Games aren’t just for kids, that’s a fact. There is a whole new generation of board + card games out there and while we would be remiss not to include a few classics, even Monopoly has gotten a much needed fresh twist. There are games for every kind of personality, the overall competitor, the strategic thinker, the monopolizer, the imaginative, and more. Check out some of the best board games for adults to play.
Game Mashups: Taboo Speak Out
Two popular games come together to make the perfect board game, baby. Having to simply wear the mouthpiece is hysterical enough, then you add in the rest and it’s a hit. Players give clues to get teammates to say the Taboo word on the card, without using any of the five forbidden words while wearing a Speak Out gaming mouthpiece. The challenge cards are key, players might be able to speak without a mouthpiece, while their teammates have to wear them.
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Codenames
Time to put your spy skills to test. It’s a guessing game in which code names in a set are related to a hint-word given by another player. Two teams compete by each having a Spymaster give one-word clues, which can point to multiple words on the board. The other players on the team attempt to guess their team’s words while avoiding the words of the other team. In the 2–3 player variant, one Spymaster gives clues to the other player or players.
Monopoly Speed
As the name suggests, it’s classic Monopoly, but sped up for adults to compete on another level. The entire game can be played in ten minutes, with a timer to keep everyone on track. The way it works is that it’s played in rounds. The timer counts down each round’s buying stage and trading stage. The best part is that everyone buys at once, no need to wait your turn. Each player has a token and matching die. During the buying stages, everyone rolls and buys at the same time. Chance cards help players wheel and deal during each trading stage. Get bonuses at the end of the game with Community Chest cards.
Wit’s End
More accurately defined as brain trivia, the riddles in this diverse game of categories will require all of your wit. The players all start at the outer ring of a square gameboard and the goal is to reach the center square. This is done by rolling the die, moving along the track, and answering a question. Questions can be analogies, slogans, or definitions. Other wild cards can influence the outcome of the game. Players must land on certain squares to move up on the right answer, but a wrong answer will demote that player to the lower ring. The first to reach the center wins.
Scrabble
A true classic, Scrabble is the perfect game to play during any occasion. Enrich your vocabulary, polish your strategizing skills and improve your memory. Before the game begins, all players should agree upon the dictionary that they will use, in case of a challenge. Place all letters in the pouch, or facedown beside the board, and mix them up. The player with the letter closest to “A” plays first. A blank tile beats any letter. Return the letters to the pool and remix. All players draw seven new letters and place them on their racks. Even if you don’t win, there is still a sense of accomplishment for making it to the next round solely on your grammar skills.
The Game of Life — Quarter Life Crisis
Now with a fresh and hilarious twist on the legendary game, Quarter Life Crisis is sure to be a hit. With all too familiar scenarios, get ready for the laughs. Players move around the board earning and losing money as you race to be the first to pay off your $500K soul-crushing debt. You’ll pay the consequences of some pretty outrageous situations like finding a photo of grandpa’s toe fungus, dropping your phone in the toilet, or calling in sick to binge-watch. It’s also possible that you might even get a new job, get a divorce, or get a botched tattoo.
Monikers
Dubbed “the perfect party game” by The New York Times, it’s made up of 440 of the weirdest, most interesting cards you can imagine. Monikers is pretty simple: get your friends to guess the name on a card. Each team has 60 seconds to get through as many weird, inappropriate names as they can. In the first round, you can say anything you want. In the second, you can only use one word. And in the third, you can’t say anything at all, just charades. The same cards are used in each round, so by the end of the game, you’ve made up a bunch of hilarious jokes together.
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Do You Know Me?
For those 17 and older, this game tests your knowledge of each other in a comical way. Each player takes a turn in the hot seat, with the player to their right reading a set of five hilarious yes-or-no question cards about them. The group then tries to guess whether the answer is yes or no using their voting cards. For example, “Is Ben’s Uber rating over a 4.6,” the player in the hot seat then reveals their answers and who was right. At the end of each five-question round, the player with the most correct answers wins.
Cards Against Humanity
A crowd favorite, this card game brings out the funny side in everyone. There are the black cards, on which are written questions or fill-in-the-blank statements and the white cards, which contain potential answers to the questions posed by the black cards. Each round, there is a “card czar,” who pulls a black card from the deck and each player must then choose the best white card from his or her hand to go with the black card. The card czar chooses the best of the white cards, and whoever submitted that card wins the round.
Catan
A multi-award-winning civilization-building board game of harvesting and trading resources that has taken the gaming world by storm. Averaging at an hour to play, players have the opportunity to control their own civilization and look to spread across a modular hex board in a competition for victory points. Beware the robber’s nefarious plans as he steals resources and plunders the wealthy. Guide your settlers to victory by clever trading and cunning development.
With these games, there is truly something for everyone. Pick your board game, bust out the chips and dip, and have yourselves an epic adult game night.
Which of these games will you be playing? Let us know in the comments!
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