Nastolki, which are played by IT specialists
The New Year is a family-friendly holiday, it is a constant. And to have fun on these January days would also be good for everyone, and not buried in smartphones and tablets. And so far, for entertainment with friends and relatives, nothing better has been invented than ... board games. Suddenly, aha. Neither libations, or sitting in front of the TV, or going to a public catering can not be compared in terms of the degree of involvement and fun with good nastolkami.
On the eve of holidays, we decided to find out from our colleagues in which offline games they prefer to fight with friends and family. Of course, everyone has their own criteria for a good board game. One is important courage, the other - an interesting mechanic, the third give the need to think about each move. But we will not put games on the shelves of formal criteria, because the best score is made independently, based on our experience. Dare and try for yourself!
"Jackal" (from 2 to 4 players, 8+, 90-150 minutes)
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About 40 years ago, this game was invented at the Moscow State University Physics Department. Its essence is as follows: square cards in a random order are laid out face down, forming the playing field - an island with treasures. Players need to explore it in search of treasure, turning the cards one by one. Of course, there is an opportunity to fight with each other. The game is fascinating and, by the way, very simple, despite the fact that it is based on an interesting mathematical apparatus. Here, the influence of chance is minimized and the most cunning and strong player, and not the luckiest, wins.
"500 evil cards" (from 3 to 20 players, 18+, 15–120 minutes)
The game is simple and non-sophisticated. If you played as a child in "Question-Answer" or "Nonsense", then you already know the essence of the "500 evil cards." In the set there are cards with questions and answers, the latter are distributed to players. Then the leader reads one of the questions and selects the answer from the card of one of the players. As a result, the combination turns out funny, absurd or obscene, as lucky. Often it turns out all together, so keep in mind - the game is strictly for adult lovers of barracks humor and not hypocrites. There is nothing to be invented here, it is enough to get together as an adult company and enjoy what is happening.
A series of games "The Terror of Arkham" (from 1 to 8 players, 12-14 +, 180-240 minutes)
If you are a fan of Howard Lovecraft (Cthulhu, hopeless horror and despair, that's all), you are here. This series of games was created based on the works of the above-mentioned author-mystic. Here you need to jointly explore all sorts of mysterious cases that occurred in the town of Arkham, in order not to let the ancient evil destroy our world. A game for avid optimists and dandelion girls.
By the way, the game “Ancient horror” belongs to the same game universe. Well, by the name you probably already understood everything.
"Activation" (from 3 to 4 players, 12-18 +, from 60 minutes)
The rules are simple: you need to explain the word from the card to your team with gestures or drawings. If the team managed to guess, you move around the playing field in the direction of the finish. In the second version of the game, you can use sounds, although this is unsportsmanlike. There is a version for children, and even thematic versions.
Also worth mentioning is the Alias ​​series of games (from 4 to 12 players, 11+, 45-90 minutes), where you need to explain different terms to your team without using the same root words.
There is also a more sophisticated, hardcore version - Taboo game (from 4 to 7 players, 13+, 45-90 minutes). It’s not just impossible to pronounce single-root words while explaining, but you can’t even call them logically related. For example, explaining the word "fish", you can not pronounce the "water", "fishing rod" or "fishing."
"Game of Thrones" (from 3 to 5 players, 13+, 120-240 minutes)
All fans of Westeros dedicated: card game based on the book / series. Traditionally, for card games there is a complex multi-level system of rules and unhurried gameplay.
"Imaginarium" (aka Dixit) (from 4 to 7 players, 12+, 30-90 minutes)
A great option for a simple and fun game for the company. The participant needs to take a card, look at the pictured image, put it face down and describe the other players to their associations that have arisen while viewing. And grateful listeners will then have to choose from the cards they have, the one whose picture most closely matches your unhealthy fantasies.
Mysterium (2 to 7 players, 10+, 60–90 minutes)
This is a more difficult and confused version of Imaginarium. Here one of the players becomes a ghost living in a mansion, and the rest - psychics. They must reveal the history of the crime committed here, solving riddles sent to them through dreams.
