Whether they require light strategy, fuel conversations or are just straight nonsense, party board games change the mood of any friend or family gathering. We talked to board game designers and avid players to learn which party board games are guaranteed to liven up the party.
What Makes a Board Game Great for Parties?
“This is a trick question because ‘board’ games aren’t good for groups larger than the number of players. Nothing kills a party atmosphere faster than watching somebody else roll dice for an hour,” says Evelyn Martin, brand activation expert at Directionless Creative and party gamer extraordinaire.
Top Party Board Games To Try
Martin has hosted over 50 game parties at her house and hundreds of group events for her clients, and Mackey designs party games. These are their favorite party games and the ones that Martin has seen liven up groups the most:
- Catchphrase. The best party game for groups of any size, of any age, is Catchphrase. It’s fast, interactive, vocal (not sitting silently around a board), high energy, different every time, and people can join or leave whenever. “If you gave me an entire games store, told me I could only keep one party game, I would pick Catchphrase 99/100 times,” says Martin.
- Jackbox Games, especially the version with Drawful and Fibbage. You play on your TV, and people’s phones are the controllers, so it scales up to let more people play than just the standard four controllers of a video game.
