15 Great Games to Fill Your Table This Christmas

The Spirit of Christmas, Auntie Sandra, Lying to your mother
What are the very best card and board games to play with coworkers and family this holiday? Games that are actually FUN - that you could bring to a party as a great gift for cheap, or tuck in the stocking for Christmas Eve?

Quinns will be writing a piece next week about games more suited to those who already love the hobby, but as part of our ongoing mission to convince the world that board games are great, we wanted to put together an easy resource for the question we seem to get almost all the time: “What game should I buy to play with my family?”

If you’ve been linked to this by someone else who loves board games, hello! We’ve put this list together as both a video and a written list. Enjoy!

Matt: Greetings Holiday Humans, it’s time to mildly panic as you realise that family will soon descend upon you like a flock of seagulls to a discarded ice-cream. Rather than trying to explain your job to relatives to the point that you might have a mental breakdown, we’d recommend playing board games instead.

These are the 15 best big-family games: all play with at least 6 people, and most can handle 8. In no particular order, let’s go!

Games News! 12/03/18

mister legacy, one swanky cuzco, until the last nickel hits the bucket
Paul: We know it’s Games News time when we hear the honk of the Games News Freighter (SS Games News) as it makes its way up the Games News channel, to disgorge Games News upon the Games News docks.

Quinns: OH NO A MAN HAS BEEN CRUSHED.

Paul: Such is the weight of Games News and the danger of not taking things easy. We should all relax with Alubari: A Nice Cup of Tea (seen above).

Feature: A Day in the Life of Matt’s Game Collection!

a good ol' flecking, matt's hats, big-boy joys, it's all about the soup
[Following on from our expedition into Quinns' board game collection and the polite visit to Paul's, it's now Matt's turn. Enjoy, everybody!]

Matt: Contrary to popular belief, I am not a man of infinite luxury. Paul has an entire cupboard just for games - Quintin has a cavernous loft to explore. Many have climbed that ladder and never been seen alive again, fading away to become a new addition to the dark and dusty collage of cardboard and bones. Basically those boys have space to play with. I however, have a shelf.

But it’s a big shelf! Oh my. There’s plenty of room in the rest of my flat, but my wife is a bit of a cheery dictator when it comes to interior design - so the sins of the husband must be tidied away. It’s occasionally annoying, but it does mean I get to live in a genuinely beautiful, tidy place? Swings and roundabouts, life is compromise.

Games News! 06/01/14

cones of dunshire, math of thrones, mspaint, werewolf suburbia
Games News! 06/01/14
Quinns: *yaaawn*

Oh, good morning! What are you doing in my house? This is weird. It'd be rude to bother the police this early, though. Why don't you just tuck up in bed next to me and we'll look at the games news together?

So far, the best news of 2014 is that this talk by Rob Daviau, designer of Risk Legacy (and the upcoming SeaFall: A Legacy Game), is now online. Delivered at New York University's Practice game design conference last year, it's a fascinating, unexpectedly hilarious hour of insight, and doubles as a preview of SeaFall.

I've embedded it beneath the jump, too. Do make time for it! You'll be glad you did.

The Opener: Ultimate Werewolf & Chilli Con Carne

repulsive yet capable liars, chilli, spooky times, wheely chairs
With Halloween just around the corner (or, as we call it here in England, "All Hallow's Ween"), we're very proud to present part 1 of our spooktacular gaming suggestions! Neatly reviewed in time for you to place and receive your order in time for the sexiest night of the year. Or was that Pancake Tuesday?

Anyway, to begin with, what could be simpler, safer or spookier than an evening of Ultimate Werewolf? Just you, a big pot of chilli, and between 4 and 60 of your closest friends.

Kotaku Article: Top 5 Friendships-Ruiners

beetle roleplay, vengeful ghosts, grumpy pirates, well-used airlocks
Kotaku Article: Top 5 Friendships-Ruiners
Quinns: This month I gave Kotaku a powerful gift. The top 5 board games to play if you want to leave your friendships as cold and laced with poison as old scorpion shells. It starts like this...

"One piece of trivia orbits modern board gaming like a dark, sexy star. Someone who doesn't really play them will always have heard from their friend, who heard it from another friend, that something like Game of Thrones or Battlestar Galactica is mean it ruins friendships.

"But Game of Thrones? Battlestar Galactica? These are games where the backstabbing and twists of the knife are expected. If you really want to test your friendships, these are the games you should be playing."

...and rapidly moves on to the five games I think should be handled with care. I'd recommend you all go and peruse my warnings, before it's too late.

Ultimate Werewolf

Ultimate Werewolf
Your quiet little 16th century village has suddenly become infested with some very unfriendly werewolves...can you and the other villagers find them before they devour everyone?

Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition is the ultimate party game for anywhere from 5 to 68 players of all ages. Each player has an agenda: as a villager, hunt down the werewolves; as a werewolf, convince the other villagers that you're innocent, while secretly dining on those same villagers each night. Dozens of special roles are available to help both the villagers and the werewolves achieve their goals while thwarting their opponents.

Games News! 07/10/13

mice, Batman: South Seas, horrible owls, sausage rolls, mystics, business models
Games News! 07/10/13
Quinns: Happy Monday, everybody! How was your weekend? Team SU&SD spent ours road-testing Ultimate Werewolf, and after six hours of heavy drinking and heavier lynching, I'm proud to say all our friendships survived intact. A minor miracle, really. Expect a video of our exploits this Friday.

Lots of news this week, so let's get cracking! And let's kick off with the Kickstarter for Marrying Mr. Darcy: A Pride & Prejudice Card Game. Which is... well, it's a Pride & Prejudice card game.