Light Strategy
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These games are the creme de le creme of Modern Board Gaming! Most of these games take around 10 minutes to learn and play between 40 minutes to an hour and a half.
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Battle Sheep
Bah, bah, Battlesheep! This area control game is a great choice if you are seeking a game that will allow you to combine an interest in livestock and warfare.
Who Should Play: People looking for the lighter end of light strategy.
Player Count: 2-4
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Kingdom Builder
In Kingdom Builder, the players create their own kingdoms by skillfully building their settlements, aiming to earn the most gold at the end of the game. Expand and cover the map and earn points through a variety of rotating scoring mechanics.
Who Should Play: People who like the idea of Terra Mystica, but aren’t willing to commit to all the rules right now.
Player Count: 2-4
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Century Spice Golem
In Century Spice Golem, you are building a deck to most effectively get the gems you need to build the coolest golems and win the game! This game combines some of the mechanics of Dominion and Splendor and creates something unique, novel, and brilliant!
Who Should Play: People who like Splendor or Dominion
Player Count: 2-5
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Champions of Midgard
The Jarl is dead and evil forces attack the village at every turn! Will you and your Viking leader rise to the occasion or will you bring great shame? In this dice/worker placement game, you are cast as a Viking hero attempting to gain more glory than your fellow Vikings by defending the town more effectively. This game is quasi-cooperative in the sense that certain challenges will punish everyone if they are not completed, but is primarily competitive.
Who Should Play: People who like games like Lords of Waterdeep, Stone Age, and Vikings.
Player Count: 2-4
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Tokaido
The goal of this game is to have the best dang vacation you can! As you journey down a path you will take in vistas, eat delicious foods and buy souvenirs, all with the goal of having a better vacation than of your fellow pilgrims. This game is profoundly enjoyable and even relaxing once you get the hang of it. Not to mention adorable!
Who Should Play: People daydreaming about taking a vacation to Japan.
Player Count: 2-5
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Formula De
Ladies and Gentlemen… start your engines! Formula De is a French racing game - build your awesome rig and race around the track in this debatably oversized game!
Who Should Play: Racing enthusiasts
Player Count: 3-10
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Camel Cup
Bet on camels, poop dice out of a weird pyramid dice shaker and watch as camels literally climb over one another to win! What more could you ask for in a game? This game isn’t about racing the camels as much as it is about making smart bets about which one you think will win - and tilting those odds in your favor.
Who Should Play: Large groups of people wanting to be disappointed and angry at a small blue wooden camel.
Player Count: 3-8 It’s definitely more fun the larger the group is!
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
These games have lots of rules - and they also rule! These heavier games take quite a bit more to pick up than some others - but, for all the difficulty they create in terms of learning, they offer an exceptional interesting complexity.
Agricola
Farming and board games - a surprising exciting cocktail! Agricola is optimization at it’s best, your
goal is to create the best farm possible and score the most points. One thing we love about this game is that it’s mostly introspective - in that you are focused on your own goals, rather than screwing over opponents, so it doesn’t leave a bitter taste in your mouth if you lose.
Who Should Play: People interested in a 1-2 hour farming game.
Player Count: 1-5
Difficulty to Learn: Hard
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Power Grid
If you’ve ever gazed longingly at power lines and contemplated what it would be like to build a brutal economic powerhouse of interconnected power plants, than Power Grid is the game for you!
Who Should Play: Electrical engineers.
Player Count: 2-6
Difficulty to Learn: Hard
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Blood Rage
The end is nigh - which also means glory is nigh! Ragnarok is upon us, and you and your clan are out to gain as much glory as possible before the firey end of the world! Blood Rage combines drafting mechanics much akin to Magic the Gathering with a fun, flavorful area control and hidden information game which runs surprisingly well. Despite the heavy strategy title, the game itself rolls really fast, and you will blink and wonder where the last 90 minutes went.
Who Should Play: People who like Vikings, drafting, Magic the Gathering, and Norse Mythology. Also, people named Ethan seem to be very good at this game.
Player Count: 2-4, but it's better with 3-4
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Scythe
As you all know, World War One was one by the advent of the factory and giant mechs. Oh wait - that’s not our world, that’s the delightful alternative reality that Scythe takes place in! Wield giant mechs, optimize your country and control the world! Scythe is a glorious area control, worker placement optimization game which offers near infinite replayability. One of the greatest aspects of this game is the “top row/bottom row” action mechanic, which allows for the depth of heavy strategy based decision making to be fulfilled, while also keeping the game going.