"7 to 9" (from 2 to 4 players, 8+, 7—9 minutes)
Very fast and simple game on arithmetic and speed of reaction. Each player is dealt cards and one is put on the table. For example, the figure 7 and a small 3 are drawn on it. This means that from above you can put either a 4 (7-3) card or 10 (7 + 3). The one who realizes quicker, finds the right one and puts it in, that young man. After that, everyone again has to quickly figure out which cards you can put on top and look for them in your room. The winner is the one who first get rid of their cards. Just make sure that the neighbors do not cheat.
Uno (from 2 to 10 players, 7+, 15-60 minutes)
At first glance, Uno looks like a “7 on 9”, but this impression is deceptive. Cards with numbers are also used here, but there’s nothing to be considered in the mind. Players are also dealt cards, and one is laid out on the table. They go in turns, you need to put on top of the card either of the same denomination, or of the same suit, or one of the special cards. The whole essence of the game is precisely in the special cards, in short they can be described as “turn the friend over”. They are used to prevent your neighbor from putting a card and forcing him to skip a move or draw additional cards from the deck. The winner is the one who first got rid of their cards. About the fact that you need to shout "Uno!" In time, you will learn from the rules yourself.
"Honey" (from 3 to 7 players, 14+, 30-90 minutes)
Another game about associations. Here are 4 main playing roles: patient, doctor and two glitches. Manifestations of a sick mind are invisible to a doctor, but the patient suffers from them to the full. Glitches show the patient as much as possible, which is depicted on the dropped out cards, and the patient must understand this and convey it in his own words to the doctor. However, not everything is as simple as it may seem. There are several other pitfalls in the rules: both glitches have different goals, and besides, they are interested in the patient giving a randomly pronounced word when retelling the hallucinations shown to him to the doctor. Here is such a day of open doors in a madhouse.
“Colonialists” (3 to 4 players, 10+, 60–120 minutes)
A huge game series, very popular around the world. Here you will have to show your talents as a strategist, economist and talker politician, since the game involves active barter exchange. Without the pumped gift of persuasion, you can hardly win.
"Andor" (from 2 to 4 players, 10+, 60-90 minutes)
Cooperative fantasy board game in which several brave heroes are bending in an arc of evil forces. A large, very colorful two-sided (!) Playing field, the rules are easy to understand for children, and the game process is very diverse and in some ways even deep.
Munchkin (2 to 6 players, 8+, 30–90 minutes)
A series of humorous role-playing card games. Actually, the spirit of "Manchkina" can be a lot to understand from the above character cards. In short, you can describe the gameplay as follows: you need to collect all sorts of treasures, fighting monsters, while other players are doing the same, but in the same way in every possible way substituting and throwing other players.
"Evolution" (from 2 to 4 players, 12+, 30-60 minutes)
A very interesting game for those who believe in the fallacy of creationism. The process is divided into 4 stages. First, with the help of the cards that have fallen to you, you create your own unique animal. Then determine the food base: what and how it will eat. At the third stage, between the players, the food resources are divided - the strong eat the weak, the predators eat the herbivores, the herbivores survive as they can. At the last stage, natural selection and determination of surviving animals aka winners occurs.
"Train ticket" (from 2 to 5 players, 8+, 30-60 minutes)
The game field is a map of one of the parts of the world with marked directions. Players need in accordance with the task “to build” the railways with the help of trailers and various buildings. In a series of several games covering different regions, so this is a good way to teach children a little geography.
"Little World" (from 2 to 5 players, 8+, 40-80 minutes)
A colorful and easy strategy game for the whole family. You must choose one of the many races available, as well as some unique ability, and begin to build your empire, seizing as much territory as possible and saving up coins. A good way to teach children the basics of geopolitics.
Descent (from 2 to 5 players, 10+, 30–60 minutes)
A series of very voluminous and very complex fantasy games. The playing field is usually of a “corridor” type, the heroes need to destroy monsters, solve tasks, save the world, drive out evil spirits. In general, the usual work days.
