Category: Quick games

Games that can be learned and played quickly, typically under 30 minutes

That’s a Lie!

Lie is from the same Pack O’ Game as Hue, Fly, Bus, and Shh. They are also coming out with a second Pack O’ Game set (the Kickstarter runs through April 2, 2016). In Lie you start by drawing 5 cards. Then you chose which of the 2 dice on each card you are using for the round. Once you have decided, there is no turning back.Lie

Then the bidding begins, playing like  Stone Soup or Balderdash. Either you declare what you “have”, or you declare the person before you to be lying. To do this you call out “Lie!”. Then everyone shows their hand. If the overall count of everybody’s hands is greater or equal to the previous claim, the person who declared it a lie loses. If the overall count is less than the previous claim, then the person who bluffed loses. For instance, you could call 3 2’s, only having 3 cards in hand, 2 of them being 2’s, knowing someone else called a 2.

If you lose, then on the next round you draw one less card than you did the round before, then stay at that number as your full-time draw number until you lose again. The winner is the last player still allowed to draw a card.

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Scrimish!!!

Scrimish is a really easy game, similar to Stratego, which I will probably reference a lot in this post. You have 5 piles of cards, which each have 5 cards. You chose which cards go where in which pile. Phew. Try saying that 5 times fast! Anyway, the only official rule for where you must Scrimish_webplace a card is the fact that the crown (the Stratego equivalent: the flag) must be on the bottom of one of the 5 piles.

There are basic characters, numbered 1-6, who, rather simply, win if they are the highest number. Then there are the special cards. There are archers, shields and the crown. If you attack with the archer, he automatically wins. If your archer is attacked, he automatically loses. Shields cannot attack, but when your shield is attacked, it takes the attacker into the discard with him. Last, there are crowns. If you want to, and it’s legal (when the crown is the top card of his stack), you can attack with your crown. If he attacks another crown, he wins, and you win. If he attacks anything else, he loses, and you lose. If he is attacked, you lose.

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What Hue will win?

There is a game called Hue. It came in the Pack O Game with Fly and Shh, as well as many others. Hue is about… so subtle… colors. In Hue there are several cards with different colors on each. There are five colors. You are, in the long run, trying to create long lines of each color. Ish. Let me explain.Hue

Each turn you play a card, generally to make at least 1 line of a color longer. At the end of the game you count each color. There’s a catch, however. You only get to score 3 colors, depending which ones are on your chosen score card. Your score card is the one card that you decide you won’t play. If the color isn’t on your score card, and there’s a long line of it, you can use your poison card to block off that row. Be careful, though. You only get 1 poison card each per game. Poison cards make that chosen row worth 0 points, no matter how long.

When placing, you may chose to cover a part of the rows already in place. When you do, you must cover at least a full square of the card (divided in white lines). When scoring, show your score card, then count up the longest line of each color on your card. Then multiply the color on the middle square of your card by 2. Add the 3 colors, including the doubled one. The player with the most points wins.

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Shh!

Shh is a cooperative game that came in the same Pack O Game as Fly. In Shh, you are trying to make words using consonants from your hand and vowels from the table. The consonants can each only be used once per game. The vowels are reused and reused until the game ends. There is only one of each letter, so any words with duplicates of a letter would count as invalid.

ShhThe catch is you aren’t allowed to tell your teammate(s) what letters you have and what words you have in mind. You take turns placing letters until one person, on their turn, decides that the word is finished. When the word is declared finished, the players use a show of hands to question the words validity.

If the validity is questioned, then the players must check the validity in a dictionary. A valid word is set on the scoring pile, minus the vowels, which go back to the center of the table. If the word is more than 5 letters, flip the vowels used to the +1 side.

During scoring, count the consonants in the scoring pile and add the amount of vowels with the +1 side up. The rules include a rating out of 4 of how you scored.

I would recommend this for people who enjoy cooperative games and for families who have trouble getting their kids to sit down long enough to play a game.

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Please Continuo the game

In Continuo, you place tiles next to each other in any possible way to get the most matches of each color that you can. At the end of the round you count up how long each continuous color section you made was. At the end of the game you add all your rounds together and the person with the most points wins.Continuo
The house rule we played with is that instead of adding it all together, we add each of the four colors individually. The color you have the lowest total points in is your overall score. If that color passes up another color the next turn, the color that now has the least points becomes your overall score.

For instance, if I had just played the tile to the right in the picture above, I would have 7 red, 5 yellow, and 0 blue and green. That would make 0 my score for the turn. On the other hand, if we were playing the traditional way, my score would be 12. The problem with the original is that if you’re winning halfway through, you’re probably going to win the game.

I’d recommend this game to people who love strategy and math.

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No soups, no salads, no entrees… Just Desserts!

