So here’s the deal, you’ve got some friends over to play some tabletop, but you don’t have all day. You’ve only got an hour or two before people have to head off. While everyone enjoys a good round of Arkham Horror or House on Haunted Hill, not everyone has the sixty billion hours required to play them. Thankfully, there are plenty of games out there that are just as fun, with setup times in the seconds, and game times under an hour. Here are eight of our favorites:
Boss Monster
Boss Monster‘s setup is decided by how fast you can shuffle four decks of cards. The game is entirely played with the cards included, doesn’t require any kind of game board, and can be finished in under 30 minutes. In Boss Monster, you and your friends play as the final boss of a video game dungeon, with the goal of either ensnaring the most would-be “heroes”, or killing off your opposing bosses.
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The Resistance/Avalon
The Resistance is what’s known as a “bluffing” game. Just like Boss Monster, it doesn’t really have much of a board… or many cards, and is instead played by, well, talking. In The Resistance, players are secretly assigned to be either a good guy or a bad guy, with the bad guys trying to (secretly) sabotage each mission, and the good guys trying to suss out who the bad guys are. Avalon is essentially the same game but set in old-timey King Arthur land and with more advanced rules. Games take 30 minutes to an hour.
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Werewolf/Mafia
Want to go even more basic than The Resistance/Avalon? Werewolf and Mafia are the progenitor bluffing games, and require absolutely nothing to play: no cards, no boards, no tokens. All you need is one person to act as a “moderator” who, hopefully, knows the rules of the game. Best played with copious amounts of alcohol.
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Love Letter
In Love Letter, players take the role of a potential suitor to the realm’s princess, trying to deliver a letter to her. You’ll have to rely on the help of other members of the royal court, and each member has a special power that can help your letter get delivered, or stop an opponent from delivering theirs. An extremely quick game played with a mere 16 cards, Love Letter rounds last less than a few minutes.
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Munchkin
Munchkin is a tribute/parody of pretty much every RPG out there. The premise is fairly simple: players take the role of a character fighting their way through a dungeon. At the start of each turn, they kick down a door and encounter traps, monsters, and treasure. Your character is represented with cards and items that you collect along the way, and the first player to get to “level 10” first wins. It has a very healthy amount of humor, is fairly simple to get in to, and has a super fast set up. Pro-tip: get the “Deluxe” version, which makes it much easier to keep track of what level everyone is…
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Dix It
Dix It is a game about pictures and words. You’ll have cards with beautifully drawn, absolutely random images that you’ll have to craft a story about, hoping that some people catch the reference, but not all. Alternative title: “How well do you know your friends?”
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King of Tokyo
In King of Tokyo, you play as classic movie monsters who are trying to take over Tokyo. The game is primarily played with a suite of dice, with your dice rolls determining stuff like how much damage you do, how many victory points you get, and how much you heal. There are two paths to victory: kill all the other monsters or obtain the most victory points. Games last just 30 minutes, and are played on a very simple board.
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Cards Against Humanity
Cards Against Humanity is a card game for terrible people. A hilarious, intense, friendship-destroying card game at that. Whenever there’s a party with drinking involved in my circle of friends, Cards Against Humanity inevitably gets dragged out. The game can last as long or as short as you want it to, with as many wacky rules as you like.
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What’s your favorite party game that has a super quick and easy set-up? Let us know in the comments