Who Should Play: Strategy enthusiasts.
Player Count: 2-5 Best with 5 though
Difficulty to Learn: Hard
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Terraforming Mars
It is the not so distant future, and you are part of the elite cadre of companies trying to effectively terraform Mars! The optimization game is quasi-cooperative - in that you are all trying to actually terraform the planet, but make no mistake, your goal is victory. This is a game which will completely enrapture your attention while you play, and although little conversation will be had while playing, this game is profoundly satisfying.
Who Should Play: Heavy strategy enthusiasts
Player Count: 1-5
Difficulty to Learn: Hard
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Captain Sonar
4-on-4 real-time battleship. Need I say more? This is perhaps the best team board game ever created.
Who Should Play: Team players
Player Count: 2-8 (Best with 8)
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
Heavy Strategy
Sometimes you don’t want to beat up your friends too bad - in fact, sometimes it’s even better to face off against the challenge of a puzzling board than one another. Games in this section are designed for this express purpose.
Pandemic
The world is in peril from disease - and only you and your friends can save it! Take the roll of doctors, medics, nurses, and more and travel about the world looking for clues to cure everything - but - be advised - the board is working against you, and ultimate failure is definitely a terrifying chain reaction that can occur!
Who Should Play: People who like working together.
Player Count: 2-5
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Forbidden Island
You are adventurers, who, against the better judgment of your friends, are exploring an island sinking into the bottom of the sea in hopes you will find treasure! This cooperative game involves a randomly generated board which is sinking quickly down - and you must choose when and where to shore up against the sinking, and where to chase the treasure instead!
Who Should Play: Adventurous souls who dare to pursue treasure against terrifying odds!
Player Count: 2-4
Difficulty: Easy-Medium
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Hanabi
You are firework technicians, trying to prepare a delightful set of cards in order to make the most amazing explosions ever seen! Here’s the catch - you are REALLY clumsy - and can’t see your own cards! In this game, you will give one another clues to help each other assemble sets and cause the best explosions. What’s so great about this game is that it really requires each player to participate for you to have a chance at victory - so no one feels left out.
Who Should Play: People who are good at, or trying to improve, their communication.
Player Count: 2-4
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Space Team
“Mission control - this is Space Team - we are inbound to launch and - OH NO! WE HAVE AN ISSUE! WHERE IS THE FLOGJAM???? You have 5 minutes - fix the ship!” In Space Team you race around the clock, attempting to fix each others issues before the entire thing blows up on you!
Who Should Play: Everyone at least once.
Player Count: 3-6
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
CoOperative
Sometimes, 4 out of 5 players REALLY want to cooperate – but one lone wolf is an issue. When this occurs, it's time to try out an Alpha Player, or 1 v All game.
Betrayal at House on the Hill
Explore and build a terrifying mansion with each turn - until one of you will inevitably be revealed as the traitor and will betray the entire group! This delightfully crafted game takes all of your favorite B Horror Movie plots and turns them into gameplay situations.
Who Should Play: Horror enthusiasts.
Player Count: 3-5
Difficulty to Learn: Medium-Hard. Some “Haunts” are harder than others.
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Shadows Over Camelot
Something's not right in Camelot. The Grail is missing, Lancelot has seemingly abandoned Camelot, invaders are on both coasts, a mysterious Black Knight stalks about the tournament grounds and Mordred is preparing his assault on the Round Table - and WHAT IS MORE - there is a traitor in your midst! This engaging and flavourful game gives you an opportunity to go on quests and work together to save Camelot - or, if you are cast as the traitor - destroy it!
Who Should Play: People who can handle a betrayal of another player - this game is not for the faint of heart.
Player Count: 3-7 We recommend 5 as the ideal number.
Difficulty to Learn: Medium-Hard
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Deception Murder in Hong Kong
Murder! Murder most foul! And one of you did it! Fortunately - one of you is a forensic scientist who has some insider information that can help us figure, not just who did it, but how they did it! One thing we love about this game is that it adds flavor to the traditional murder mystery format - and intrigue - without adding too much which is to hard to learn.
Who Should Play: If you’ve ever enjoyed an episode of Criminal Minds or SVU, then this is for you.
