Love the video! If anyone is short on time, I made a quick synopsis of the list here: 1. ICECOOL 1:10 - Great flicking game. 2. KLASK 2:00 - Similar to number 1, a flicking game with magnets. 3. Just One 3:05 - One of ProZD's *favorite* party games. Guessing game with easels to write clues on, with a twist. 4. Telestrations 4:36 - It's like 'Telephone', but with pictures. 5. The Mind 6:30 - A polarizing game. Basically, you and your friends order cards in ascending order without talking to them. 6. Wavelength 8:40 - *I love the idea of this one.* There is a dial, it gives you a clue, and you have to get your friend to rate something from 1-5 the same way you do, but the rating they shoot for is randomized. Slightly complicated, so it's best if you watch the video. 7. Say Anything 11:08 - Basically Cards Against Humanity, where one person gets a question card and the rest have to answer. The only difference is that the people who are answering have a whiteboard to write whatever they want, rather than choosing from a limited selection in CAH. However, it is naturally more improv-based that CAH. 8. Skull 12:40 - A bluffing game. You use disks and strive to flip over people's disks without revealing a skull. Or you're trying to trick people to flip over your skulls. Literally, just put down discs in a circle and one of them has a skull, and try and get others to pick the skull. 9. Snake Oil 14:01 - More improv-oriented. One person has a role (e.g. babysitter, cheerleader) and everyone else has cards in their hand with random nouns. You need to put two nouns together and "pitch the product" to the person with the role. 10. SIlver & Gold 15:43 - Everyone flips over their cards at the same time. This starts to get complicated, but you need to fill out the cards that look like treasure maps. ProZD explains it better than I just did. 11. Point Salad 16:58 - You collect different groupings of fruits and vegetables to gather points in unique ways. 12. Sushi Go! 18:06 - Similar to Point Salad. There are cards with different types of sushi drawn on them, and they score differently (i.e. some of the cards score well in sets, whereas others are individual). You collect stuff to help you, but also try to block other players. 13. Love Letter 19:22 - The games are starting to get a bit complex. The point is to get a love letter to the princess by eliminating the other players in the round or have the highest number (value) card at the end of the round. 14. Time's Up! Title Recall 21:19 - Charades (but with the same deck for the match). 15. Las Vegas 23:33 - Most complex game on the list. Different casinos with money on them and all you need to do is roll dice and put all one number on one casino. You are competing to have the most dice on each casino.
Love Letter is complex to describe because there are so few components that carry the entire game, but it is super easy in practice. You do one game for practice and then you can knock out three more in the time it would take to set up a bigger game.
Timestamps!! 1. Icecool | 1:09 || c: 1.02 2. Klask | 2:00 || c: 1.06 3. Just One | 3:05 || c: 1.06 4. Telestrations | 4:37 || c: 1.08 5. The Mind | 6:30 || c: 1.08 6. Wavelenght | 8:42 || c: 1.09 7. Say Anything | 11:01 || c. 1.09 8. Skull | 12:41 || c. 1.14 9. Snake Oil | 14:01 || c. 1.15 10. Silver & Gold | 15:45 || c. 1.15 11. Point Salad | 16:57 || c. 1.16 12. Sushi Go! | 18:05 || c. 1.17 13. Love Letter | 19:21 || c. 1.19 14. Time's up! Title Recall | 21:18 || c. 1.19 15. Las Vegas | 23:32 || c. 1.19 love all the recommendations! what are good games for three or four players?
“This next one here just tastes like awful, chemical cardboard. It’s like they put every chemical available at their next door lab; then mixed them all with bull shit. I’d give it a 7/10, it’s pretty okay.”
Plot twist SungWon has been building up his image for years subtly attracting board game fans so he can sell his own board game...dairy cow the gathering
I’m honestly not super immersed into the board game genre (I mostly only play with friends in college from time to time. Very typical games like exploding kittens, catan, etc.). I think these videos you do are really great. You’re exposing a lot of us to what seems like a super fun niche, in an interesting and accessible way
one thing i really like about these videos is that when he's explaining part of the appeal of the games, he explains the types of feelings the game makes you feel. i like the way you describe the emotions on the table, that's a big part of board games that i enjoy, like the moments of panic or tension or explosions of excitement, that's really the meat of board games for me
Oh man I played skull for the first time yesterday. Bluffing games are not my strongest suit, but it is super fun, and the tension when flipping the tiles over is so good.
Also note with loveletter once everyone knows the game enough it just evolves into sheer mind fuckery and knowing the group you play with which atleast for me usually ends up in very funny shenanigans enhancing the experience.
ooh my parents back hom ehave this real cool, simple but fun as hell board game: every player has a little colored figure and you each take a turn to roll a die (dice??) to climb up the stairs on the board. but one after another, the die will tell the players to put little ghost-looking cover-ups over their figures, so you cant tell who is who. you have to keep in mind, what your own figure is, and the die can tell players they can switch their own figure with any other figure on the board that they want. this means that being in first place doesnt mean much as anyone could roll the switch and become 1rst place instantly anyway. but the fun part is that inevitably, youre gonna lose track of who your little ghost is, and when you finally reach the top, youre gonna be all happy and smug youo won, and then you remove the little ghost cover-up and you reveal that youve put a whole other person in first place. its quite fun bc you put ALL the figures on the board, even the ones who arent actually played by anyone, so you could just end up letting a literal npc win lmao
Another game that's *maybe* a two in complexity: exploding kittens The entire game is based around a deck of cards. Every turn, you draw a card. If you draw an exploding kitten, you're out, unless you have a diffuse card. Every other card is to attempt preventing drawing a kitten- shuffle the deck, skip your turn, look at the top three cards, etc. Each player can play whatever cards they want to from their hand, then end their turn by drawing a card. It's very easy to learn and a game takes at most 20 mins. One of my favorite games to play.
