Party Games

Art Express
Gregory Detrez; Le Joueur; 3-6; 30
Each player receives a card showing common names, a compound name and a verb phrase. In the first round all players have 30 seconds to draw the first word. As soon as his picture is complete each tries to grab the most valuable chip on the table. Then all drawings are revealed. Each player can take one if he thinks he can guess what it is. Artists whose pictures are guessed correctly get to keep their chips. The guesser also receives the same number of points. Subsequent rounds continue in the same way, though the last two may be more difficult. [more]

Bauer sucht Frau: Das Kartenspiel
Uwe Rosenberg; AMIGO Spiel + Freizeit GmbH; 3-6; 45
"Farmer Seeks Wife" is based on a German TV show. Cards show the start of a sentence and four possible endings. Each player also has a set of four guessing cards labeled A-D, i.e. one per answer and some chips. The sentences deal mostly with stereotypes of men and women. A player reads the sentence and the four endings, then each player chooses an answer card. Players divide into pairs and the two players try to guess what answer the other player chose. The first successful pair exchanges chips. If only one player guessed correctly, he gets a single point. After 12 rounds, chips are counted, with multiple chips in the same color counting less than a diversity of colors. [more]

Bizzarie
Jirí Mikoláš; Jira's Games; 2-8; 30
The subject matter is the fairy tale, standard characters like Red Riding Hood, the Wolf or a dragon, but also player-created monsters, which are the main focus. The latter are created by drawing around cardboard templates, continually evolve during play and form the "game board". The monsters can also have word balloons and so make statements. Then there are cards that show what appears to be a television screen and on the screen are questions which cause the players to categorize the monsters. Sample questions include things like "which had a bat for lunch?", "which is ill most often?", "which is still a child?", "which is the biggest loner?", "which is a healer?", etc. Players individually record their votes for the top three for each. They are then revealed and scored, the goal in scoring being to have others match your ideas, the more the better. The secondary goal is to understand the characters of the monsters in light of the thoughts of the other players. [more]

Crazy Dancing
Xavier Duthilieux & Nicolas Thiou; Cocktail Games/Hutter Trade 6-24; 30
Players divide into three teams. Cards specify which dance moves to incorporate and two teams make up a crazy dance while the third judges them who was better. Optional songs to use are provided. [more]

Crazy Mix
Guillaume Blossier & Fréderic Henry; Hazgaard Editions; 2-8; 15
A "spotting" game like Set in which the goal is to find a card matching 4 attributes: foreground shape, foreground color, foreground size and background color. The 4 attributes are all revealed at the same time; the first to pick it out from among 20 cards earns 1, 2, 3 or 4 cards. Comes in a square, tin box. [more]

Digger
Roberto Fraga; Asmodée; 3-5
A speed and dexterity game that comes in a cute, little round tin that contains dice, wooden pegs in five colors and tiny individual trays where they will be stacked, plus a timer. You roll special dice and can then take the pieces that match, some colors being worth more than others. You can keep rolling all you like, the trouble being that after you stop you have to stack up all of the pegs before the time runs out. There are black pieces that let you steal pieces from opponents and there are blue pieces that do not get stacked, but go into the box. When the blues run out the game is over. [more]

Freeze
Andrea Meyer & Hans-Peter Stoll; BeWitched Spiele; 5-10; 20
A group of four each receive a rank card and the group a situation card. From these the players improvise a 45-second scene, trying to make their rank so obvious that others can guess what it is. For example, in a plane situation a group might decide the pilot is rank 1 and a passenger stuck in the bathroom rank 4. Then it will be up to the others, based on the acting they see, to guess which is 1, which 2, which 3 and which 4. [more]

Gefährlich Ehrlich
Konrad Bochennek & Anja Holzapfel; Aktuell-Spiele-Verlag; 3-8; 30-60
Ever wonder how others see you? In "Dangerously Honest" players answer different sorts of questions in order to advance on the track. The three question categories:

1. Extreme: Players vote which one of two contrary characteristics on the card fit active player best. These are either both negative or both positive.
2. "Hey, that´s You!": An attribute is announced and all players simultaneously point at one another to vote who matches it best.
3. Top or Flop: The player describes how he would solve a given situation. Opponents vote whether the answer is honest.

