Suggestions for family game night

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louisak

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Hi,

I’m trying to get started a weekly family game night. The games could be board games, card games etc. Family consists of my wife, who is not accustomed to playing such games and I’m not sure what kind of games she would like; 15-year old daughter who is not really enthusiastic about games but willing to go along; 10-year old daughter who loves strategy games (chess, checkers, Stratego etc.); and 5-year old daughter who is fairly bright for her age, but intensely competitive and tends to be a sore loser, though she seems to be getting better at that.

I’m looking for some multi-player games that are not intensely competitive, the kind in which you are not so much completing directly against the other players, but trying to attain some individual goal. I’m planning to get the classic Game of Life as that seems to be a good example of what I am looking for. I’ve also considered Catan, although I’ve never played it before, and don’t have a good sense of how it would go over with my family. I get the impression that it’s one of those long-running games that you can’t begin and end in an evening, which is probably not optimal given that our house is crowded and my wife wants to see everything put away at the end of the evening.

We already have the following multi-player games: Scrabble, Parcheesi, and several variants of Monopoly. Oh, we also have Twister and Jenga, although those were big failures in the past with my 5-year old. Looking for something calmer.

Thanks for any suggestions!
 
Catan may be a bit much for a 5 year old.

Might I suggest looking into Apples to Apples?
 
The older kids might enjoy apples to apples. There is a family version that can be purchased on amazon. I know that my fellowship group enjoys apples to apples quite a bit. It’s almost a game night ritual. Having played Catan, I can say that the rules might be too complex for some younger children. I’d recommend that you wait until age 8 or ten to start that one.
 
Sorry!

It’s easy enough for small children to feel included, but interesting enough for teens and adults to battle it out by “sorrying” each other as revenge.
 
Carcassone is one my husband and I enjoy and plan on introducing to our 6 year old soon. 👍
 
Have you tried cooperative games? You could try something like Forbidden Island.

For competitive, you could look at Munchkin and Fluxx.
 
Dutch Blitz is great - but it’s for only 4 people. Tho a 5 yr old would have trouble with it. We started playing when our children were 10 & 12. Until he got up to speed we gave the younger one a handicap. Then they both got so good that I never won. (pout)

I’m not much of a game person, so I was willing to sit out a lot of board & card games that husband & kids played. One they enjoyed was Waterworks.
 
This may sound like a weird title, but depending on the intelligence/maturity level, there is a good game called “Exploding Kittens”. It’s rather cute and based on internet memes. Just don’t get the “imploding kittens” expansion pack because that makes the game a bit too competitive in my opinion.
 
We love Apples to apples, Taboo (bible edition is actually fun), and Yahtzee. In the summer we all play corn hole.
 
Disney Scene It has worked for us (two teams), as well as Boggle (youngest gets to do 2 letter words while everyone else only gets 4 letters). Apples to Apples Jr is also great.

Forbidden Island (team game) is another good one.

I’d also suggest maybe trying some of the minute-to-win it games (challenges) you can quickly find online. They are often hilarious and some an agile 5yr old could easily end up being equally competitive with older folks.

Bingo is another game that can be fun for everyone.

Phase 10 is a good card game as well.
 
Keep away from most “traditional” games. The reason why ppl think they don’t like board games is because of games like Monopoly (aka: monotony), Sorry, etc. Nobody really wants to play them more than a handful of times. There are so many exciting new games out there now!

I’ve taught a games class at our homeschool co-op. I usually had 3-4 games running at a time, and only 45 mins or so for class. I set up a webpage where the kids could go see the games we would be playing that semester, along with videos introducing the game. (There wasn’t enough time to teach the kids the games, so they had to come to class prepared to play.)

For your family, I would suggest trying out some cooperative games. Those types are players vs game, instead of player vs player. You really have to think differently, and its nice that everyone wins and loses together. You can check out my webpage here, but I’ll also list some ideas below: games4thinking.weebly.com/

aMAZEing Labyrinth - Competitive - Your little one can play this, with some help. In fact, littles often like “teaming” with a parent because their attention span is rather short.