Hey SungWon! I’ve been a subscriber to your channel for years but in September this year, I rewatched your ‘5 gateway games’ videos as my interest was peaked. I now have 17 board games and love them all! I hope you can appreciate your message getting out there and I’m doing my bit to spread the love of board games too! Thank you!
A really fun game with family that you don’t need to buy is Pictionary. I swear my brother and I are telepathic. I drew a slightly curvy line and he correctly guessed beach. He drew a strange blobby face and I guessed Aladin (it was the genie). It’s fun to play with people you’re really close to because you may know exactly what they’re trying to do.
Love Letter and Las Vegas get loads of play here. The latter in particular is a default chaser after playing something planned. The ultra-unfriendly ties make it hilariously funny. "roll-and-fuck-people-up" is my jam
If you're playing Snake Oil, I highly recommend a little variant: once everyone has made a product, take all the pairs of cards and redistribute each pair randomly. Watching other players come up with their own interpretation and pitch of the product you put together can be such a joy
One of the funniest variants of snake oil I've played is blind snake oil. You have to start your pitch and build up to a product, and then when it comes time to reveal the name and what it does, you draw the top two cards of the deck and make a product on the spot and try to salvage your pitch with something that's usually completely nonsensical and ridiculous. So many hilarious moments of looks of defeat or laughter when people draw their cards and realize what they got stuck with.
Skull And Roses is one of those brilliant games that you don't need to own to enjoy once you know the game. In a pinch, some coasters and a marker will do. Same with Liar's Dice, all you need is a pile of d6 and some cups.
I watched your video on you playing level 8 of the mind and picked it up at my LGS. Such a great game my friends that don't really like board games love it so thank you for showing me how great that game is. Gonna have to check out wavelength now sounds a lot of fun
thanks for popping that show into my mind unexpectedly, I watched the first three seasons and never got around to finishing it. Even though I really enjoyed it.
I used to work in after school care and Snake Oil was legitimately the most popular game amongst the kids we had because it’s just so easy to play and so zany. 10/10 would recommend
If you like "The Mind", you may like a similar but slightly more complex game, Hanabi. It's basically the same idea, but you have 5 categories, and you only go up to 5 cards for each category.
Sushi Go!, 6 Nimmt, and Lucky Numbers my fave simple games to introduce to people. I love mid-to-heavy dry games, most of the time, but I will happily play these games at any time. Also, I think I might get Just One, now, after your recommendation. I love games where you're trying to get inside someone's head.
I used to work for Repos Production, the studio that developed Just One. This game always fucking works. I've presented it to many players and shop owners at an event and everyone loved it. It's great because people can join in or leave the game any moment if they need to without affecting the game for others. Plus it's so simple, I just explained the rules as I played. It won the most prestigious European game award in 2019 and it still sells like crazy. If you're looking for a game to play with your family, I recommend. Disclaimer: I don't work for them anymore, I do not own any shares or profit in any way from the sale if you decide to buy it, it's just a great game and it's made by great people.
Thanks for the tip, ProZD! I picked up Sushi Go at your recommendation to try with my family of 5 this Christmas. First time we've all been together in a long time. Well of course happy families play board games, so we wanted to give it a try. 10/10 would love to see a replay of the moment my dad flipped his lid over a rule (which we were all learning at the same time!), yelled at me, made my mom cry, and I walked away from the game. Certified Christmas classic that we will not soon forget! EDIT: All of this over a THREE POINT TECHNICALITY!
My favorite improv game is Superfight: You have cards for characters and attributes (there are also optional location and situation cards), everyone gets three of each, and gets to choose one character with one attribute to create their fighter. One person is the supervillain, and everyone else has to create the best superhero they can to defeat the supervillain. And then everyone gets a turn to reveal their cards, and argue to the villain player why their hero is the best for defeating the villain. And then at the end, the villain player decides one. If you and your friends have any ability in improv, it is absolutely the funniest shit ever.
Thanks for making this! I've been looking for simpler games to set my family up for success when I show them my more favorite games and I think some of these will be absolutely perfect
Time's Up sounds like a commodified version of Trifecta. But in Trifecta, you: 1. Decide on a theme as a group, at the start (analogous to which Times Up product you buy, so you can really tailor the theme to your group) 2. Everyone writes 3 answers on scraps of paper. These get mixed into a big bowl. 3. Actual game play is basically the same three rounds: saying anything but the answer you're trying to evoke, then one word, then charades. It costs zero dollars and fits your group because it's 100% user generated content, and I suspect it predates Time's Up by a decent amount. Lots of fun and you can start up a game on the fly anywhere. All you need is paper and pens.
My girlfriend's kid siblings just recently asked if we could start having a family board night once in a while - this video came at a perfect time! Thank you!
My family and I play telestrations but with just a bunch of dry erase index cards and markers and it's a total crowd pleaser. Some people hate board games in my family. But they love this game. It's so much fun
Try Coup! Very simple, and games last about 5 minutes or so. It's cutthroat, and political, but hard feelings are rarely shared given how little time lapses between games.