There is a wonderful game called Just Desserts. It is a Looney Labs game and I first played it with none other than the wonderful Kristin Looney. The Looneys were the gaming guests of honor at Windycon (see my previous post). I also played Seven Dragons and Looney Pyramids, but that’s a different tale.Just Desserts

In Just Desserts you are trying to match desserts to what your customers do and do not want. You start with 3 desserts and 3 guests. On your turn, you draw another dessert and flip a guest card to walk into the restaurant. The first step is to try and match a favorite. The card says what their favorite dessert is. If you succeed in giving them their favorite, the guest card becomes yours and you draw a card as their tip.

If you don’t have a guest’s favorite, you can look at the components, for example, vegetables, fruits, and spices to complete Nature Girl. Nature Girl doesn’t actually have a favorite. Let’s pretend your hand had Baklava (pastries and nuts), Pineapple Upside Down Cake (cake and fruit), and Rhubarb Crumble (pastries and vegetables). For convenience, let’s pretend you drew Cinnamon Rolls (pastries and spices). You could combine Pineapple Upside Down Cake (fruit), Rhubarb Crumble (vegetables), and Cinnamon Rolls (spices) to win Nature Girl.

Now let’s pretend that instead of drawing Cinnamon Rolls, you drew Ambrosia Salad (fruit and marshmallows). You could not get any of the guests in front of you. In this turn of events, you would draw another dessert and play would pass. You may satisfy up to 2 guests per turn.

In this game there are 7 different families, illustrated by the color of the guest card. You win the game by winning either 3 of one family or 5 members of different families.

I like this game because it is some strategy, some luck and all fun.  I would play this game with my family and friends.

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Master the Codes

There is a game called Code Master in which you attempt to reach the portal from your starting point while collecting all the crystals and following only paths of certain colors. You have a certain amount of paths of each colors that you are allowed to take, depending on the level. You create your code by placing your assigned color tokens on the designated guide scroll for that level, then follow it and see if it works.Code Master

This game is available exclusively at Target. The assigned places for the crystals, portal and avatar are on the level map, as well as what colors you may use. Each map has all levels who’s final digit is their map number, such as Map 1, which has levels 1, 11, 21, and so forth. There are a total of 60 levels. To keep track of the crystals you have acquired, you put them on the avatar’s sword when you land on them.

In the level pictured, I am allowed exactly 4 greens, 1 red and 1 blue routes.  It uses Guide Scroll 3 and Map 2, and there are 2 crystals I have to acquire before exiting the level. If you look at the code in the Guide Scroll and then trace it on the Map, you will see how I used the color paths to clear level 22.

I would recommend this game for anyone who loves logic puzzles.

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Portable games

Need a game that you can play on the go, that doesn’t take much time, and is easy to play? Here are some of our personal favorites.

Pass the Pigs; Chupacabra; Easy Come, Easy Go

Easy Come, Easy Go is a fun math and logic game that requires you to be paying close attention. You roll dice to try to get certain number combinations so you can claim a goal, like Exactly 7. The game ends when someone has 3 goals. Plus, John Kovalic drew it!
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Chupacabra is a very appetizing game where you roll and eat dice with other dice. Chupacabras can eat cows, chickens and goats. (When you eat dice you acquire them.) For every chupacabra, you can eat 1 goat or 2 chickens. It takes 2 chupacabras to eat a cow. The goal is to have all of the dice.
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Pass The Pigs is a “dice” game where you use pigs instead of dice. Depending on the position they land in (like razorback, which is when the pig lands on his back), you get points. The goal is to be the first to reach 100 points.
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Hexxagon

Hexxagon is an online game where you may either play the computer or another person. There are rubies and pearls. Each turn, you may either multiply by moving onto a space adjacent to your current position, or you may jump, where you do not multiply unless you land adjacent to any of your opponent’s pieces. If you do, these pieces become yours.

Hexxagon
The goal of the game is to do one of three things: you could turn all their pieces into yours, you could block any legal movement for your opponent, or you could fill the board and have more pieces than the other players. If you want to know how many pieces there are for each person, there is a little counter in the bottom right corner.

I actually learned this game at school. Because it is about logic, when we have spare time our teacher lets us play. We even had a Hexxagon tournament once! It took a couple days because it was double elimination.

I would play this game with my family and friends.

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Don’t Pop that Belly!

There is a lovable game called Pop Belly. In Pop Belly you are feeding pigs until they burst (the stomach piece pops out). Pop Belly

You start by choosing a color. This color is the color of your feed chips and your pawn. Place your pawn on the barn door. It will stay there until somebody else pops a pig’s belly.

On your turn roll both the the numbered and colored dice. The numbered die shows how many pieces of food (feed chips) you will feed the pigs that turn. The color die shows what color blanket one of the pigs you are feeding is on. The other pig you feed is your choice. You may only feed two pigs each turn.

Points (movement) happens when the belly of any one pig pops. You must then count how many chips you put in the pig whose belly just popped and move that many spaces. The person who fed the pig last, causing it to pop, does not get to move. (“We were raising that pig for bacon! You overfed it, causing it to get sick!”) The first person to exit the barnyard wins.

I would play this with most people I know. It’s very simple and it’s super fun.

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Note to all intense gamers: This game is really weird in that play goes counter-clockwise instead of the usual clockwise.

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