My Top Five Favorite Board and Card Games
We spend so much time on our phones and other devices these days, it’s nice to have a get together with friends and family that revolves around something that doesn’t have screen time. Board games are one of my favorite ways to spend time with my loved ones and decompress from a long week over games that make us think, laugh, and have a wonderful time together. These are my five favorites for any board or card game night!
- Villainous (+ expansion packs!)
This is a must play for any Disney fan, super-fan or not. Each Villainous game contains 1-6 Disney Villain characters to play, creating plenty of ways to play. Each villain has their own personal objective that they must complete in order to win. This makes the game exciting for all players, as your objective changes each time you select a new character. While Maleficent needs to have a curse in each of her realms to win, characters like King Candy have more complicated objectives such as succeeding in placing a glitch on Penelope Von Sweetz and beating her in a race.
Contrary to normal board games, this game operates off of personal boards per player, with four realms (based on the world of the villain you’re playing). Each realm has up to four different actions that you can take, which include moving characters around, “fate” another player (basically sending heroes from the universe out to disrupt their objectives), collecting “power” (that can be used to pay for actions), and actually taking the action.
Each villain has two stacks of cards (sometimes three depending on the villain), that allows them to take their own actions from their villain deck, or for other players to use to mess with them, from the Fate deck.
This game can also be made more interesting by purchasing different expansion packs! Each new game contains new villains, new objectives, and different rules that keep the game fun for every board game night!
- Cards Against Humanity (+ expansion packs!)
This is the OG card game, you cannot have a game night without bringing this game out. Everyone playing should have 10 white cards in their hand at the start of each game (to be replenished after they are played), which contain various different phrases, situations, or characters that can be used to create a funny or inappropriate joke. The judge of the round will draw a black card, which will include a fill-in-the-blank situation that each of the other players must complete. The funniest version of the sentence will be awarded the black card, and the next round’s judge. The first person to have 10 cards wins the game, or until everyone playing is bored (I don’t know about you but my friends and I never stop at 10 cards!)
This game can be made so much funnier by the addition of expansion packs, which include funny cards and prompts centered around certain topics (such as 90’s Humor, College, and Pictures) to make the game more entertaining and fun. With the right group of friends, this is the absolute funniest game that you can include in a board game event!
- Clue (especially if your game is geared towards a specific fandom!)
Clue is one of the most classic editions to any board game night. The mystery of which room the murder was committed in, which weapon was used, and which character actually committed the crime is so thrilling. It’s especially thrilling when you’re racing against your friends to figure out who solved the crime first, or who thought that they solved the crime and was actually wrong. Watching your friends as they make their guesses as they go through the different rooms, and trying to discern if you know which object, room or character was shown to them, while making your own guesses on your little pad of paper. It really does feel like you’re a detective trying to solve a true murder case!
This game can be made even more fun when you choose to buy sets that are centered around different fandoms such as Harry Potter, The Muppets, or even Friends. Each of these sets will include details from the movies or shows, as well as character specific details that the OG set wouldn’t include. This can make it much more personalized to each friend group and individual interests!
- Uno
I cannot in good conscience include any list of good board/card game ideas without including Uno. It is the pinnacle of friendly banter between friends, and one of the most famous card games that I can think of. There is no thrill quite like realizing that you’re close to winning, shouting “uno!” and then being attacked with two consecutive +4 cards from people who you thought were your friends.
Uno is a game that can be played in ten minutes, or takes nearly thirty minutes to finish. Sometimes you’re given a really good hand at the start, complete with +2s, a +4, and reverse cards, and other times the only good card to your name is a blue number 9. It is one of the most fun card games I own, and I love playing it with my friends. There is little else in this world that is funnier than one of your friends getting upset because they’re holding twenty cards and still have nothing to play during their turn.
- The Oregon Trail
If you remember the video game from when you were in elementary school, with your wagon, and supplies, and the threat of death always lurking around the corner, then you will be as delighted as I was when I stumbled across the card game version of it while out shopping! This game was an absolute blast from the past to play, while you and a group of friends attempt to cross the Oregon Trail, from Independence, MO to Willamette Valley, OR. Along the way you will encounter various problems, such as your wagon wheels breaking, insufficient grass that leads to the deaths of your oxen, snake bites, and (most famously) dysentery.
To finish the game, you will have to put down 50 trail cards to successfully cross the Trail. Some of these cards involve drawing a calamity card, where you risk death by drawing specific cards, thieves running off with your supplies, and more. Other cards include passing through a river, where you must roll the dice to see if you pass through safely, or lose supplies in the attempt to pass through the river, and trail cards that prompt no further action.
Overall, this is a super fun game, where you can either work with your friends to get through the trail together, or look out for yourself and try to make sure you make it to Oregon yourself. Just don’t do what I did and die from dysentery on my third turn. . .
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These five board games are always the ones I find myself reaching for when I have friends over. I cannot recommend these enough, because even when you replay them time and time again, they remain just as fun and immersive as the first time that you opened the seal on the boxes. Have fun!