I've played Snake Oil and Time's Up with my friend group, and they are such fantastic games! When it comes to Snake Oil I feel like my friends are pretty good at improv so the outcomes are hilarious. There's also so much variety with the cards you play so the possibilities are endless for the products you can make. With Time's Up, we made up our own prompts to make it more fun and it was so incredibly fun. You really described it perfectly with the part about "if someone messes up a prompt you can use that failed answer to describe it later". When people would guess a totally wrong answer, the prompt became associated with that instead of a proper description, which made it so much fun. It almost creates little inside jokes for the games. The creativity with both Snake Oil and Time's Up is endless!
This is perfect for a few reasons for me. My family loves board games but I have a delayed family member and we've been having trouble finding things that we can all still enjoy together. And for later I help run a adult board game night (in not covid times) and learned really fast that I need to have games that are not at all complicated, struggled with that a little. Its interesting what is considered a "complicated" game if you didn't grow up/continue to play a variety of games,.
BLESS YOU. Pre-covid my friends and I would frequent board game cafes. I love simple games because you aren't sitting there trying to comprehend new instructions in a noisy environment and feeling rushed because you wanna get your game on. Right now Timeline is my go to warm up game - but I'll have to keep these in mind.
My pals and I haven't been able go get together for boardgame nights for...well, about a year now. This is a great resource for when we can play together again!
so i've never played the mind, but my parents absolutely love playing it with my best friend's parents. we're both board game families so we have game nights a lot, and they always tend to play the mind towards the end of the night when they've all had a couple glasses of wine. it's incredibly entertaining to watch a group of four slightly tipsy adults try to play the mind. it gets very loud for a game where you can't talk.
I beat the mind with the cards upside down with a couple of my friends. It’s SO SATISFYING when you have no idea if anything you are doing is right and then you turn it over at the end and it’s 100% correct. The mind is a great game.
I work at a comic and games store and since I don't play a lot of games myself I have a hard time helping people with recommendations when they want new games, but your videos help SO much and you explain them so well! The Mind is a family favourite that I bought from your recommendation a while back, and let's just say my family is NOT in sync at all - so it's quite hilarious :D
A a few of these were how my boardgames group got me hooked too. As always, I'd add Splendor. Looks complicated, but it's as easy as grabbing a few stones and planning ahead.
I bought Telestrations After Dark on a whim one day when it was on sale and it has become a game that my friends and I have to play at least once during our weekends away. It is a great game and very quick to pick-up and if people are bad at drawing, it's even better. We never keep score. It doesn't matter. I also switched the black pens that come in the box with coloured ones so you can see right away who did which drawing. Only once in my entire history of playing this game has a secret word carried through to the end of a round.
A couple of roll n writes I picked up after seeing them on Shut Up & Sit Down: Welcome To and Railroad Ink. I like the genre, because it's easy to learn, easy to teach, and they're very casual games where you can still chit chat or eat or whatever while playing. Polygon also has a playthrough of Wavelength, if anyone wants to see it in action. I like Sungwon's idea of just playing it to see how close people can get, rather than for points.
Thank you for this, I’ve been trying to find games that my grandpa with Alzheimer’s can play with us, and some of these could work with a little tweaking!
Time's up is a game I didn't knos existed, but my family has been playing for years. We call it celebrity and always pit our own names in a hat every round
Hey Sun Wong! Thanks for another great video and board game list! I think you would also like some of my simple board game favorites if you haven't played them already: Ice Cool 2 - attachable to the first version which gives you about 6 more maps, adds a race mode and the option of 4 more players Loopin' Louie - Timing dexterity, and can also be modified to play 8P! I love playing on teams and doing the "winner plays the next round with one less chicken" mode Looney Quest! - I can't recommend this game enough!!! Probably the best "videogame board game" in existence and you can add your own levels to keep the game replayable indefinitely! Utter Nonsense - Perfect for you as a voice actor. We like to call it "The Accent Game". Hilarious phrases that you say in different accents and scored like Apples to Apples Hey, That's My Fish - Simple enough kids game with area control mechanics Azul - I think this was on one of your other lists, but it falls under a 2 complexity rating so could easily be in this video Thanks again for such great content and for always keeping everything light hearted.
I want to share two simple games that aren't on your list that I really enjoy: Game 1: Tsuro. In tsuro you have a board that's a 6x6 grid of tiles. You draw tile cards that have lines on them and play them on the board. As you place more tiles, the lines combine and form paths, and your piece follows the path you make from tile to tile. Your goal is to be the last one surviving on the board by not taking or making a path that sends you off the board or colliding with another player. The concept itself is extremely simple and easy to follow, and it gets chaotic when you have more people because if two players are at the same intersection of a blank tile, the next tile played there affects them both, so you're trying to avoid other players, or position yourself so that they end up somewhere where you can manipulate their path and send them off the board on your next turn. It provokes a lot of thought, but with such a delightfully easy idea. Game 2: Coup Coup is a bluffing game, and a staple of game night in multiple circles of my friends. In Coup, each player has two cards, and each card has a different role. There are 5 roles in the game and 3 of each role in the deck, and you are the only one privvy to the cards you have. On your turn, you can either take money, use the action of a role card, or coup another player which is paying 7 coins to make another player lose a card. The catch is that you can use any role card's ability on your turn, even if you don't have it. Players can call your bluff whenever you use a card, and if they're right you lose one of your cards, and if they're wrong, they lose one of theirs. The objective of the game is to be the last player standing, and you do so by building up money to Coup players, or use the assassin role card to assassinate players (though it can be blocked by another role card, the contessa), and by making oddball plays to make players think you're bluffing and forcing them to discard. Newer players will find remembering all the roles a tad difficult at first, but once they pass that hurdle, it becomes a super quick and easy game to jump into. So easy in fact that I made a variant of red dragon inn with my friends where instead of gambling the traditional way, we played a round of coup instead (I even made custom roles for the red dragon gambling cards to be used in coup). My favorite variant of this that was concieved by my board game group at college, is blind coup, where nobody gets the chance to look at their cards at the beginning of the game, so everybody is bluffing constantly, and everyone can lie in crazy ways about what they're doing because you can't be sure. When someone assassinates or coups you, they pick a random card, and when you ambassador from the deck you do it face down and don't look at any cards. But it's balanced in that when you're down to one card, or have to check for a bluff you're allowed to know your last card and play accordingly. It's a ton of fun both normal and blind!