Thunder Stone (2 to 5 players, 12+, 45–90 minutes)
In the story, a group of heroes must clean up the dungeons from the gangs of evil. Despite the fact that this is a purely card desktop, the possibility of forming a game deck gives a very large variation in the development of history. Although card role-playing games are not suitable for everyone, and “Thunder Stone” will be of interest primarily to lovers of text quests.
Bang (4 to 7 players, 8+, 20–60 minutes)
In part, this game has something in common with the well-known Mafia. Here, too, participants fall out for the time being of the role that will need to be determined during the game. From the very beginning, everyone knows only the sheriff, who must figure out the bandits and protect peaceful prospectors in the gold mines. However, additional modifier cards play an important role here. The probability of “killing” another player in an exchange of fire here is determined by the distance and power of the correct Colt, which can be changed using cards and tokens.
"Defenders of the Galaxy" (from 1 to 5 players, 12+, 30-60 minutes)
A vigorous space strategy in which you need to defend against aggressive aliens. You can not play for them, it is only non-inscriptions. The storyline consists of 12 missions, and each mission has several possible endings. This naturally affects the flow of the whole game. It's nice that instead of flat cardboard chips characters there are very good plastic figures used here.
"Zombicide" (from 1 to 6 players, 13+, 60-90 minutes)
Night, street, lantern, pharmacy, several intersections, a crowd of zombies and some desperately trying to survive. You can play 10 different scenarios, the set includes as many as 71 plastic figures. Trash, waste, brains flow down the bloody bit, overheated chainsaw - the full entourage of the zombie apocalypse is at your service.
"Ghost Stories" (1 to 4 players, 12+, 60–90 minutes)
Cooperative game with the entourage of Asian mythology. Instead of knights there are Taoist warriors fighting against malicious ghosts. The richness of the game elements you can rate by the picture. The gameplay is very tricky and makes you think about the program of your next actions.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf (from 3 to 10 players, 8+, 10-15 minutes)
Another variation on the theme of "Mafia". Although it wasn’t just a redesign, the rules of the game were subject to major changes. There are village Rednecks, that is, civilians in the terminology of "Mafia", there are werewolves - the mafia itself, there is a seer who peers at other people's cards at night, there is a thief who quietly changes cards with another player. In total there are 5 basic characters plus 7 more used during the game.
The duration of the game party ("all woke up") is not more than 5 minutes. Lead here is not needed at all. Also, the principle “Lyokha talks a lot, let's kill him, find out if he is a mafia!” - now there is only one (!) Round to calculate the werewolf
Cyclades (2 to 5 players, 13+, 60–120 minutes)
Strategy game based on Greek mythology. The goal of the game is to be the first to create two metropolises on the islands of the Cyclades archipelago. Well, or not to create, but to capture. Here you need to resort to the help of diplomacy and the patronage of one of the five gods: Apollo, Ares, Zeus, Pallas or Poseidon. Also at your service are five types of buildings, maps of philosophers, priests, mythical creatures and much more.
"On the stand" (from 2 to 6 players, 18+, 8-12 hours)
Serious and very long game for very thoughtful history buffs. Each player takes under his wing one of the states that existed in Europe in the first half of the 16th century: England, France, the Papal State, the Ottoman Empire, the Hapsburg Empire, or the union of German Protestant principalities. And in accordance with historical events, it is necessary to achieve goals that each state had its own (as well as methods). Before you buy, pay attention to the expected duration of the game, as well as the fact that it is not localized.
Roborally (from 2 to 8 players, 12+, 30–60 minutes)
A very unusual nastolka in which you have to directly compete with other players. The plot is that you are one of the supercomputers in the factory. You got bored, and you, along with other scumbag computers, decided to arrange a robot race. His robot must be programmed so that he successfully passed the route with obstacles. A good non-trivial way to show your child what programming is.
Carcassonne (from 2 to 5 people, 8+, 15-30 minutes)
Simple and fast popular game. Here it is necessary according to the principle of dominoes to alternately collect from the cards the game world in such a way that the drawing of a randomly chosen card logically continues to the surrounding ones. That is, you need to continue the road or the city wall, or that they do not suddenly arise from the void. You can also "post" for a particular object, developing them.
