There’s a point during a New England winter when you start to feel that you will never see nice weather again I’ve already been at the point for a while, and we are no where near the end of the season. While catching up on your Netflix watchlist and stack of books on your shelf is a decent way to pass the winter slum, those aren't always the best activity options for when you are trying to socialize. Instead, I find a good go-to indoor entertaining option is board games!
I am far from an avid gamer. I have cousins and friends that love diving into a complex rule book, but I tend to prefer games that are easy to play casually with a group, not requiring too much focus on any sort of strategy and easy to still socialize simultaneously. While some of my favorite games are ones that can be played well with 2 people (like bananagrams), for this recommendation list I thought I'd stick to games that are well suited for entertaining a group of people.
1. MALARKY
This is a contentious game in my family. I suggest playing this among friends and NOT know-it-all family members with whom you may already have trust issues. The premise is essentially a random question from the deck proposed to the group such as "why do traffic lights appear red, yellow, green from top to bottom" or "what is the casing of a hot dog made of" or "what is the origin of the term 'getting sacked'". Each player then comes up with an answer to present to the group, and one player secretly has been dealt the correct answer. Everyone votes on the real answer, people scoring points both for their ability to discern the correct answer and their ability to fool others with a made up answer.
2. BOXERS OR BRIEFS
This is a game that I've had for years, and find it to be a really good one to pull out in larger groups of less familiar people. It's a bit like a more structured, less crude "truth" part of truth or dare. Cards with descriptive phrases are chosen to describe players attributes. Each turn, the player whose turn it is deems which phrases chosen are most "true" or most "funny". The descriptors range from things like "I only wear black socks" to "I am obsessed with the tooth fairy". It's a game that is easy to play for an undetermined amount of time, so a good option if you are simply looking to kill some time.
3. DIXIT
This is a relatively new game to me, gifted to me by a game enthusiast friend of mine. I love it. It's a quite different gameplay from anything else I've tried. The cards are all beautiful illustrations. Each turn someone picks a word or phrase to describe one of their cards. Each player chooses a card from their own hand that can be described in the same way and then everyone votes on the original art piece that was described. The way the scoring works, a player benefits by being able to describe a piece in such a way so at least one player guesses correctly, but not so obviously that all players guess the original card. This is a great game, very slow casual play, no set play time, and an awesome choice for an artsy crowd.
4. QUELF
One of my favorite games ever, but can be an event in itself and benefits from a well-chosen group of participants. The best way to describe Quelf is a combination of pictionary, charades, dares, and general silliness. It is active and goofy and may require you to make a mask out of household objects or to make up a haiku with ice down your pants. It was an ideal choice frequently in college when you had a mixed group of people drinking and not - often a hard bridge to gap in having games be fun for everyone, but this is a winner. As long as you don't have anyone in your group begrudgingly playing along, everyone will have a hysterical time.
5. JOKING HAZARD
I bought this game on a whim and I'm SO HAPPY that I did. It is made by the creators of Cyanide and Happiness, so I had high hopes for it (if you don't know their webcomic, you should). It is essentially the same game play as cards against humanity (or apples to apples) but you are creating a 3 panel comic. I definately recommend allowing the deck to play, throwing in a random card, as I've been surprised how often the randomly selected option gets chosen as the winner.
So give these games a try if any sound of interest, and I recently aquired a few new board games and have some game nights planned with friends coming up, so hopefully I'll have some more recommendations to share soon!