you can play time’s up without buying the game! i did it all the time with friends and family. everyone writes like 5 random things on a piece of paper. they crumple them up and put them in a bowl, or hat, or box or whatever. and part of the fun is the tension of trying to de-crumple the papers on a time crunch. we usually do 1 minute instead of 30 seconds.
Awesome recommendations, I've tried a few of these out and loved them so I'm definitely going to pick up some of these. You should do a "lets play" of some board games once in a while when it's safe to come out of the bunker again!
YES, LOVE LETTER It's my favorite game, and I can't explain why. We've practically solved it by now, and I just absolutely love every second of playing. It's also one of the few I usually win
Thanks man, I got my wife and kids to play pandemic thanks to your recommendation, and we had a blast. Now I want to get my one hold out kid, who doesn't want to learn for 10 min at the start of a game - so times up title recall sounds like a great next choice. Thanks for putting these videos together! I have thrown out monopoly, risk, trivial pursuit, life, battleship, and some other not so great games.
It makes me happy that SungWon doesn't ever look directly at the camera but like slightly to the left so that I don't feel obligated to look him in the eyes
I was using my notebook here and in the end I took more notes on this video than on the 2 hours-long job meeting this morning (..love letter is amazing btw!)
I know MindWare games aren’t that interesting usually, but my siblings and I absolutely love the game Q-bitz. For anyone who likes a challenging competitive and fun game it’s pretty darn good🙂
Concept is personally a really good one for people i know. Again it's essentially charades but instead of acting out the answers, you have a grid of symbols you place tokens on without saying anything. And again there is a point system that i don't think anyone has ever used. I have a mix of people who love games like articulate, that are loud chaotic, put you on the spot and make you act something out. And the other half of people thing that is the worst torture in the world. I find Concept acts as a good middle ground. Extroverts are happy they get to play a game they like and introverts don't have to run and hide. Everybody wins?
I used to think of myself as a complex board game lover, but it's just not me. A simple game with a few key mechanics that really work is hard to do well and worth appreciating when it connects.
"my dad drew this monstrosity, which i will show here"
me: "awh thats not that bad, its a cute fish ;)"
"its a rhinoceros"
me: "??????its hideous!"
6:08
I never thought that I would wish that shark-dinosaurs exist, yet here we are.
@@jeremyc9593 _they do_ ;)
ive literally found 3 christmas presents with this video
Which ones, I'm curiouus 😂😂
Let me guess: „just one“ is one of it
@@johannengelhardt5885 yup
They will be gifts for me, too bad i only have myself
Look at mr money bags who has enough disposable income to buy people Christmas presents
still waiting for the dairy farm card game to get released
Yes
Shouldn't have been looking for it in the simple board games section :P
And King Dragon’s video game
@@mundivore2397 yeah, that farm is complex
already reviewed lolol th-cam.com/video/bryOJSVUnSI/w-d-xo.html
Love the video! If anyone is short on time, I made a quick synopsis of the list here:
1. ICECOOL 1:10 - Great flicking game.
2. KLASK 2:00 - Similar to number 1, a flicking game with magnets.
3. Just One 3:05 - One of ProZD's *favorite* party games. Guessing game with easels to write clues on, with a twist.
4. Telestrations 4:36 - It's like 'Telephone', but with pictures.
5. The Mind 6:30 - A polarizing game. Basically, you and your friends order cards in ascending order without talking to them.
6. Wavelength 8:40 - *I love the idea of this one.* There is a dial, it gives you a clue, and you have to get your friend to rate something from 1-5 the same way you do, but the rating they shoot for is randomized. Slightly complicated, so it's best if you watch the video.
7. Say Anything 11:08 - Basically Cards Against Humanity, where one person gets a question card and the rest have to answer. The only difference is that the people who are answering have a whiteboard to write whatever they want, rather than choosing from a limited selection in CAH. However, it is naturally more improv-based that CAH.
8. Skull 12:40 - A bluffing game. You use disks and strive to flip over people's disks without revealing a skull. Or you're trying to trick people to flip over your skulls. Literally, just put down discs in a circle and one of them has a skull, and try and get others to pick the skull.
9. Snake Oil 14:01 - More improv-oriented. One person has a role (e.g. babysitter, cheerleader) and everyone else has cards in their hand with random nouns. You need to put two nouns together and "pitch the product" to the person with the role.
10. SIlver & Gold 15:43 - Everyone flips over their cards at the same time. This starts to get complicated, but you need to fill out the cards that look like treasure maps. ProZD explains it better than I just did.
11. Point Salad 16:58 - You collect different groupings of fruits and vegetables to gather points in unique ways.
12. Sushi Go! 18:06 - Similar to Point Salad. There are cards with different types of sushi drawn on them, and they score differently (i.e. some of the cards score well in sets, whereas others are individual). You collect stuff to help you, but also try to block other players.