Catan Junior: Competitive - Targeted toward younger players, but I think I almost like it better than regular Catan. It’s rather quick to play (30-60mins) and the rules and strategy are easier than Catan. Since your family is lukewarm on gaming, this could be a could gateway game.

Forbidden Island - Cooperative - Little too hard for your youngest, but an awesome introduction to cooperative games! Players have to get all four treasures and escape before the island sinks. The cool thing about the game is that it’s tile based and lots of different ways to lay out the tiles. No two games are ever the same! Lots of replay, and tons of fun. There is a second game called Forbidden Desert, also very fun.

Bugs in the Kitchen - Competitive - Marketed for young kids, but I’ve had high schoolers have a fun time with this silly game. Basically you’re trying to get a hexbug to come to your side of the kitchen. Or conversely, try to keep him OUT of your side and go to your opponent!

Scotland Yard - Mash up of Competitive and Cooperative - For the older crowd. One player is “Mr X,” the bad guy. Everyone else are Scotland Yard detectives chasing Mr X all over town, working together to corner him. Lots of fun for both the good and bad guys.

Hisss Card Game - Competitive - For your youngest. A durable tile game that requires children to use logic to put together colorful snakes. Our youngest liked this for several years. As he got older he also loved Rat-a-tat-Cat and Sleeping Queens.

There are tons of other games I could list here… my family has over 100+ games that we play regularly. Thrift shops are good places to pick up games and try them out, although you may have to be picky. There’s a reason why they have 20+ copies of Trivial Pursuits. But we have found treasures from time to time, too. Hope this helps!
 
We love this game called Tsuro. Each player starts anywhere on the edge of the board. On their turn, each player puts down a card with intertwined paths – and then they move their token (a rock thing) along the path. The goal is to avoid creating (or connecting to) a path that leads your token off the board.

If your 5-year-old can’t be a lone player, have her move the pieces for each player after they put a card down.

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1574242_md.jpg
 
Make ‘n’ Break is another really fun game that can be adjusted to all age and ability levels. 👍

 
Oh I know it’s a cliche by Monopoly! I’ve only ever finished one game of it, and that’s cause my mom and I broke the rules and just played with 2 players. Bankrupting my mom was awesome. 😃
 
Gertabelle said:
We love this game called Tsuro. Each player starts anywhere on the edge of the board. On their turn, each player puts down a card with intertwined paths – and then they move their token (a rock thing) along the path. The goal is to avoid creating (or connecting to) a path that leads your token off the board.

If your 5-year-old can’t be a lone player, have her move the pieces for each player after they put a card down.

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1574242_md.jpg
Click to expand...
Have you tried Tsuro of the Seas? Very similar game play, but with sea dragons! Beautiful artwork too. If you like tile laying, maze type games, try Indigo. Visually beautiful and well crafted game.
 
Thanks to everyone who replied! There are some great suggestions here. I actually wasn’t familiar with the concept of cooperative games, I think that’s perfect for my family. I believe I have seen Pandemic in the game section in the stores, but the subject matter is a turn-off for me, so I didn’t look into it. I hadn’t heard of Forbidden Island but that looks like great fun.

For a cooperative game that’s suitable for my youngest, I think I’ll get Race to the Treasure, that seems to be popular.

Has anyone played Tokaido? My 15-year old is interested in Japan, I’m thinking she might like that.
 
Well avoid monopoly. It destroys families. 😃

Try kids Trivial Pursuit, maybe one of those dance-off computer games.
 
Ticket to Ride. It’s simple to learn, fast moving (a true takes a few seconds) and lots of fun. Kind of competitive, but that fits our family. On of few games that is truly good for young kids (5 or 6 years old) through adult.
 
jlc2k2 said:
For competitive, you could look at Munchkin and Fluxx.
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My family enjoyed Munchkin, after I pulled out a few cards that I didn’t think were family appropriate. Fluxx is a lot of fun - we’ve played a few games and really enjoyed it.

Mike
 
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