Hasen - Hosen
Susanne Galonska; IQ-Spiele; 1-8; 10-15
Each card shows a word with a vowel missing that can be completed in several ways, e.g. H?sen can be completed by inserting either an 'a' or an 'o'. Eight cards are revealed and a special die rolled to display one vowel. All players try to find a card in which this vowel can be inserted to form a real word. [more]

Killer Party
Emmanuel Viau & Céline Devillers; Cocktail Games; 8-50
The organizer gives each player a player to "kill", i.e. get alone and say "you're dead". When a killer accomplishes this, he takes the target of the dead person for himself. At the end of the game, the best serial killer is the last standing. [more]

Das letzte Bankett
Michael Nietzer & Oliver Wolf; GameHeads; 6-25; 30-60
In a medieval setting "The Last Banquet" divides players into two teams: those who plan to knife the king and those who plan to poison him. There are 25 role cards, each listing that person's particular skills. When anyone in the faction succeeds in the goal, all players of that faction win. Also includes several other scenarios as well as obstacle cards to challenge the players. The critical skill: acting. [more]

Party Alarm
Melanie & Tobias Elger; W&L Verlag; 2 (teams)
A game of having to do difficult, unusual feats like saying the words "tongue twister" with the tongue hanging out. [more]

Photo Party
Laurent Escoffier & Marc Tabourin; Cocktail Games; 6-15; 20
A player draws card, reads its instructions and hits the button to start the 15-second timer on his camera. After 12 pictures and cards, players see the results. Players are trying to do things like be in the air, be only partly in the picture, etc. [more]

Pix
David Franck, Laurent Escoffier; GameWorks SàRL; 4-9; 30
Players must draw by means of turning square pixels on or off; the fewer pixels you use the more points you can score. [more]

Psychometer
Uwe Rosenberg; Heidelberger; 3-5; 30
Lets us compare the way we feel about ourselves vs. the way others see us. In German only with a cover reminiscent of the movie Psycho. [more]

Ranking
Stefan Dorra & Ralf zur Linde; Hans-im-Glück; 3-5; 30
Reminiscent of Apples to Apples, a topic is introduced, e.g. "Women like ..." and everyone plays a tile face down from his set. A few random ones from the stock are added and they are shuffled. The board has a track with places from 0 to 6 and all the tiles begin at slot 3. Players want their tile to have the highest ranking, but the points earned will be reduced if anyone else deduces which tile you own (i.e. promoting your own is perilous). Players in turn choose any two tiles in the same slot and move one up a row, the other down a row. After this players may try to guess your tile by placing a piece of your color on one of them. When a tile reaches the 6 slot and another the 0 the round is over. The first player to earn 15 points is the ranKING. [more]

Sandwich
Christine Descamps, Christophe Raimbault & Maeva da Silva; Le Joueur; 3-6; 15; 6+
Card game of preparing sandwiches. Each player is dealt 9 ingredient cards placed face down in an unseen stack. Then as fast as they can players grab cards until they have nine. Then each prepares 3 sandwiches with 3 cards each and give one sandwich to each of three other players. Players then read out their sandwich contents and state which ones they like best and second best; these earn points for their makers. [more]

Super Comics
Roberto Fraga & Christian Lemay; Le Scorpion Masqué; 3-20; 20
Each player chooses a superhero, either known or made up on the spot and receives challenge cards to be carried out. The active player challenges another and they shuffle their cards, draw one at random and try to achieve the challenge. These are dexterity or mental challenges, e.g. the first to takes off his socks and puts them back on again, the first to turn around five times, the first player to total up of the ages of all players, etc. The winner keeps the card. [more]

Time No Time
unknown; Goliath Toys; 2-6; 20
An electronic alarm runs while players pass action cards around. Upon receiving a card the player must do whatever it says as quickly as possible, e.g. rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time, pass the card under your shirt, etc. [more]

Die Verlobungsfeier
Roger Krykon; samhain Verlag; 9-10; 180-300
"The Engagement Party" is a murder mystery party game set in medieval times. In addition to discovering the murderer, players have secondary goals, e.g. framing an older brother .

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