I am a big fan of board games and love to play party games. I define a party game that plays well with 4-5 people but also can handle 10-30+.
Some of these games are adult only and some are family friendly.
Cards against Humanity
When you think party games, Cards Against Humanity is what a lot of people think of. The game is easy to learn and quick to get started. It can support over 20 players easily.
This is not a game to play if you are easily offended, are black, are white, guy, women, gay, lesbian, prude, or pretty much anyone in the human race.
The object of the game is being chosen by the judge as having the best card combination each round. The best can be the funniest, dumbest, most insane, most appropriate, or whatever the judge likes the best at the time. If your combination is chosen, you get the black card (question card) to keep. The winner is the one who gets enough black cards to meet the win criteria for the game (typically five).
Some plays are just funny
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Some are offensive
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Most are crude
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Sometimes you are lucky enough to have a perfect card for the question.
Poor Choices (Adult Edition)
Poor choices is kind of like the opposite of Cards Against Humanity. Everyone gets characters and traits instead of answers. The judge for the round gets an adventure card that presents a scenario. Everyone then plays a character card that best fits the scenario presented and then gives a trait card to sabotage another player. The judge picks the worst combination, in the end, everyone usually will have a good character choice as they pick the best from their hand but some trait that makes their choice awkward, but sometimes you end up with something majestic. Whoever is chosen as the worst, has to draw a humiliation card and do whatever is said on the card.
Example hand
The red adventure card is played presenting the scenario (aka Adventure)
"We're pretty nervous dropping off our little boy for his first day of kindergarten. Who's his teacher?"
You play the "Fireman" card, which is a great choice. Then your rival sabotages you with the "Covered in loads of semen card" which causes you to lose because it is probably the worse possible choice. As a result, you draw a humiliation card which requires you to switch shirts with another play.
The humiliation card vary in how annoying they can be, some will have you shout, only speak in questions, stand up and sit down every 1 minute and other things for the rest of the game or until you win a round.
It's an interesting twist on Cards Against Humanity type of game and can be really funny. Against, this is for adults who are not easily offended.
Werewolves of Miller Hollow
This is by far the best game I own for playing with friends. It is family friendly and can play with up to 75 people. This game was recommended to me a few years ago before going on vacation with the neighbors. I was skeptical but I was able to get everyone to play. We ended up playing 30-50 times over the weekend.
The game is played with 8+ people and one narrator who drives the story. The narrator tells the group there has been werewolf sightings in the area and we need to be cautious but it is late and we should get some sleep. Everyone but the narrator closes their eyes. Each player has been handed a card with 2 or more being werewolves based on how many players. There are also special cards like the witch, curious girl, fortune teller, hunter. If you get the large "Wolf Pact Edition" (highly recommended as the cards are far more sturdy) you will have tons of other choices to add or remove from your group's deck.
The narrator calls each card to wake up at the appropriate time. For example, if there is a fortune teller in the group, they will wake up first and be able to choose one player to see their card. No one else knows who is the fortune teller or who card they looked at, not even the person who owns the card. The fortune teller will then go to sleep and any other special cards may wake up. For example, Cupido wakes up first on the first round and chooses to players to be lovers. These two players have a secret pact to always work together, even if one is human and the other is a werewolf. If one dies, the other dies as well.
At some point, the werewolves wake up and acknowledge each other (first round) and choose a victim. They then go to sleep and if there is a witch they wake up. They have an option to heal this person and/or poison another. They can only use each of the abilities once per game. They then go to sleep and the narrator wakes everyone up. The narrator then explains someone has been injured but was saved by the witch, or someone was killed in the night (if the witch chose or couldn't save the person). The town then is asked to find the killer (vote on someone they believe is the werewolf to lynch). Once everyone has decided, that person is out of the game. If the player was the hunter, he shoots someone before they die.
There are special guys like the stuttering judge that can declare one round to have two lynchings. As well as a guardian that can protect one person each round. When you first start the game, you chose how many special cards you want in the deck and which ones, and the rest are filled with villages who do nothing but vote. The amount of werewolves is fixed based on how many players.
The game ends when there are no villagers or werewolves left.
I am amazed at how much our friends and family love this game. Kids who hardly speak a word because they are so shy start jumping calling "me me" when choosing a narrator to drive the game. Really fun game, and far more entertaining than it would seem.
Most recent game
I Haven't played this game yet, but I hear great things. I just picked it up on Amazon and will be here on Sunday. I probably won't be able to play for a week or two when we have our next get together but it looks promising.
Joking Hazard
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If anyone is interested, I can let you know how it plays out when I get a chance to play it.