Player Count: 4-10
Difficulty to Learn: Easy - Medium
1 v All
Chairs
Stack chairs. Don’t knock over the stack. Winner is the person who didn’t knock it over. WHY IS IT SO MUCH FUN? That’s just the mystery of the universe…
Who Should Play: Engineers, heavily inebriated people, and toddlers. Probably not all at the same time.
Player Count: 1-5
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Crokinole
The only dexterity game to be in Board Game Geeks top 100 games - Crokinole is a masterfully designed Canadian game, in which you flick disks toward the middle in hopes that you will knock your opponents off the board and get closer to the center.
Who Should Play: People who like pool or shuffleboard.
Player Count: 2 or 4
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Junk Art
In Junk Art, players are presented with junk from which they must create art. Thus the name.
Who Should Play: Engineers and fans of stacking things.
Player Count: 2-6
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
Dexterity
Abstract games are the games that take off all the extra bits of a game and reduce down to the very core - they are games designed to be played, studied and examined.
Azul
Introduced by the Moors, azulejos (originally white and blue ceramic tiles) were fully embraced by the Portuguese when their king Manuel I, on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles. The king, awestruck by the interior beauty of the Alhambra, immediately ordered that his own palace in Portugal be decorated with similar wall tiles. As a tile-laying artist, you have been challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.
This beautiful abstract game is sure to delight, with its three phases of tile pulling, tile placing and tile tilling. What’s so amazing about this game is the complexity which emerges from such a seemingly simple game.
Who Should Play: Board game enthusiasts looking to play a hot new abstract game, and people just getting into the abstract genre.
Player Count: 2-4
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Go
This is by far the oldest game in our collection - and debatedly the greatest game ever created. Go is a deceptively simple game of placing different color stones on axises to surround your opponents pieces and claim territories - but the depth which this simple concept allows for has stumped and delighted players for over 2,000 years.
Who Should Play: People interested in experiencing an ancient and wonderful game which still holds up to the modern game playing palate.
Player Count: 2
Difficulty to Learn: Medium (Impossible to master)
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Qwirkle
Some abstracts are super serious - and some are... well… qwirky! Qwirkle plays in something similar to a domino placement style, and points are scored for creating different combinations of shapes and colors as you lay out the tiles.
Who Should Play: People who love patterns.
Player Count: 2-5
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
Abstract
In addition to our two-player section, we also have blue stickers on a variety of games which we have tested and found to play absolutely wonderful for two players! The games in our two-player section, however, are ones which only support two players total.
Razzle
Imagine Boggle and Scrabble had a wonderful baby who had a lot of caffeine. That baby would be Razzle! This game is all about finding a word quicker than your opponent and pulling the center of the board to you!
Who Should Play: People who like words.
Player Count: 2
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Cathedral
Cathedral - the battle for the medieval city! Place your buildings in such a way to box out your opponent and leave them unable to post more. This game may look a bit Fisher Price, but the simple and competitive strategy of it makes it a great game for all ages.
Who Should Play: Two people looking to kill 15 minutes.
Player Count: 2
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Onitama
Calling all Kung Fu masters! Onitama is an ever changing chess like battle between two monasteries. In any given game of Onitama there are 5 randomly selected maneuvers available, and as players use them, they rotate around the table. Because of this, no game of Onitama is the same.
Who Should Play: Kung fu enthusiasts.
Player Count: 2
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Oshi
Looking to push someone over the edge? Oshi is the game for you. Based on an ancient Japanese legend about court influence, Oshi is a game about calculating exactly how much effort to extend to defeat your opponent - without over-extending and getting pushed over the edge yourself!
Who Should Play: People looking to push each other over the edge.
Player Count: 2
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Twilight Struggle
The situation has escalated to Defcon 4, no coups can be properly executed without sending the world into a nuclear war! This is the sort of thing you will encounter in Twilight Struggle. This masterful two player game places you in the role of either the Soviet Union or the United States, attempting to win the cold war - without bringing the entire world into a nuclear Armageddon!
Who Should Play: People who love both history and rules.
Player Count: 2
Difficulty to Learn: Hard
Two-Player
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These are the games which will go down in history as some of the greatest games ever made - and they have all been made since 2000! So, what do we call these new, but already classic games? Why neoclassics of course!
Catan
Sheep for Wheat? Wood for sheep? This is the game about settling the mystical land of Catan and claiming the maximum amount of victory points for doing so. Catan combines a dice rolling “production” mechanic with a trading and purchasing one to create a game with near infinite replayability.
