In a world full of digital entertainment, with video games leading the way, more and more people are turning towards playing board and card games. The board game industry has seen tremendous growth over the past couple of years and board game shops and hybrid board game shops/cafes have sprouted across the world. For a lot of people, online gaming just hasn’t captured that social feeling that you get when you sit around a table playing a game with our friends and/or family. I think this is the primary force driving this board game renaissance, direct human connections that cannot be made (at least for me) playing online games.
Play online + Add to favorites Remove from favorites. Is a game designed by Emiliano Sciarra and published by DV Giochi. See more See less. Is a Wild West-themed social deduction card game designed by Emiliano Sciarra and released by Italian publisher DV Giochi in 2002. Won the Origins Award for Best Traditional Card Game of 2003 and Best Graphic Design of a Card Game or Expansion.
Along with more players, the board game industry has matured and game publishers have been publishing new kinds of game designs and genres. It’s no longer just Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, and Scrabble. And the games are not all family-friendly anymore either. Like any other form of entertainment media, if you look hard enough, you can find something to satisfy everyone. As an avid gamer of all forms of media, I am a huge board game aficionado. Granted, I’m a hyper consumer. I buy way too many games for my own good. That said, when I play tabletop games with others, I now groan at the thought of having play through another standard game of Monopoly or UNO. I know there are just so many other games out there! It would be like being a movie buff and every time you sit down with friends to watch a movie together, they always only have the Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind and nothing else. Both are great movies, but you want to expand your options eventually.
Playing cards is the majority of the turn, and there are a number of different cards with varying immediate and long term effects. The most crucial cards are Bang! Cards, which allow you to shoot anybody within range. Once you declare who you shoot, that player has the opportunity to play a Missed card, which lets them avoid taking damage. Who is a Deputy, ready to sacrifice himself for the Sheriff? And who is a merciless Outlaw, willing to kill him? If you want to find out, just draw (your cards). Reviewed by Nick Sauer TOO MANY COOKS (R&R Games, 2-5 players, 30-60 minutes; $12.95) Card games are one type of game I always like to check out. One of my game groups meets during lunch and we mostly play card games because they are portable and usually short enough to allow us to play multiple games over the same lunch hour.
Here are some suggestions of games to break out the next time you have friends or family over. Just to break the mold and expand everybody’s gaming horizons!
For anybody looking to get into more board game options, I suggest checking out the excellent board game review site, Shut Up and Sit Down (https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/ ) and the vast database over at Board Game Geek (https://www.boardgamegeek.com/ ).
—
Exploding Kittens by Exploding Kittens LLC (2015)
It’s really not as bad as the title suggests. Well, there are kittens and they do explode, but it’s not that bad in context of the game. Exploding Kittens is a press your luck style card game designed by Elan Lee, Shane Small, and Matthew Inman from the comics site The Oatmeal.
Originally proposed as a Kickstarter project seeking $10K in crowdfunding, it exceeded the goal in eight minutes and on January 27, 2015, at completion on February 19, 2015, it had over $8 million in pledges by 219,382 backers. I was one of the original backers of this game and I’ve shared this game with many people since I got my original copy. Every time I’ve broken this card game out to play with new people, they have always ended up buying their own copy shortly after.
“Exploding Kittens is a highly-strategic, kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette, where players draw cards until someone draws an Exploding Kitten, at which point they explode, they are dead, and they are out of the game — unless that player has a defuse card, which can defuse the Kitten using things like laser pointers, belly rubs, and catnip sandwiches. All of the other cards in the deck are used to move, mitigate, or avoid the Exploding Kittens.” There’s also this handy video that teaches you how to play:
This is a very silly but somehow extremely charming game. I love the art and humor found throughout the cards. I think you really gotta have a sense of humor to enjoy this game. It’s easy to learn and plays fast. Since the initial release, there have been two expansions (Exploding Kittens: NSFW Deck and Imploding Kittens) released and digital versions made for iOS and Android phones. If you like games like UNO, this can be a fun alternative. And it works well for both those who love and hate cats.
--
Cash ‘n Guns (Second Edition) by Repos Production/Asmodee (2014)
Disclaimer: If you are against playing any games that features firearms, even lightly, then you should just move on. I’ve seen some people turn their nose up at this game for that very reason. It’s not a pro-gun game so much as it is part of the theme of crooks after an armed robbery.
This is another one that I like to break out when gaming with novice players, it’s very easy to learn and the props just make the game feel that much cooler. This game can be played with up to 8 players and it comes with 8 foam pistols. The setting of the game is described like this:
“You and your criminal associates just pulled off the score of a lifetime, and now it’s back to the warehouse to divide up the loot. The only problem is: thieves aren’t exactly known for sharing well with others. When the guns come out, how long will you stare down the barrel of your friend’s pistol?”