"Wild Jungle" (from 2 to 15 players, 7+, 15-30 minutes)
If you are bored, moving the chips and throwing dice, we recommend to be distracted by the “Wild jungle”. This is a game of reaction speed. Players take turns to open their cards, and if you find that a freshly open card meets certain conditions, you need to quickly grab the totem. After that, you give your open cards to the one who opened that same card and was less fast than you. The winner is the one who first gets rid of the cards.
“Kukhandel” (from 3 to 5 players, 10+, 30–60 minutes)
The goal of the game is to collect a set of four animals, buying them at auction. The nuance is that you will have to desperately bluff and in general in every possible way mislead and violate these promises. Probably, poker players will be here like fish in the water.
"Set" (from 2 to 8 players, 6+, 20-40 minutes)
The game is simple, like a penny. On the table is laid out from the deck of 12 cards. Players simultaneously try to find among them sets of three cards: either united by one common feature (for example, all three cards have 3 filled figures each), or they have nothing in common at all (for example, one filled diamond and three empty ovals + two shaded waves ). And if everything is clear with similar cards, then with the discovery of sets of completely different cards, you are guaranteed to have a stupor at first. As soon as someone discovers the set, he shouts “Set!” And shows others. These cards are removed and put three new ones in their place, after which the intense search begins again. The winner is the one who for the game will find the most sets.
Magic the Gathering (2 to 8 players, 13+)
Classic and icon card card games. It is also the world's first collectible card game. Its popularity throughout the world can not be overestimated, and it is considered one of the most difficult and exciting card board. A whole ecosystem of various add-ons and extensions has developed around the game, with more and more new card sets coming out every year. And rare collectible cards are sold at auctions for tens of thousands of dollars.
MTG has its own storyline, a lot of books on the game universe have been released. Given the huge number of cards issued since 1993, when the game went on sale, and the ability to independently assemble game decks, the variation can be called infinite. If you decide to try yourself in MGT, start with a basic set for beginners.
Warhammer 40,000
Another legendary game, more precisely, a series of games. The "basic" WH40K is a tabletop wargame in which the main role is assigned not to the cards, but to all sorts of plastic soldiers. And if in Magic the Gathering players assemble their decks, here they are toy armies. All units before the game must be glued together and painted, which is one of the fetishes of fans of WH40K. The Warhammer universe is very diverse - there are more than a dozen races alone, and each has its own unique units, both infantry and mechanical. The action takes place on a large field, where the soldiers are placed and fortifications, and for the calculations of moves and battles are used additional devices.
Ank Morpork's Flat World (2 to 4 players, 11+, 60–120 minutes)
If you're a fan of Terry Pratchett, you might like this fun. There are several game characters, each of which has its own goal, which in no way coincides with the goals of other players.
"Citadels" (from 2 to 8 players, 10+, 30-60 minutes)
The goal of this card game is to build the richest city, with blackjack and un-hard-nosed men. As much as possible in the competition with other players can provide game characters, for the time being remaining for your rivals dark horses.
High Frontier (from 2 to 5 players, 12+, 180–240 minutes)
A harsh hardcore game for space fans, not yet localized. The plot unfolds in the near future: a technology has been created that allows atom by atom to create new, unseen materials. Here you can only produce them with zero gravity and in vacuum, that is, in space. As a result, the struggle begins for the development of asteroids and the creation of space reserves of water used ... as rocket fuel.
Cyberpunk 2020 (from 2 to 6 players, 6+, 30–60 minutes)
An old card role-playing game. Released in 1990 and is the development of the game Cyberpunk 2013. Here the game system is applied, in which the skills and characteristics of the character grow gradually, rather than discretely, when they reach the next levels. The plot corresponds to the title: the future, high technology, cyborg.
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At this point, let us finish our selection and bow out. Hopefully, our recommendations will be useful to many, as the editors of the blog just looked after themselves a few interesting games. If you have in mind there are good desktops that are not included in this review, tell us about them in the comments. But please, do not advise "Monopoly". Good game, but how much is already possible.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/375125/
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