When I opened this review for a game called Hundreds of Horses, I expected to have a good laugh about an awful game. The first two sentences:
It’s like a less-complicated Dixit. And all horses.
However, the author is actually fairly positive! It’s clearly not a “hobby game” and not meant for hobby gamers, but it works and can be fun. What other games fall into this category? I’ll nominate:
- Happy Salmon. What’s more fun than high fiving and running around a table?
- Spot It: Reverse spot the differences. Pure reflex game that can be explained in ten seconds
- Time’s Up!: Describe something, describe it in one word, and charades. Practically always a hit
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The simplest I can think of is Strike. You are throwing dice into a pit and hope for the best. You do have some control in trying to hit other dice to change their value and you have push-your-luck decisions to make. We sometimes use it to decide the first player in the real game.
Zombie Dice and Martian Dice are some other simple dice games I like. And since OP mentioned Spot It I will throw in Spots which is a newer game, I don’t have a physical copy yet but had a lot of fun with it on BGA.
Outside of dice games I like Bandido a lot. If you look at the components you can probably figure out what to do without reading the rules. Works solo or co-op. Another one: Illusion, you are simply comparing which card has more of a given color.
Our group got REALLY into Love Letter. It was supposed to be a filler game but sometimes we played for hours, especially after a thinkier game.
Eventually we got a bit burned out but then they released Lovecraft Letter and boy did we get right back into it. It felt like a refreshing expansion of sorts.
Didn’t have much success with the more casual folks, tho, not everyone likes to “accuse”.
@pathief @legendarydromedary I introduced my in-laws and nephews to Love Letter a few years ago and they love it. I have a raft of more casual games like that and Hanabi, No Thanks, and Cash N Guns 2e for their visits!
These three are extremely simple and fun:
Ghost Blitz
The Mind
Skull
Yes! I think these also fall in the “can be explained within 1 minute” category
- Auction games are amazingly good in delivering simplicity and excitement! High, Society, For Sale, You‘re Bluffing!
- Trick taking games are my close 2nd! High replayability and I love the after-talk: The Crew, Claim, Skat are a few examples.
- But sometimes you want to show off and bring more than a card game to the table, that‘s still simple and fun! King of Tokyo, Camel Up, Cascadia come to mind.
