if possible

If it doesn't need to be too deep/heavy of a game I would consider Bohnanza or Guillotine. I've never played it, but I know a lot of people also like Bang! You could get multiple games of Bohnanza and Guillotine in 60 minutes.

A little heavier, I would try 7 Wonders. Has the deckbuilding elements of Dominion and Ascension and can accomodate up to 7 people. Never played with 7 but given the play and pass mechanic I can't imagine it would take that long once everyone gets the basics, and if you get the helper app, scoring should be pretty quick as well.

It might not be the type of card game you're looking for, but Cards Against Humanity meets that criteria.

Quarriors, that is all.

Mechanics of a card game but played with dice so there's no shuffling. Easy to teach, easy to play. Random play field draw keeps the game fresh.

But it is still short on your requested player count players.

7 Wonders
*drops mic*

Bang!

Some variation of Fluxx.

BadMojo wrote:

7 Wonders
*drops mic*

This. Once you all know the game, they usually last 40-60 minutes, and with the new Cities expansion it can handle up to eight players, and you can even have them play as teams.

The answer is clearly Bang!

Nothing beats yelling mancato defiantly at your friends.

Not Bang! with 6-7; with player elimination, that can make for an awful experience for the guy that gets knocked out in the first exchange.

Citadels is what you're looking for (or 7 Wonders, but a bunch of folks have already said that).

Chumpy_McChump wrote:

Not Bang! with 6-7; with player elimination, that can make for an awful experience for the guy that gets knocked out in the first exchange.

Citadels is what you're looking for (or 7 Wonders, but a bunch of folks have already said that).

Yeah, Bang with six? Not unless you bring along a couple of movies for the first eliminated players to watch to pass the time.

As others said, "card game for up to seven" means Seven Wonders.

Also, go here: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

Seconds for Seven Wonders and Citadels. Illuminati Deluxe would be another fun one, though it might last too long.

One of our favorite card games is Flux. it does require buying the decks. There are many flavors and no two are the same. It is fun, fast and with ever changing rules. Zombie Flux is a particular favorite.

Kiri wrote:

One of our favorite card games is Flux. it does require buying the decks. There are many flavors and no two are the same. It is fun, fast and with ever changing rules. Zombie Flux is a particular favorite.

I swear, I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer...

...but again, I'd hesitate to play Flux with 6 or 7 people. That's potentially a LOOOOOONG time between turns, as Flux sometimes goes a little stupid. Or it ends suddenly after spending 20 minutes setting up the win for yourself. For 2 or 3, go crazy, but with 6 it gets really frustrating.

I think I'll check out Citadels. On Amazon it comes with the Dark City expansion and it's under $19. A good start to see if people will really enjoy the game (or style of game) before dropping more on some of the other games.

Thanks for the amazing advice in a short period of time!

Gloom's a lot of fun if the people at the table have an ounce of creativity.

Edit: you'll need some expansions if you want to accomodate 6-7 players, though.

7 Wonders of course, but Dixit can be played with six.

I've only played Red Dragon Inn with four players, but I imagine it would scale up well to 6 or 7.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Kiri wrote:

One of our favorite card games is Flux. it does require buying the decks. There are many flavors and no two are the same. It is fun, fast and with ever changing rules. Zombie Flux is a particular favorite.

I swear, I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer...

...but again, I'd hesitate to play Flux with 6 or 7 people. That's potentially a LOOOOOONG time between turns, as Flux sometimes goes a little stupid. Or it ends suddenly after spending 20 minutes setting up the win for yourself. For 2 or 3, go crazy, but with 6 it gets really frustrating.

With a bad draw/play of cards I've had a 3 player game of base fluxx bascially get stuck in a loop. I can't remember what cards were played but all of us just gave up after about 30 minutes of no progress. Maybe we weren't following one of the cards right or something, but needless to say that was the last time I picked up that game.

Don't go with Fluxx for that large a group. We Didn't Playtest This At All is wonderful for large groups since it's incredibly light, random (more so than Fluxx), and plays fast.

Demyx wrote:

Dixit can be played with six.

Dixit can scale as big as you want but they only have score trackers for 6. I think one of the newest offshoots (Dixit: Journey) comes with additional trackers and team rules.

This year at PAX I was introduced to the wonders of...
Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre

It actually runs a little slower at the 6-7 player range, and thus is best suited for 4-5, but it's doable.

The most important rule in the book is that when you cast your spell, you have to read it in your best wizard voice.

+1 for 7 Wonders

Tanglebones wrote:

I've only played Red Dragon Inn with four players, but I imagine it would scale up well to 6 or 7.

Yup, I've played up to 8, and it's still a bunch of fun. Gambling (and playing as Genki) becomes incredibly lucrative.

lancejt wrote:

Quarriors, that is all.

Mechanics of a card game but played with dice so there's no shuffling. Easy to teach, easy to play. Random play field draw keeps the game fresh.

But it is still short on your requested player count players.

Just played Quarriors for the first time this past weekend. I like the art style and feel they chose, but there's too much random luck in the dice for it to qualify as one of my favorites. In the first game someone managed to roll 9 Quiddity on the first turn and won 3 rounds later, before anyone else had more than 4 honor. When it's up to me, I'll take Dominion any day of the week.

Delerat wrote:

This year at PAX I was introduced to the wonders of...
Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre

+1 to this. Someone brought it to one of the MA meetups a few months ago and it was a lot of fun for 6+ people.

shoptroll wrote:

Don't go with Fluxx for that large a group. We Didn't Playtest This At All is wonderful for large groups since it's incredibly light, random (more so than Fluxx), and plays fast.

That game is silly and I love it. I will suggest The Resistance and Quiddler.

Evil Baby Orphanage is fun with 5, and scales (it says) to eight. (I can't confirm that it's fun with eight, though.) The amount of time it takes to play is also purely a function of how many victory points you play to - and that's a number that you can change at your whim.

+1 7 Wonders, and definitely not Guillotine. Fluxx is okay. Bang! is fun, but others said it might not fit a group of that size.

psoplayer wrote:

Just played Quarriors for the first time this past weekend. I like the art style and feel they chose, but there's too much random luck in the dice for it to qualify as one of my favorites. In the first game someone managed to roll 9 Quiddity on the first turn and won 3 rounds later, before anyone else had more than 4 honor. When it's up to me, I'll take Dominion any day of the week.

The suggested winning scores for Quarriors are too low. It helps to raise them, giving other people a chance to catch up.

Looks like Epic Spell Wars and 7 Wonders are going to be the next 2 games I will purchase. I'd like to have an awesome game collection where games are easy to learn and play so these will be a good start. Epic Spell Wars looks awesome btw, good for the nights we have a few beers!

Make sure you budget in for the expansions for 7 Wonders once your group is comfortable with the base game. They're both worth every penny, particularly if you're going for that larger crowd.