13. Love Letter 19:22 - The games are starting to get a bit complex. The point is to get a love letter to the princess by eliminating the other players in the round or have the highest number (value) card at the end of the round.
14. Time's Up! Title Recall 21:19 - Charades (but with the same deck for the match).
15. Las Vegas 23:33 - Most complex game on the list. Different casinos with money on them and all you need to do is roll dice and put all one number on one casino. You are competing to have the most dice on each casino.
Thanks man, appreciate this
@@FritzMeowstro Happy to help!
Love Letter is complex to describe because there are so few components that carry the entire game, but it is super easy in practice. You do one game for practice and then you can knock out three more in the time it would take to set up a bigger game.
This was very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to write it out!
@@Dracstar klask isn’t really a flicking game
Timestamps!!
1. Icecool | 1:09 || c: 1.02
2. Klask | 2:00 || c: 1.06
3. Just One | 3:05 || c: 1.06
4. Telestrations | 4:37 || c: 1.08
5. The Mind | 6:30 || c: 1.08
6. Wavelenght | 8:42 || c: 1.09
7. Say Anything | 11:01 || c. 1.09
8. Skull | 12:41 || c. 1.14
9. Snake Oil | 14:01 || c. 1.15
10. Silver & Gold | 15:45 || c. 1.15
11. Point Salad | 16:57 || c. 1.16
12. Sushi Go! | 18:05 || c. 1.17
13. Love Letter | 19:21 || c. 1.19
14. Time's up! Title Recall | 21:18 || c. 1.19
15. Las Vegas | 23:32 || c. 1.19
love all the recommendations!
what are good games for three or four players?
Thanks!
You sir, are great!
Wavelenght
🙏
Sorry & Clue
Let's Try Eating 15 Different Board Games
“This next one here just tastes like awful, chemical cardboard. It’s like they put every chemical available at their next door lab; then mixed them all with bull shit. I’d give it a 7/10, it’s pretty okay.”
@@spoopyscaryskelebones3846 Two can eat at that game
Top ten easiet to digest games. All them are button shy games. :p
Plot twist
SungWon has been building up his image for years subtly attracting board game fans so he can sell his own board game...dairy cow the gathering
*moogic the grazing
I’m honestly not super immersed into the board game genre (I mostly only play with friends in college from time to time. Very typical games like exploding kittens, catan, etc.). I think these videos you do are really great. You’re exposing a lot of us to what seems like a super fun niche, in an interesting and accessible way
The most complex aspect of these games is that they all require friends...
Big sad
one thing i really like about these videos is that when he's explaining part of the appeal of the games, he explains the types of feelings the game makes you feel. i like the way you describe the emotions on the table, that's a big part of board games that i enjoy, like the moments of panic or tension or explosions of excitement, that's really the meat of board games for me
Last time flicked a penguin I was asked to leave the zoo.
I usually do it at night
Sounds like fun I want to try
Do I need extra tools to do it?
Just don't play the game "Diddle the Penguin". They won't let you come back. Ever.
Bruh
Oh man I played skull for the first time yesterday. Bluffing games are not my strongest suit, but it is super fun, and the tension when flipping the tiles over is so good.
Also note with loveletter once everyone knows the game enough it just evolves into sheer mind fuckery and knowing the group you play with which atleast for me usually ends up in very funny shenanigans enhancing the experience.
Bluffs and Double Bluffs abound!
This video is perfect timing because my family doesn't want to play Catan because it looks complicated
Catan is great.
ooh my parents back hom ehave this real cool, simple but fun as hell board game: every player has a little colored figure and you each take a turn to roll a die (dice??) to climb up the stairs on the board. but one after another, the die will tell the players to put little ghost-looking cover-ups over their figures, so you cant tell who is who. you have to keep in mind, what your own figure is, and the die can tell players they can switch their own figure with any other figure on the board that they want. this means that being in first place doesnt mean much as anyone could roll the switch and become 1rst place instantly anyway. but the fun part is that inevitably, youre gonna lose track of who your little ghost is, and when you finally reach the top, youre gonna be all happy and smug youo won, and then you remove the little ghost cover-up and you reveal that youve put a whole other person in first place. its quite fun bc you put ALL the figures on the board, even the ones who arent actually played by anyone, so you could just end up letting a literal npc win lmao
Another game that's *maybe* a two in complexity: exploding kittens
The entire game is based around a deck of cards. Every turn, you draw a card. If you draw an exploding kitten, you're out, unless you have a diffuse card. Every other card is to attempt preventing drawing a kitten- shuffle the deck, skip your turn, look at the top three cards, etc. Each player can play whatever cards they want to from their hand, then end their turn by drawing a card.
It's very easy to learn and a game takes at most 20 mins. One of my favorite games to play.
Hey SungWon! I’ve been a subscriber to your channel for years but in September this year, I rewatched your ‘5 gateway games’ videos as my interest was peaked. I now have 17 board games and love them all! I hope you can appreciate your message getting out there and I’m doing my bit to spread the love of board games too! Thank you!
A really fun game with family that you don’t need to buy is Pictionary. I swear my brother and I are telepathic. I drew a slightly curvy line and he correctly guessed beach. He drew a strange blobby face and I guessed Aladin (it was the genie). It’s fun to play with people you’re really close to because you may know exactly what they’re trying to do.
Love Letter and Las Vegas get loads of play here. The latter in particular is a default chaser after playing something planned. The ultra-unfriendly ties make it hilariously funny. "roll-and-fuck-people-up" is my jam
Thanks a ton for doing this. I have a party group where we usually aren't sober. These are great games to try out to keep it simple yet fun
I love your enthusiasm when your explaining these games.
