Good board game to play with family that runs in your blood

carmen holmes
InspirationPlay
Published in
3 min readAug 27, 2021

It’s that time of the year when you invite a riot into your tranquil home. With 30 or so uncles, aunts, cousins and their children visiting your place, possibly for the first time, you want to put your best food forward. As you muse over the possible arrangement ideas- outdoor barbeque, indoor brunch or a poolside pizza, there is another question which calls for your attention. What are some good board games, that are fun and engaging for both adults and kids? A successful family get-together has people from all age groups interacting with one another with no keeping of time. This family board game from Inspiration Play- Double Ditto, is a catalyst which shrinks the gap widened over decades and infuses new energy into old relationships.

The format of the game is very simple- in every round a topic is announced, such as- ‘Things found in glovebox’, ‘Symptoms of being sick’, and ‘Popular kid’s cartoons’. With hardly any time to think, in just15 seconds, all players are expected to write down two answers that come to their mind. To make it more challenging, they must come up with ‘popular’ answers that are likely to find a ‘match’ with another player. This is essence of the fun family game- Double Ditto. For every single match or ‘Ditto’ the players score 1 point. For both the answers that match, they score 5 points or a ‘Double Ditto’.

This game allows for all players aged between 8–80 to compete at the same level. Adults needn’t concede victory to the kids and teens needn’t team-up with their grandparents. With Creative Child Magazine’s- 2016 Game of the Year Award, Double Ditto is a fun way to get to know each other. Sure, there have been other ways like tossing a ball which carries random questions for guests to answer, and the favorite family album quiz which is loaded with trivia. However, a best board game extracts all this information in an indirect manner and acquaintances share knowledge of their habits, likes and opinions with less inhibition. On the flip side, this may lead to oversharing and you may have to interrupt your loquacious spouse often.

Once you have appointed a Ditto Master to announce the topics throughout the game, distribute scoresheets from the kit and set up the 15 second sand-timer which is also included. Then sit back and let the fun begin. With over 400 topics to tease your brain, trust this pack to keep your guests engaged for the next one to two hours. Need some more? Buy 300 additional topic cards with the expansion pack.

At times, you may need to consult the instruction card to agree on what is meant by a ‘ditto’. The matching answers don’t even have to be correct or relevant to the topic asked. Family board game Double Ditto is a sure way to not just survive a family reunion but also ace it. It is a memorable association with your house and will call for an encore at every reunion.

Resource: Board Games to Play with Family

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