Help me choose a tabletop game to play at my birthday party.

I'm turning 45 in nine days. I have some friends coming over for food and drinks to celebrate. I would like to try and get some sort of game happening.

There were lots of interesting ideas on the Rabitcon episode of the podcast, but I can't remember the names of the games. I was thinking of going with Fun Employed. There was a game similar to charades mentioned on the podcast. I was considering that as well, but I can't remember the name of it.

I would love to hear some suggestions from the community. I still have enough time to order something from Amazon if I do it soon.

Thanks.

Dixit is always popular with our S&T crowd and I don't think age applies.

Spyfall.

Chaostle is hilarious if you have 4+ people.

Dixit? S&T? Sounds dirty.

I love the suggestions. Keep them coming. It's a mixed group of people. Parents, neighbors, best friends.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a game I have just recently played and am already very interested in buying. It requires a smartphone with a speaker since there's an accompanying app, but man is it fun.

In its most basic essence, think of a situation where you have clues as to who's a murderer (werewolf, in this game) but only being able to open your eyes and look at the evidence for 2 seconds. Then 3-10 people also may get to do that and then you talk about what you all saw to come up with a conclusion. Also, everyone may have ulterior motives.

It's great fun and it's incredible to work together / work backwards to figure out what happened.

I think the charades like game was Time's Up buy hopefully someone can correct me if that is wrong.

Slash is another game similar to Funemployed. Same general idea, except you're dealing with romantic pairings of pop culture and historical figures

damnablebear wrote:

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a game I have just recently played and am already very interested in buying. It requires a smartphone with a speaker since there's an accompanying app, but man is it fun.

Or just play normal Werewolf or Mafia. There's usually at least one company selling a boxed version of it (the publisher of One Night Ultimate Werewolf is one of them), although you can just run it on your own.

EDIT:

Wembley wrote:

I think the charades like game was Time's Up buy hopefully someone can correct me if that is wrong.

That looks like the right game, or at least the current version of it.

Can second Funemployed, ONUW and Spyfall (and the mobile version is even free for that last one). If you want another somewhat random suggestion, try looking up Jungle Speed. Dexterity based but hilarious fun when drink is involved. ;P

Funemployed is great, as is One Night Ultimate Werewolf. Both are easy to explain and play quick. Monikers is a game like Time's Up that is a bit like charades. I've not played it, but its gotten good press.

For a mixed party (gamers and non-gamers) Telestrations is brilliant. It's like the old 'telephone' and Pictionary mixed together, you draw a picture for a word, and the next person tries to guess the word, then passes the sheet, and the next person draws that guess, everyone has a drawing pad and it goes around the table, where you judge the best guess and drawing. You can get by without having the actual box, but it does come with the nice flip pads of dry-erase sheets and prompts for when you draw and when you guess. It is family-friendly, and requires very little strategic thought, but it is a lot of fun.

If you have more gamers than non-gamers, you can grab a copy of Coup or The Resistance, both bluffing games with hidden identities. Seven Wonders is a great game for a larger group, but you might need to spend some time going over all of the symbols to give everyone an idea of what the cards do. If they can get past that, it plays up to 7 people (eight with the Cities expansion), and it doesn't last a super long time, probably in the 1-hour timeframe once people know how to play.

For a more directly competitive game, Epic Spell Wars is a good time, but it is frequently vulgar. I think it officially goes up to 6 people, but there is a new expansion/standalone so you could probably get in more players without a problem. You have a hand of cards to make spells of three parts, trying to kill everyone else before you get killed, first person to win twice wins. It can take a long time for that to happen, but it usually isn't a problem to end early if people are getting antsy. They played this on one episode of Tabletop.

Thanks everybody. I think I'm going to go with Monikers. Hopefully I can get a copy before the party.

I also own Cheaty Mages, Love Letter, and Citadels. Those are not too advanced for non-gamers.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions.

You can't go wrong with two main games that came from ADG:

Empires in Arms
World in Flames 5th ed