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Comment by technics256 | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone have any board games they recommend for groups of 3-5? Something that isn't too terrible to learn, and lasts max an hour?

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Sure, I added the following assumptions:

- stuff I play myself

- something I can explain to the 70yo parents in a few minutes before the game

- easily available (either recent, or a classic)

Here's five recommendations:

- Cacao (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171499/cacao)

- Carcassone (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne)

- Alhambra (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6249/alhambra)

- Ticket to Ride (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9209/ticket-ride)

- Samurai (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3/samurai)

My wife bought me Trekking the National Parks recently, which is designed by a hobbyist. It seems very complex at first, but you catch on within the first round or so. You often don't know who's won until the points are tallied at the end, which makes it intriguing.

Enjoy playing it against my 8yo but have also had a few nights playing with friends who've enjoyed it also.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/255708/trekking-national...

Below are some common gateway games that I’ve had good success introducing with non-gamers.

Cooperative: Pandemic

Language Based: Codenames, Taboo

Competitive: Ticket to Ride, Splendor, Munchkin

Card: Monopoly Deal, Exploding Kittens

Notably absent is Catan, which has a steep gap between those who have played before and novices, with an especially punishing snowball effect.

I really enjoy Wingspan (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266192/wingspan)

It's not that hard and it's beautiful.

Wingspan is a beautiful and fun game, but the instructions are incomprehensible. I don't have concrete examples, but I needed to read the entire book twice to have enough context for info at the beginning to make any sense. In a lot of ways, this is because of the thing that makes the game great (deeply interlocked systems) also makes it hard to find a point to insert the read pointer for the explanation.

Watch the How to Play video instead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgDgcLI2B0U

I agree, that's a much better way to learn it. I've also had no problem teaching people the game without the manual.

Lastly, the "new player" card pack that comes with the game works well to get someone up to speed and competitive quickly (and is an idea other games could afford to learn from).

You'll probably get better responses by asking your question here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/l7kypq/daily_di...

However, some of my recommendations include Parks, Wingspan, Splendor, Azul, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Potion Explosion, Kingdomino, Lanterns, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic: Iberia, Carcassonne, Concordia or Concordia Venus, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Treasure Island, etc. There are literally thousands of games that could meet the criteria of 3-5, simple rule set, 60 minute play time, and fun game play.

See also this ranked list of family board games:

https://boardgamegeek.com/familygames/browse/boardgame?sort=...

Pretty much every game on the first page of that list would meet your criteria.

I would recommend going to Board Game Arena and finding a few games that seem interesting to you, then give them a try. Here's a filter roughly matching your criteria:

https://boardgamearena.com/gamelist?section=all&playernumber...

From the top options presented I can recommend

Kingdom Builder - incredibly easy to learn strategy game with just enough depth to keep it interesting over multiple plays

Love Letter - one of ourmyregular games to kick off a game night. Quick to pick up, quick to play, and fun.

Coup - similar in many ways to Love Letter, but with bluffing, which makes it much more cut throat, but it plays quickly enough that no one gets angry, they just get back at you the next game.

Colt Express - exciting game with a unique "programming" like mechanic that's very simple to pickup, and allows for some playfully grievous player interactions.

Gaia - underrated game that shares a lot of mechanics with the more popular Carcassone. Very strategic, and the advanced version amps up the competitiveness.

Carcassone - one of the most popular games around. Can also recommend Hunters & Gatherers.

Stone Age & Puerto Rico - great entry level worker placement games.

Granted, it doesn't have every game imaginable (Catan, Munchkin, Risk) but its selection is large enough to find good games for just about any group.

If you want something more advanced, this doesn't exactly fit your criteria, but I highly recommend Terra Mystica. One of my favorite games of all time.

We've been playing a fair amount of Kingdom Builder (whereas normally we'd play longer games of Terra Mystica or Through The Ages that would definitely not quality for this "under an hour" constraint)

I think with five players an hour is pushing it for Kingdom Builder, but of course this will vary if you've got players who are just generally faster at playing board games.

Note that the boxed Kingdom Builder game is actually four player, BGA is providing a five player expansion (because it's a web site, so the extra little wooden pieces don't cost anything) but if you are in the real world that's an issue for five.

I feel like Stone Age is a better introduction to worker placement than Puerto Rico but I wonder how often you'd really get a five player game in an hour. We generally take 90+ minutes for four players.

Check out "Deep Sea Adventure", a cute fun japanese micro-game where you try to salvage stuff from the ocean floor while sharing the limited oxygen supply with your competitors.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/169654/deep-sea-adventur...

You play three rounds, if you're fast you can even squeeze it into the lunch break.

This game manages to be fun and also teach you a lot about human greed.

Love Letter and its variants (I like the Batman one myself).

You can explain it to a person who's two-three beers in and they'll get the rules well enough to start playing. Rounds last 5-10 minutes depending on how much people start analyzing the cards on the board. You can play as many rounds as you want.

Love Letter is great, i like the variant "Lovecraft letter" even more!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/198740/lovecraft-letter

I've got to try the Batman variant!

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