Cash ‘n Guns is essentially a bluffing game where each player points a gun at another player each round. Each player gets five “Click” cards and three “Bang” cards. Once the loot has been revealed, you’ll secretly choose a “Click” or “Bang” bullet card and place it face-down. Then, on the count of three, each player selects a target by pointing their gun at another player. Once the guns are out, it’s time to see who has the nerve to stay in the game. After another count to three, you’ll choose if you want to stay or dive for cover. If you take cover, you’re out of the round, but you’re also safe from injury. Those still in the round have a chance of getting some loot, as long as they’re not shot first.
If you are shot with a “Bang” card, you then receive a wound, and you won’t receive any loot that round. More importantly, if you take three wounds, you’re out of the game. All of the players left standing after shots are fired can now take turns grabbing shares of loot until it’s gone. The fewer left standing, the more loot you each can claim. The player with the most loot after 8 rounds is the winner.
Those are the basic rules, if this sounds interesting to you, I recommend watching the following review of the game here:
I’ve played this game with family and co-workers at an office party. It’s all in good fun and there’s just something very amusing about sitting around the dinner table and watching Grandma pointing a gun at your kid brother as he points a gun at you asking, “Do you feel lucky, punk?”
--
Guillotine by Avalon Hill/Hasbro (1998)
Who doesn’t love history? Guillotineis a fun little card game set during the French Revolution. It’s a grim topic, but the game is presented in a lighthearted way: The tagline being “The revolutionary card game where you win by getting a head. “
Players represent rival guillotine operators vying for the best collection of noble heads over three rounds. Each round twelve nobles are lined up for the guillotine. The nobles are worth varying points depending on their notoriety. During your turn you play action cards to change the order of the line so you can collect the best nobles. But watch out, players lose points for beheading the heroes of the people. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
This one has been around for many years but most people that I’ve shared it with never heard about it before I showed it to them. It’s casual fun with some dark humor spliced in.
--
Funemployed: The Interview Game of Actual Jobs and Absurd Qualifications by Mattel (2014)
This one is more for adults. Funemployedis an amusing little party game where players interview for a specific job, but using the random (and often awkward) qualifications they get dealt with by the card deck. How all of this works is that one player gets to be the interviewer and the rest of the players are the job applicants. The interviewer plays one random job card down and the other player must ‘interview’ for the job, somehow using the qualifications they drew.
After all the players interview, the interviewer must decide which player wins the round and gets the job. I’ve played this one with family and co-workers before and it was a blast. It really helps to have players who can get into a role and act out their pitch. The game can be played with a broader audience if you remove the more ‘adult’ cards from the deck. It’s not obscene, but there are some cards that bump the game into a quasi-R-rated territory. This one has recently be re-launched with a different look, but it’s the same game.
--
CLUE®: The Golden Girls by USAopoly (2017)
Okay, I will admit that I haven’t played this one yet. My point about it is more about how there are now so many new variations of classic board games now available. So if you ever get the hankering to play something like CLUE (or CLUEDO, as it is known outside of North America), you don’t just settle for the classic version. Why not try one of the new ones? In this case, they took Clue and mixed it with classic American sitcom, the Golden Girls. At first glance, I was like, “Wow, this is gonna get pretty dark… which Golden Girl murdered who and why?”
Alas, they didn’t go that route for this one. The game’s description reads:
“The Golden Girls Clue® features a custom illustrated game board, where players attempt to solve the crime of WHO ate the last piece cheesecake, WHAT they left at the scene of the crime, and WHICH room they did it in.”
So this is about finding who ate the last piece of cheesecake! I guess that’s more the Golden Girls’ speed. It is still interesting, because it changes up the dynamic of CLUE a little bit. Shakes it up a little, but doesn’t disrupt the mechanics of the game too terribly. The company behind this one, USAopoly, applies this to many brands. It started with variations of Monopoly and they’ve managed to carve out a whole section of the market by mashing up different brands with classic games.
Other examples include (CLUE variants): Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Harry Potter, Rick and Morty, Doctor Who, The Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.
Bang Card Game online, free download
If you are curious to see what other games they make, head over to their website at: http://usaopoly.com
--
While all these variants may not be my personal cup of tea, I respect that these games merged with other brands would appeal to others and I think that’s a good thing overall because it only helps to bring more players into tabletop gaming. And this isn’t also to say that I do not have love for the original versions of these games, I could see myself wanting to play classic Monopoly or Clue at some point. I just know that there is so much more out there in the world of board games. I haven’t even talked about games like Pandemic Legacy or Dead of Winter yet. I’ll save those for another post.
Bang Card Game online, free Play
Thanks for reading!