Who Should Play: Anyone who hasn’t yet.
Player Count: 3-5
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Splendor
Gem-trading in 15th century Italy may seem like an obscure theme, but this game takes it and runs with it, creating a tableau builder which is both a staff and customer favorite at Pawn and Pint. At it’s core, this game is a race to 15 victory points, but due to the clever “discount” system of cards and independent objectives to victory, you won’t know who is going to win till the last one to two rounds.
Also - this game plays great with 2 as well!
Who Should Play: Literally everyone. We love this game so much we named a coffee drink after it.
Player Count: 2-4
Difficulty to Learn: Easy - Medium
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Kingdomino
2017's Spiel de Jahre (Board Game of the Year), Kingdomino combines a simple worker placement mechanic with a domino laying one - to create a delightful 15-minute game that will delight the novice and veteran gamer alike.
Who Should Play: People looking for a 10-15 minute game.
Player Count: 2-4, best with 3 to 4.
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Dominion
The king of deck builders, Dominion essentially created an entire genre. The genius of this game is that due to the draw, action, buy mechanic it’s super simple to learn but develops into something exceptionally intricate.
Who Should Play: People looking to venture into the genre of deck builders.
Player Count: 2-4
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Machi Koro
It’s like Monopoly, except you won’t want to kill your friends! This adorable game places you in the role of the mayor of a small town you are attempting to build out into a delightful city! Each turn you roll dice, get money, buy stuff - and repeat! But don’t let the simplicity or adorableness of the game fool you, beneath it’s cute veneer it’s a deceptively deep tableau builder.
Who Should Play: A group with varying levels of interest in games.
Player Count: 2-5
Difficulty to Learn: Easy - but the setup can be a bit much.
NeoClassic
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These games are the best to grab a bucket of beer with and descend into as much ridiculously inappropriate fun as you can! These games are sure to delight adults, but probably best to not bring the kids along for.
Superfight
Super Fight is the game that settles and starts age-old debates like - who would win in a fight between Chuck Norris wearing a pink leotard and a pack of rampaging poodles, would the Pope beat Justin Bieber in a skiing contest, and much, much more random fun.
Who Should Play: People who love to argue about meaningless things!
Player Count: 3 and Up!
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Cards Against Humanity
Doing WHAT in a pool a children’s tears? This is a game for terrible people to make terrible jokes! You’ll love it, and you’ll hate yourself for loving it - but you will still love it. Cards Against Humanity is one of the raunchiest, funniest, and darkest games that has ever been created.
Who Should Play: Terrible people. Like you. And no one under the age of 18.
Player Count: 3 and Up - best with groups around 5-8.
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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What Do You Meme
Match the ridiculous image with the corresponding hilariously off-color text - and create your own version of a variety of internet memes. This game follows the tradition set by games like Cards Against Humanity in terms of play style, but adds a sublime fun factor with funny images pulled from the depths of the internet.
Who Should Play: Anyone who spends more than 20 minutes on Facebook a day.
Player Count: 3 and up - best with groups of 5.
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Secret Hitler
“I knew grandma was a Fascist!” is what you will hear echoing through Pawn and Pint at any given hour - this game places you in an alternative, lizard dominated reality Germany, either trying to help or prevent Hitler from rising to power. With hidden roles assigned to each player and decently simple gameplay, this game combines complete ridiculousness with a genuinely fun game.
Who Should Play: People with slightly dark senses of humor who are also interested in an engaging and interesting game.
Player Count: 5-10 - this game is best with 7-8 players.
Difficulty to Learn: Medium, we recommend asking a game guru for assistance.
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Telestrations: After Dark
“Ok - so I’m going to guess this drawing is a banana and two coconuts - did I get it?” Telestrations has a way of turning dirty on even the most innocent of prompts - and this version of the game embraces that aspect and runs with it, in a raunchy, ridiculous way.
Who Should Play: Adults who love the original Telestration.
Player Count: 4+ We recommend this for groups of around 8 players.
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
Adult Games
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Not all games come in big boxes, in fact, some of the best games are pocket sized! These reside in our card game section, next to our Dungeon Master’s library.
Munchkin
Go down in the dungeon. Kill everything you meet. Backstab your friends and steal their stuff. Grab the treasure and run. Admit it. You love it. Munchkin is the mega-hit card game about dungeon adventure... and complete chaos. You and your friends compete to kill monsters and grab magic items. What could go wrong?