Thanks I've been looking for something to play with the family over the holidays
Same, this is such a good time for this video to come out
We used to play a game similar to Snake Oil in my High School Drama Club. Definitely recommend.
If you're playing Snake Oil, I highly recommend a little variant: once everyone has made a product, take all the pairs of cards and redistribute each pair randomly. Watching other players come up with their own interpretation and pitch of the product you put together can be such a joy
One of the funniest variants of snake oil I've played is blind snake oil. You have to start your pitch and build up to a product, and then when it comes time to reveal the name and what it does, you draw the top two cards of the deck and make a product on the spot and try to salvage your pitch with something that's usually completely nonsensical and ridiculous. So many hilarious moments of looks of defeat or laughter when people draw their cards and realize what they got stuck with.
well my question of the board game tier list was IMMEDIATELY answered
Which was
@@justinlindfors8512 if i could have one
@@jankcity6081 hmm... *hugs*
@@justinlindfors8512 what
Skull And Roses is one of those brilliant games that you don't need to own to enjoy once you know the game. In a pinch, some coasters and a marker will do.
Same with Liar's Dice, all you need is a pile of d6 and some cups.
Klask is good time and an absolute meme of a game among my friends. Nothing like saying "ohhhhh you klasked yourself."
I watched your video on you playing level 8 of the mind and picked it up at my LGS. Such a great game my friends that don't really like board games love it so thank you for showing me how great that game is. Gonna have to check out wavelength now sounds a lot of fun
Me: *noticing that i cant play these games since i have no friends
Then get some
@@pizzabunger76 thanks bro i never thought about that
@@geraldzakos5681 I know I was told that now I have friends
His video about games for 2 players includes some games that can be played solo!
@@skrevel that's even worse lol
I wasn't expecting this type of video, but it just came at the right time because I was wondering what to buy for chrismas thank you!
Imagine if Chidi from The Good Place played Say Anything
good meme
Just finished the show for the first time... Incredible.
thanks for popping that show into my mind unexpectedly, I watched the first three seasons and never got around to finishing it. Even though I really enjoyed it.
I used to work in after school care and Snake Oil was legitimately the most popular game amongst the kids we had because it’s just so easy to play and so zany. 10/10 would recommend
Snake Oil is a fantastic game. Especially with a group of kids, you'll be suprised how creative/hilarious their ideas are.
“Send your baby to the moon while giving it food”
If you like "The Mind", you may like a similar but slightly more complex game, Hanabi. It's basically the same idea, but you have 5 categories, and you only go up to 5 cards for each category.
Sushi Go!, 6 Nimmt, and Lucky Numbers my fave simple games to introduce to people. I love mid-to-heavy dry games, most of the time, but I will happily play these games at any time. Also, I think I might get Just One, now, after your recommendation. I love games where you're trying to get inside someone's head.
Yes, 6 nimmt is great for 4/6 people! I love it!
I used to work for Repos Production, the studio that developed Just One. This game always fucking works. I've presented it to many players and shop owners at an event and everyone loved it. It's great because people can join in or leave the game any moment if they need to without affecting the game for others. Plus it's so simple, I just explained the rules as I played. It won the most prestigious European game award in 2019 and it still sells like crazy. If you're looking for a game to play with your family, I recommend.
Disclaimer: I don't work for them anymore, I do not own any shares or profit in any way from the sale if you decide to buy it, it's just a great game and it's made by great people.
I'd love for another version of this with easy-medium difficulty games
Why is the fucking background music so emotional? You're talking about sushi with happy silly faces and the music is making me feel sad lmao
Thank you! I like reading long detailed stories but I lean towards games like this when I have people to entertain.
Thanks for the tip, ProZD! I picked up Sushi Go at your recommendation to try with my family of 5 this Christmas. First time we've all been together in a long time. Well of course happy families play board games, so we wanted to give it a try. 10/10 would love to see a replay of the moment my dad flipped his lid over a rule (which we were all learning at the same time!), yelled at me, made my mom cry, and I walked away from the game. Certified Christmas classic that we will not soon forget! EDIT: All of this over a THREE POINT TECHNICALITY!
My favorite improv game is Superfight:
You have cards for characters and attributes (there are also optional location and situation cards), everyone gets three of each, and gets to choose one character with one attribute to create their fighter. One person is the supervillain, and everyone else has to create the best superhero they can to defeat the supervillain. And then everyone gets a turn to reveal their cards, and argue to the villain player why their hero is the best for defeating the villain. And then at the end, the villain player decides one.
If you and your friends have any ability in improv, it is absolutely the funniest shit ever.
Thanks for making this! I've been looking for simpler games to set my family up for success when I show them my more favorite games and I think some of these will be absolutely perfect
Time's Up sounds like a commodified version of Trifecta. But in Trifecta, you:
1. Decide on a theme as a group, at the start (analogous to which Times Up product you buy, so you can really tailor the theme to your group)
2. Everyone writes 3 answers on scraps of paper. These get mixed into a big bowl.
3. Actual game play is basically the same three rounds: saying anything but the answer you're trying to evoke, then one word, then charades.
It costs zero dollars and fits your group because it's 100% user generated content, and I suspect it predates Time's Up by a decent amount. Lots of fun and you can start up a game on the fly anywhere. All you need is paper and pens.
My girlfriend's kid siblings just recently asked if we could start having a family board night once in a while - this video came at a perfect time! Thank you!
