5 Board Game Stocking Stuffers To Grab Today
I love the “filler” or light board game. For casual gamers, you will delight at how much pleasure you can gain from such a quick experience with friends and family. For the serious boardgames, these games are an appetizer before an evening of games or a brief interlude between longer titles.
The 20 minute game is wonderful in the way a great short story can be. They are a compact package that still delivers on the goods. One solid mechanism usually powers them, the pull of a pleasant theme without the feel of a simulation will suffice, and they should not be given short shrift because they lack the layers of complexity that heavier games do. Crafting a great gaming experience into less than half an hour is a nontrivial endeavor.
So here’s five shorter, smaller games that will fit into your or your gamer love’s holiday sock this season that do a lot with not much time and even less space:
- Bloom — Gamewright has built a wonderful library of games that delight the world, including exceptional titles like Forbidden Island and Sushi Roll. Now, they take on the Roll and Write genre that has swept through the hobby these last few years. Bloom is one of the most immediate and simple Roll and Write games around, with an attractive look and simple yet good rules. Roll dice to deliver flowers to your customers, and try not to disappoint them with the wrong colors too often. We laminated this one quickly because we knew we’d play it plenty of times.
2. Kingdomino Duel — The original Kingdomino was a marvel of quick-playing fun and the expansions continue to come out. Yet, Kingdomino Duel is the stand-alone sequel that shines brightest. Two players battle it out with die rolls and placement of them onto your board in a configuration of your choosing, with adjacency being the key element in scoring. For 15 minutes, you won’t get a lot more game for your time. Get it now on Amazon.
3. Silver and Gold — A terrific roll and write game from the designer of Sushi Go. Each turn, Tetris-style shapes on cards are flipped up and players draw with dry erase pens directly onto island cards they draw. If they can fill an island, they score it and get to draw a new one. Some bonus features also give you chances for intermittent extra points, too. So fast to teach and quick to delight, Silver and Gold belongs in your stocking!
4. Exit: The Game — The Forgotten Island — The escape room in a box has become a popular genre of board games but the Exit series is the best of the lot. While any of these excellent titles are worth your time, this is a particularly good one to add to your last-minute shopping list. Keep in mind that this series is a one-and-done game. You play it once and then it’s over with. The pricing for these games on Amazon is under $10 so you need to think about them as a cheaper alternative to going to the movies with your five closest friends. If you just can’t stand the idea that the game is only good for a single play, check out the Unlock series. While you cannot play them again without knowing the clues, you can pass these games on to a friend so they can enjoy them, unlike the Exit series.
5. Tussie Mussie — Last but far from least is this charming title from ButtonShy games, a company that’s become famous for their small-scale games in little plastic sleeves. Tussie Mussie is one of their best, a 15-minute game of bluffing and splitting up cards for distribution from the designer of Wingspan, one of the most popular games of 2019. The cards are lovely and the game has a pleasant cleverness to its take on the “I Split, You Choose” genre. Not on Amazon but go support an indie game company and pick up this lovely game!
Board Games Are Good For You
The research is clear: Board games are good for your brain and your well-being. Take at least one night a week to ditch the screens, gather up the family and/or friends, and spend some quality time with them and your board game collection. It will keep your mind engaged and will deepen the relationships with the people you like the most.
Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and merry everything else to you and yours! Play some great tabletop games with your friends and family when you celebrate. I truly believe that it will help you take pleasure in their company.
