Staff Favorites: Party Games
Decrypto
3-8 players | 15-45 min | ages 12+
Players compete in two teams in Decrypto, with each trying to correctly interpret the coded messages presented to them by their teammates while cracking the codes they intercept from the opposing team.
In more detail, each team has their own screen, and in this screen they tuck four cards in pockets numbered 1-4, letting everyone on the same team see the words on these cards while hiding the words from the opposing team. In the first round, each team does the following: One team member takes a code card that shows three of the digits 1-4 in some order, e.g., 4-2-1. They then give a coded message that their teammates must use to guess this code. For example, if the team's four words are "pig", "candy", "tent", and "son", then I might say "Sam-striped-pink" and hope that my teammates can correctly map those words to 4-2-1. If they guess correctly, great; if not, we receive a black mark of failure.
Starting in the second round, a member of each team must again give a clue about their words to match a numbered code. If I get 2-4-3, I might now say, "sucker-prince-stake". The other team then attempts to guess our numbered code. If they're correct, they receive a white mark of success; if not, then my team must guess the number correctly or take a black mark of failure. (Guessing correctly does nothing except avoid failure and give the opposing team information about what our hidden words might be.)
The rounds continue until a team collects either its second white mark (winning the game) or its second black mark (losing the game). Games typically last between 4-7 rounds. If neither team has won after eight rounds, then each team must attempt to guess the other team's words; whichever team guesses more words correctly wins.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf
3-10 players | 10 min | ages 8+
No moderator, no elimination, ten-minute games.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a fast game for 3-10 players in which everyone gets a role: One of the dastardly Werewolves, the tricky Troublemaker, the helpful Seer, or one of a dozen different characters, each with a special ability. In the course of a single morning, your village will decide who is a werewolf...because all it takes is lynching one werewolf to win!
Because One Night Ultimate Werewolf is so fast, fun, and engaging, you'll want to play it again and again, and no two games are ever the same.
This game can be combined with One Night Ultimate Daybreak, Vampire, Alien, Super Villains, and Super Heroes!
Just One
3-7 players | 20 min | ages 8+ | 2019 Spiel des Jahres Winner (Game of the Year)
Just One is a cooperative party game in which you play together to discover as many mystery words as possible. Find the best clue to help your teammate. Be unique, as all identical clues will be cancelled!
A complete game is played over 13 cards. The goal is to get a score as close to 13 as possible. In case of a right answer, the players score 1 point. In case of wrong answer, they lose the current card as well as the top card of the deck. Thus losing 2 points. In case of lack of answer, the players only lose the current card, and therefore only 1 point.
Stay Cool
3-7 players | 10-30 min | ages 12+
Stay Cool is easy. We ask you to do nothing complicated — but you must do it all at the same time...
When you are the active player in the first round, you must answer verbally the questions asked by your left-hand neighbor while you "write" answers to the questions asked by your right-hand neighbor, using seven letter dice to "write" three- or four-letter answers. While you're doing this, another player flips a 30-second sand timer four times, giving you two minutes to answer as many questions as possible. At the end of that time, multiply the number of answers you gave for the questions from the left and from the right to determine your score.
In the second round, you do the same thing once again with new questions, but you must tell the player watching the sand timer to flip it before it runs out of sand, with a maximum of two minutes of playing time. If you fail to tell the player to flip the timer before it runs out of sand, your turn ends immediately. However your turn ends, you score points as described above.
In the third and final round, you must do everything described in the third round except now the sand timer is hidden from your eyes!
Saboteur
3-10 players (12 with expansion) | 30 min | ages 8+
So who’s a good dwarf, and who’s a saboteur? Saboteur is a social deduction and path laying card game where players are trying to figure out who is on their team while completing their goal. Dwarves want to find the gold, Saboteurs? Why they want to sabotage!
Each player is dealt a role they keep hidden. Cards are passed out representing paths and actions you can take. Play cards carefully and see how the game unfolds. Saboteurs need to keep hidden early on, but must display themselves at just the right time to keep the dwarves from their plunder! Once the deck is gone the game ends. Saboteurs win if successful in keeping the dwarves from finding the gold. A game full of laughs and pointing fingers all the way to the end. Great with kids and adults.