My family and I play telestrations but with just a bunch of dry erase index cards and markers and it's a total crowd pleaser. Some people hate board games in my family. But they love this game. It's so much fun
Try Coup! Very simple, and games last about 5 minutes or so. It's cutthroat, and political, but hard feelings are rarely shared given how little time lapses between games.
I've played Snake Oil and Time's Up with my friend group, and they are such fantastic games! When it comes to Snake Oil I feel like my friends are pretty good at improv so the outcomes are hilarious. There's also so much variety with the cards you play so the possibilities are endless for the products you can make. With Time's Up, we made up our own prompts to make it more fun and it was so incredibly fun. You really described it perfectly with the part about "if someone messes up a prompt you can use that failed answer to describe it later". When people would guess a totally wrong answer, the prompt became associated with that instead of a proper description, which made it so much fun. It almost creates little inside jokes for the games. The creativity with both Snake Oil and Time's Up is endless!
This guy could talk about how paint drys and I would still be interested
I wanna see that now
we don't even see the whole video
*dries
But true
Defiantly buying some of these to play with my family this Christmas.
Thank you for making this video for my stupid brain
This is perfect for a few reasons for me. My family loves board games but I have a delayed family member and we've been having trouble finding things that we can all still enjoy together.
And for later I help run a adult board game night (in not covid times) and learned really fast that I need to have games that are not at all complicated, struggled with that a little. Its interesting what is considered a "complicated" game if you didn't grow up/continue to play a variety of games,.
BLESS YOU.
Pre-covid my friends and I would frequent board game cafes. I love simple games because you aren't sitting there trying to comprehend new instructions in a noisy environment and feeling rushed because you wanna get your game on. Right now Timeline is my go to warm up game - but I'll have to keep these in mind.
i don't even like board games, but i do love this guy so i'm gonna watch it
My pals and I haven't been able go get together for boardgame nights for...well, about a year now. This is a great resource for when we can play together again!
so i've never played the mind, but my parents absolutely love playing it with my best friend's parents. we're both board game families so we have game nights a lot, and they always tend to play the mind towards the end of the night when they've all had a couple glasses of wine. it's incredibly entertaining to watch a group of four slightly tipsy adults try to play the mind. it gets very loud for a game where you can't talk.
You missed a trick by not having Amazon affiliate links to all these items in the description.
DEATH TO AMAZON! Items are almost always cheaper on the developers/makers website anyways
@@misteryA555 ok
I was expecting Two can play at that game to be on the list
Thanks for the overviews. I will definitely be picking up a few of these.
Dude I just want to say your content really calms me down and makes me happy, so thank you for doing what you do. I appreciate it.
I beat the mind with the cards upside down with a couple of my friends. It’s SO SATISFYING when you have no idea if anything you are doing is right and then you turn it over at the end and it’s 100% correct. The mind is a great game.
I work at a comic and games store and since I don't play a lot of games myself I have a hard time helping people with recommendations when they want new games, but your videos help SO much and you explain them so well! The Mind is a family favourite that I bought from your recommendation a while back, and let's just say my family is NOT in sync at all - so it's quite hilarious :D
A a few of these were how my boardgames group got me hooked too.
As always, I'd add Splendor. Looks complicated, but it's as easy as grabbing a few stones and planning ahead.
I bought Telestrations After Dark on a whim one day when it was on sale and it has become a game that my friends and I have to play at least once during our weekends away. It is a great game and very quick to pick-up and if people are bad at drawing, it's even better. We never keep score. It doesn't matter. I also switched the black pens that come in the box with coloured ones so you can see right away who did which drawing. Only once in my entire history of playing this game has a secret word carried through to the end of a round.
A couple of roll n writes I picked up after seeing them on Shut Up & Sit Down: Welcome To and Railroad Ink. I like the genre, because it's easy to learn, easy to teach, and they're very casual games where you can still chit chat or eat or whatever while playing.
Polygon also has a playthrough of Wavelength, if anyone wants to see it in action. I like Sungwon's idea of just playing it to see how close people can get, rather than for points.
I would also add the classic No Thanks.
Thank you for this, I’ve been trying to find games that my grandpa with Alzheimer’s can play with us, and some of these could work with a little tweaking!
Okay but why is the background music sound so sad? 😭
These are trying times
Yeah it was literally stressing me out.
He died shortly after this video 😔
perfect background music for a kingdom hearts monologue
@@David.d.d.d He did not.
Time's up is a game I didn't knos existed, but my family has been playing for years. We call it celebrity and always pit our own names in a hat every round
Great video ProZD! Perfect timing too! Definitely ordering Just One tonight.
Hey Sun Wong! Thanks for another great video and board game list! I think you would also like some of my simple board game favorites if you haven't played them already:
Ice Cool 2 - attachable to the first version which gives you about 6 more maps, adds a race mode and the option of 4 more players
Loopin' Louie - Timing dexterity, and can also be modified to play 8P! I love playing on teams and doing the "winner plays the next round with one less chicken" mode
Looney Quest! - I can't recommend this game enough!!! Probably the best "videogame board game" in existence and you can add your own levels to keep the game replayable indefinitely!
Utter Nonsense - Perfect for you as a voice actor. We like to call it "The Accent Game". Hilarious phrases that you say in different accents and scored like Apples to Apples
Hey, That's My Fish - Simple enough kids game with area control mechanics
Azul - I think this was on one of your other lists, but it falls under a 2 complexity rating so could easily be in this video
Thanks again for such great content and for always keeping everything light hearted.
I want to share two simple games that aren't on your list that I really enjoy:
Game 1: Tsuro.
