Game Night Family Favorites!

Spring. Summer. Indian Summer. 1 week of Fall. Winter.

It’s been a crazy month of weather here in Nicholas County, what with tornado warnings, 40-plus degree temperature drops in 4 hours, and horizontal rain.

So much for going outside.

Since the weather outside is frightful (foreshadowing—Christmas is coming), there’s nothing more delightful than throwing on your leg warmers, cozying up with your besties, and playing some board games. In the spirit of the stay-inside weather change, we wanted to share with you some of our favorite board and card games to get us through the cold spell.

• 1. Catch Phrase!

Catch Phrase, for those that aren’t familiar, is like a hot-potato version of Taboo. You have a hand-held disc that has a single word or phrase that your team needs to guess, and a basic set of rules for the clue-giver (e.g. no rhymes, sounds-like, or starts-with clues). You have two teams, seated alternating, and when the word is guessed, the disc passes to the next person like a hot potato. Timer goes off when you are holding the word potato? Point for the other team.

Why we love it: Our extended families think completely differently. One is structured, one is abstract. One is by-the-book, the other outside-the-box. It makes for a zany competition between the In-Laws and the Out-Laws. Always a good time, and you can’t just play one round. It’s literally impossible.

• 2. Monopoly

This game is one of the most powerful games in the known universe. Able to build the strongest relationships and then dash them on the rocks in a single round. There are few games as polarizing–no one is “meh” about Monopoly, it’s a love-hate game, for sure.

Why we love it: Monopoly is a fun game for a few rounds, or a full-afternoon tycoon extravaganza. Play for a while, do something else, and come back to it and start where you left off (always take a picture of the board and stash your cards!).

• 3. Scrabble

The quintessential classic board game. Quietly contemplate your next play. Quarrel with your mates about whether a word is in the Scrabble dictionary. Or just play “qa” because you didn’t have a “u.”

Why we love it: Scrabble is as serious or fun as you want it to be. Full-blown competitive Scrabble, or casual Scrabble-while-you-watch-a-movie. Take your time or play on a timer. There’s so much that can be done with Scrabble—it’s never the same game.

• 4. Wizard (Card Game)

Wizard is a card game that plays like Euchre or Spades, but with a few extra rules. You can get a Wizard, which always wins, and a Jester, which always loses. Bid how many tricks you can capture and get points for getting exactly the right number of tricks.

Sounds easy, right? Not even slightly. Because you have 1-5 other players all trying to get their exact number of tricks too. And it rarely ends up where people play nice.

Why we love it: Wizard is great for when you only have an hour or so to play. Easy to set up (it’s a card game), and easy to put away (…it’s a card game). Competitive, but not too much so. Rules are easy to learn, but the strategy is harder to master. All in all, a great card game to play anywhere you find yourself, whether at a restaurant or stuck at home in brutal winter weather.

• 5. Settlers of Catan

Maybe lesser known than the rest on this list, Settlers of Catan is an island-based map-control game where you build settlements (and later, cities) to gather resources so you can build more settlements, roads, or cities. The set-up and tear-down does take longer than some other games on this list, but the result is a truly immersive game with a new island every time you play.

Why we love it: Settlers of Catan is another game where the rules are simple enough to learn, but the strategy is difficult to master. You can play with a full group on a small island to force interaction and competition for resources, or play with a small group on a large island to race to 10 victory points and win control of the island—both are fun for completely different reasons.

Got a favorite game that didn’t make the list? Let us know!

And if you want to find a comfy place to play your favorite games, we’d love to host you for a game weekend! Check out our cabins here for more information!