What are some good board games for parties or hangouts? bonus

>>52230745
Spyfall - It's a fun, short game about bluffing where one person is a spy and the rest of the players know what location they are in. Players ask each other questions to get an idea about who is the spy and who isn't, which can either be really fun or shitty depending on how creative your group is.

Codenames - Much the same, it's about giving hints and banking on your friends getting it. Also short and quick to pick up.

Bang: The Dice Game - Everyone's got a secret role except the sheriff. The sheriff is trying to survive, the vice is trying to secretly aid the sheriff, the outlaws are trying to kill the sheriff, and the renegade wants to kill everyone before killing the sheriff. Every player gets a unique power based on the character card they draw. Games are short and the dice keep things memorable.

Cash 'N Gunz - Point guns at each other and try to go home with the most loot. Short, sweet, and easy to learn.

Sheriff of Nottingham - You're all trying to smuggle things for points and the sheriff, a rotating role, is trying to confiscate contraband. It's all about bluffing, bribery, and abuse of power.

Dixit - Someone says a clue about their card, the rest pick a card from their hand that closely resembles the clue. Once all the cards are set out, the players vote on which card they think is the original. Kinda like Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity but with art instead of words.

depends highly on the number of people in your group

2-5
Arabian Nights, essentially a choose your own adventure board game, works perfectly with 3 people because you are doing something every turn even if you're not the active player

7 Wonders: drafting based civ builder. Everyone gets a Wonder and you draft cards to use them, has light resource management but nothing obscene because your resources empty every turn and you only care about the players to your left and right. Very past to run games, allows for a lot of socializing while playing

Epic Spells Warz: card based game where you're all wizards trying to blast your opponent's to death. Gameplay can be full of counterplays or just pick 3 random cards form your hand and string them together.

5+
Werewolf or any variant, Shadows Over Camelot, Mafia, etc. Versions with cards are fun and can have more advanced rules that are usually limited by memorization but the regular party game is plenty passable

Secret Hitler: Another hidden role game which basically adds game rules to shit talking, also comes with a toy gun that you can shoot people with

Mafia de Cuba: hidden role board game with a twist, players get to choose their role (they choose to be a thief by stealing diamonds from the Don's cigar box OR take a role chip OR take nothing) allows for some interesting back and forth since you have some idea what the players who took before you are, lots of bluffing and shit talking.

games I would recommend avoiding
Cards Against Humanity: Memes aside, it just gets old very fast, you either pile together the most foul combination of cards you get or try to be clever and get ignored half the time. It's hardly a game, just everyone getting drunk and reacting to random combinations of dirty words and dated political satire

Exploding Kittens: like CaH in that half the game is just shock value, the gameplay amounts to glorified War

>>52230745
Cyclades for 3-5 people. You CAN play it with 2 people but it's really imbalanced. The more people you have, the more balanced it is, imo. Think a Risk/Catan mix. Looks intimidating at first if you're going by the rulebook, but it's really easy to learn and is actually quite simple. It can also be short or long, depending on how long people take to do their turns. I've seen 5 minute turn cycles and I've seen 1 hour turn cycles.

>>52230745
Catan for up to... 5 I think? Can't remember the max players, haven't played in a while, but it is extremely fun and engaging even for people who never normally play boardgames, lots of strategy with enough luck that the pros don't always win, making it a lot less harsh on new players.

Catchphrase is a brilliant and simple game that any amount of any temperaments and ages will enjoy loudly. One person has a device that displays a word or words, they are not allowed to say them, they must get their team to say them.

Snake Oil is like Cards Against Humanity but much better. One person plays a character who the other players are trying to sell a product to. The product must be the combination of two cards in their hand. I've successfully sold a Puddle Beam to a Firefighter.

Encore is a game where you must remember and sing song lyrics. A card is drawn and a word chosen from it. Each team takes minute long turns to come up with six consecutive lyrics containing the word. No repeats, the team the timer beeps on loses and the other team rolls and moves. Surprisingly fun and exciting and difficult. Older folks excel.

Honestly, Encore and Catchphrase are the absolute shit. Total smash hits everywhere I take them, every time. I'm not sure about Snake Oil yet, but I've had a blast playing that with friends and it's so easy.

I've found that Splendor is a really cute game for pickups - I suspect my nieces liked it more for the pretty gems than the strategy, I think.

Deck-building games are a bit more involved but have caught on like wildfire locally though. It helps that you only need one person to put it together.

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Apples to Apples is still a good game that CaH was never better than.

No one wants to play it now that CaH is around though, and that makes me sad.

If you want goofy fun, CaH is pretty great.

>>52239198
Wholeheartedly agreed.

>>52239198
Apples to Apples is an awful game. CAH is worse so I agree with you there

>>52230745
Dominant Species
Terra Mystica
Mage Knight

What you people are forgetting is that stuff that is tired and worn out shit to /tg/ is the fucking height of cutting edge, adult, mature entertainment to the young adult normies I assume are coming to this party.

None of these people are even likely to know that Cards Against Humanity exist, much less to have played it enough to find it tiresome.

Sometimes being a good host means not trying to turn your coworkers into unwilling bodies to play Thud! with.