Who Should Play: D&D fans looking to goof off.
Player Count: 3-6
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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One Night: Ultimate Werewolf
“Villagers go to sleep - werewolves wake up - and cause some chaos!” This game is about a town infested with werewolves, troublemakers and the like - and it all takes place over a single night. In this deduction-style game, you try and figure out who is the werewolf!
Who Should Play: Groups of friends who don’t totally trust each other.
Player Count: 3-10
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Tiny Epic Galaxies
In the mood for that epic galactic empire building feel - minus the 40 pages of rules? Tiny Epic Galaxies is the game for you! This pocket-sized interplanetary game is great for satisfying the empire builders and casual gamers alike!
Who Should Play: People who like space.
Player Count: 1-5
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
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Love Letter
Win the heart of the princess - by manipulating and outsmarting your rival suitors! This quick-paced game takes literally seconds to learn and is an absolute blast!
Who Should Play: People having a hard time deciding what game to play.
Player Count: 2-4
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Coup
It is the distant future, and corporations are in control of the government - and you play as said corporations! Control court and outbluff your opponents to be the last one standing.
Who Should Play: People who like to bluff.
Player Count: 2-5
Difficulty to Learn: Easy - Medium
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Resistance
Set in the same world as Coup, some dare stand up against the corrupt government - but some governmental spies have infiltrated the Resistance!
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Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards, Duel at Mount Skullzfire
Did you know that magical wizards are battling to the death... and beyond .. right now!? "Why battle?" you might ask. "What have I got to prove, magic man?" Only who's the most awesomely powerful battle wizard in the entire realm, that's what!
As a Battle Wizard, you'll put together up to three spell components to craft millions (okay, not really) of spell combos. Your spells might kick ass, or they could totally blow – it's up to you to master the magic. You will unleash massive damage on the faces of your wizard rivals in a no-holds-barred, all-out burn-down to be the last Battle Wizard standing.
And it doesn't stop there! Powerful magic items bring on a whole new level of bloody carnage as you and your mighty wizard opponents tear each other limb from limb in an orgy of killing! Do you have what it takes to use epic spells in a war at Mt. Skullzfyre? Will YOU be the Ultimate Battle Wizard!?!
Who Should Play: People who have been known to use the phrase “That is SO metal!”
Player Count: 2-6
Difficulty to Learn: Medium
Card Games
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These games are designed for larger groups in jovial moods. You are more likely to laugh out loud while playing these games than most of the other sections (save perhaps the debauch of the adult section), but most of these games are also genuinely engaging.
Codenames
This soon-to-be classic game of wordplay and deduction places you in the role of agents and investigators, attempting to communicate information with one word and one number. This team game is a blast - and if you aren’t too literarily inclined - the pictures version is equally exciting.
Who Should Play: People interested in wordplay and communication.
Player Count: 4+
Difficulty to Learn: Easy - Medium
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Telestrations
Think Telephone - but with pictures! This party game is great for those artistically inclined - and even better for those who aren’t even remotely artistic. Half the fun of this game is losing the message as you draw and attempt to understand each other's drawings.
Who Should Play: Great for groups of friends not interested in diving to deep into strategy but looking for a challenge and a good time.
Player Count: 4-8 players
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Scattergories
Name as many dog breeds as you can - you have 1 minute - good luck! This in, at it’s core, Scattergories. This classic party game is one of the most played games at the Pawn and Pint, and we expect this to remain as such so long as the English language works the way it deos.
Who Should Play: Fast-thinking, quick-writing groups.
Player Count: 2-6
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Snake Oil
“You know what every astronaut needs? Something to hold their asteroids as they collect them - and you know what can help them with that? A rock fanny pack!” This original party game pits you in the role of snake oil salespeople, trying to sell nonsense to your friends, who each take on different roles. The game starts out deceptively innocent, but the ridiculousness that will evolve in any given game will be the stuff of legends!
Who Should Play: People who like improv and/or marketing.
Player Count: 3-10
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
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Dixit
“Which of these 5 pictures did Jim mean when he said “River Market?” Dixit is a game for looking at pretty pictures and figuring out how intentionally vague your friends can be.
Who Should Play: Groups of friends who know each other a little too well.
Player Count: 3-6
Difficulty to Learn: Easy
Party Games