It seems like forever, and yet only yesterday, that I was dodging barbed remarks and flying pigs (in blankets) after a controversial game of Avalon: Big Box (it’s not a big box) last Christmas. And now it’s almost time to trample all over the hope of good-will to all men again.
The following suggestions are family friendly, quick and fun… the one, two, three of Christmas games.
6 games that are simple and play fast for 6 or more party people.
1. The Pretender
Occasionally I am the lucky recipient of Giles’ Christmas re-gifts, some of which are forgettable. But he came up trumps with The Pretender, my ‘go to’ party game. It is the game of Christmas’ past. Just ask Mamie (French granny), who found herself hopping haplessly up and down the kitchen like a constipated kangaroo, while we all fell about literally crying with laughter. Was she the Pretender? Can’t remember. That’s not important.
The Pretender is a Maltesers light social deduction game inspired by such popular titles as Dixit and Charades. And it is more fun than it has any right to be. The lead player for the round will distribute a card to each player and call out a number relating to a specific answer on the cards which all players will now know, except for one – the pretender- who drew the blank card. Then the fun begins.
In turn players perform in some fashion, attempting to convince the others that they know the answer, while the pretender, watching carefully, tries to deduce the answer so that on their turn they may also give a convincing performance. What then follows is a rarely polite discussion about who the pretender is, followed by a vote. Points are awarded…… oh, who cares about the points. Just play until you don’t want to laugh anymore.
Top tip: if you want to play with more than 6 revellers buy 2 packs.
2. Coup
Coup is a short, intense, social deduction, elimination game. The last player with an active character card wins, and assumes the God-given right to verbally, and non-verbally, abuse everyone else.
Each player (6 is best, 4-5 is good) begins with control over two characters, unknown to everyone else. On your turn you can claim to control a particular character and use its power. You may actually control that character or maybe you’re bluffing, or maybe not. Or maybe you’re double bluffing or maybe…
Opponents can challenge you if they have the metaphorical nuts! If successful, one of your characters becomes inactive (turned face up). If unsuccessful, they have to deactivate one of their own characters. Some minutes later the blizzard of colourful vernacularisms will subside and, as I said above, the last player standing wins. So you can play just one more, and then another one, and maybe one after that…
3. Timeline and Timeline Twist
Allan says he doesn’t like gaming (as he fires up Red Redemption 2). So when he spontaneously declares he loves a board/card game my ears prick up. Timeline is simple, too simple- deal a number of event cards to each player. On your turn, attempt to add an event to a timeline. Should you fail to place it chronologically, discard the event and draw another one. Should you succeed-don’t take another card. The player to empty their hand first wins. And Timeline Twist? The twist is that Timeline can be played co-operatively. Collectively play as many cards as possible into a shared timeline. Now players must collaborate to sequence the playing of cards in a way that will allow each player to be able to continue to play.
So, it turns out that Timeline Twist is a game that is a little bit more than the sum of its admittedly minimal parts. You see, to play well, Timeline Twist doesn’t require that you know dates (dull and boring)-it requires you to share your reasoning, deduction and understanding of the past. And my lot are always keen to share their opinions: “They must have had pencils before the French Revolution otherwise how did they tot up the heads they cut off.” Every time someone said, “C’mon Mamie, you’ll remember this…” her face beamed as she ‘grannied’ up to share another rose tinted tale from ‘the good old days’ – in her case, France during the war. Timeline Twist got multiple plays over multiple evenings. It will never be my favourite game but two games for the price of one in the same box? It’s definitely worth the tenner.
4. Happy Salmon/Hoppy Salmon.
Happy/Hoppy Salmon (depending on the version you buy) accommodates up to 6 energetic, young to young at heart frolickers. Each frolicker is given their own colour coded deck of cards and must be the first to discard (all over the floor) their cards to win. As quick as you can say “3,2,1, Go”, you’ll be standing in the centre of a blizzard of cards and unintelligible noises, shouting, fist bumping, spinning, high fiving and ‘happy or hoppy salmoning,’ for a minute or so. It delivers pure, concentrated, undistilled fun. It’s the gaming equivalent of snorting a line I imagine; you’ll go nuts for a few moments, then you’ll be knackered for the rest of the evening
The box for Hoppy Salmon declares that you have purchased a 90 second game that you will play for hours. No you won’t! You’ll play for about 7 minutes, and then pack the kids off with the game to a far away place where you can’t hear them squeaking and squealing. Your plan for peace will grant you around 15 minutes-15 golden minutes-before they come crashing back in, demanding order in their lives again. Is that worth a tenner? Well, you tell me.
5. Ghost Blitz (Geistes Blitz)
Draw a colourfully illustrated card from the top of the deck, work out which object on the table you have to grab and slap your way to victory. OK, slapping is not in the rules but with the right group of (grown up) adolescents it is almost a requirement. Incidentally, I’m referring to gentle hand slapping as opposed to the scarlet cheek kind.
And that’s it! Brilliant, eh? No complex set up, no rules blah, no nonsense. A simple, pattern recognition game which exhorts the brain to be supple and agile. Peter squealed with delight when Uncle Gregor, with mock evil intent, moved to grab the winning object and he got to slap his hand out of the way to grab it for himself. He’s 22 years old!
6. Flip 7
Flip 7 is the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer of card games. After getting bogged down in another boring game of Uno this bad boy comes on and wins the day. It is a spry, push your luck, card flipping game which will appeal to adolescent flippers and aged flippers alike.
Each round consists of flippers flipping over cards one by one until all flippers have either skipped or bust because they flipped the same flipping number twice. Occasionally a flipper will freeze another flipper and will be called a ‘flipping flipper’ by the aggrieved flipper. If you can flip 7 or more cards without going flipping bust you get a flipping points bonus. The winner will be the flipper to score the most flipping points after the agreed target has been reached.
The propaganda on the box extols this amusing flipper as ‘press your luck meets strategy in this addictive card game that’s sure to be the greatest card game you’ve ever played!’ That’s flipping nonsense but Nathalie likes it so I can say that it’s mother flipping good!