In tsuro you have a board that's a 6x6 grid of tiles. You draw tile cards that have lines on them and play them on the board. As you place more tiles, the lines combine and form paths, and your piece follows the path you make from tile to tile. Your goal is to be the last one surviving on the board by not taking or making a path that sends you off the board or colliding with another player. The concept itself is extremely simple and easy to follow, and it gets chaotic when you have more people because if two players are at the same intersection of a blank tile, the next tile played there affects them both, so you're trying to avoid other players, or position yourself so that they end up somewhere where you can manipulate their path and send them off the board on your next turn. It provokes a lot of thought, but with such a delightfully easy idea.
Game 2: Coup
Coup is a bluffing game, and a staple of game night in multiple circles of my friends. In Coup, each player has two cards, and each card has a different role. There are 5 roles in the game and 3 of each role in the deck, and you are the only one privvy to the cards you have. On your turn, you can either take money, use the action of a role card, or coup another player which is paying 7 coins to make another player lose a card. The catch is that you can use any role card's ability on your turn, even if you don't have it. Players can call your bluff whenever you use a card, and if they're right you lose one of your cards, and if they're wrong, they lose one of theirs. The objective of the game is to be the last player standing, and you do so by building up money to Coup players, or use the assassin role card to assassinate players (though it can be blocked by another role card, the contessa), and by making oddball plays to make players think you're bluffing and forcing them to discard. Newer players will find remembering all the roles a tad difficult at first, but once they pass that hurdle, it becomes a super quick and easy game to jump into. So easy in fact that I made a variant of red dragon inn with my friends where instead of gambling the traditional way, we played a round of coup instead (I even made custom roles for the red dragon gambling cards to be used in coup).
My favorite variant of this that was concieved by my board game group at college, is blind coup, where nobody gets the chance to look at their cards at the beginning of the game, so everybody is bluffing constantly, and everyone can lie in crazy ways about what they're doing because you can't be sure. When someone assassinates or coups you, they pick a random card, and when you ambassador from the deck you do it face down and don't look at any cards. But it's balanced in that when you're down to one card, or have to check for a bluff you're allowed to know your last card and play accordingly. It's a ton of fun both normal and blind!
you can play time’s up without buying the game! i did it all the time with friends and family. everyone writes like 5 random things on a piece of paper. they crumple them up and put them in a bowl, or hat, or box or whatever. and part of the fun is the tension of trying to de-crumple the papers on a time crunch. we usually do 1 minute instead of 30 seconds.
Awesome recommendations, I've tried a few of these out and loved them so I'm definitely going to pick up some of these. You should do a "lets play" of some board games once in a while when it's safe to come out of the bunker again!
Such a useful video - thank you. Now I feel less hesitant to try to introduce board games to any group I spend time with
It'd be interesting to hear all of your favorite card games. I always liked the versatility of games on the bicycle playing cards.
The background music combined with his inflections makes me think this is a ProZD tribute video after his tragic death.
EDIT: I also loved the video.
YES, LOVE LETTER
It's my favorite game, and I can't explain why. We've practically solved it by now, and I just absolutely love every second of playing. It's also one of the few I usually win
I love this man's hand gestures
Time to watch ep. 83, love letter sounds really interesting and I love the era and aesthetic.
Loved the background music here.
Sublime!
Thanks man, I got my wife and kids to play pandemic thanks to your recommendation, and we had a blast. Now I want to get my one hold out kid, who doesn't want to learn for 10 min at the start of a game - so times up title recall sounds like a great next choice. Thanks for putting these videos together! I have thrown out monopoly, risk, trivial pursuit, life, battleship, and some other not so great games.
Wow, just what i needed for my board game loving household. thanks
Him "extremely simple board games"
Me with 2 braincells: *are you sure about that?*
It makes me happy that SungWon doesn't ever look directly at the camera but like slightly to the left so that I don't feel obligated to look him in the eyes
I was using my notebook here and in the end I took more notes on this video than on the 2 hours-long job meeting this morning (..love letter is amazing btw!)
Chobani flips 40 flavors over 40 days. No rush. Keep up the great content. 👍
Love letter is still so great. I once brought it in my pocket to Six Flags to play while we waited in lines, we played like 40 games in a day
I can 100% recommend Sushi go party. It is a lot of fun and it never gets old.
I played love letter with my family a few times over Christmas and it was really fun! I certainly recommend
I appreciate your mostly wholesome presence on the earth.
My family likes playing telestrations. The all time best drawing from one of our games was Big Bird being executed by ISIS.
I know MindWare games aren’t that interesting usually, but my siblings and I absolutely love the game Q-bitz. For anyone who likes a challenging competitive and fun game it’s pretty darn good🙂
I'm just happy for more content but you keep putting out all these banger videos! 🔥
after playing secret hitler and risk with my friends a million times I literally can't wait to play these with my friends
Now make one about the most complex games
Most of the games he takes out are games I have seen at a game store and have already considered buying. He basically solidifies my decision.
Concept is personally a really good one for people i know. Again it's essentially charades but instead of acting out the answers, you have a grid of symbols you place tokens on without saying anything. And again there is a point system that i don't think anyone has ever used.
I have a mix of people who love games like articulate, that are loud chaotic, put you on the spot and make you act something out. And the other half of people thing that is the worst torture in the world. I find Concept acts as a good middle ground. Extroverts are happy they get to play a game they like and introverts don't have to run and hide. Everybody wins?
If you want a simple game, "no thanks" is great. It's under 10 bucks and is really simple.
I used to think of myself as a complex board game lover, but it's just not me. A simple game with a few key mechanics that really work is hard to do well and worth appreciating when it connects.