My game group* likes Skull King - it is a trick taking game with some twists. There are basic and advanced modes (with advanced Pirates have special abilities and there a few more cards added).
Brian
* I find it “OK” – will play but would never request it
There are lots of games that fit this criteria. Does she have any particular interests that might find a game tailored for? Does she like word games, puzzles etc..?
At any rate some suggestions I think not yet mentioned:
Silly Games:
Hot Streak: a newer game in which you bet on mascot races. They fall down a lot. Very Silly
Magical Athlete: A somewhat similar game with a new rerelease. You draft races with powers and see what they do.
Ice Cool: You flick wobbly penguins
Cabanga: A light card game where you play numbers 1-18 and if someone else can go in between the numbers they can throw cards at you. Very fun with the right players.
Coop Games:
The Gang: Coop poker. You need to figure out the order everyone’s hand
The Crew. Coop trick taking game. You have to complete a series of missions
Bombbusters. You need to match numbers to avoid cutting a wire. Also has series of mission.
Dixit: You need to describe pictures ina way that at least one person but not everyone understands.
My kids mostly dislike competitive games. Here are two that are big hits for our household:
I will say my older one also LOVES Blood on the Clocktower, which is a “social deduction” game like Mafia or Werewolf where some people are good, some are evil, and there’s bluffing happening where you try to convince everyone you’re not evil. Blood on the Clocktower is rather complex and so I guess she and her friends, who are into math and logic, love it because it’s like a big logic puzzle. Not for everyone, though! (And you need at least 6 players.)
Not fully, we have a number of games, Horrified, Forbidden Island, Ticket to Ride, Mysterium, Exploding Kittens. She tends to like those. She doesn’t really like games like Clue, or games like that. We’ve tried a number of the Unlock! games, she likes some of those until they get too hard.
I ended up getting so far Pandemic, Exploding Kittens board game, Poetry for Neanderthals, and The Night Cage. I don’t know anything about the last one, but she likes horror things and this looks like it might be good for that.
Matthew Inman (the brain behind the Oatmeal comic and one of the brains behind the Exploding Kittens game) has other games as well; I’m interested in picking up Horrible Therapy which might be a good fit for a social game.
I’m not sure I’ve seen that one. Target has a lot of those games on sale right now. I both the Neanderthal and Kittens games for $10. The rest might be on sale too.
Mists over Carcassonne can be used as an expansion to the main game but is also a very fun cooperative game in its own. I’m not a big gamer, but love this one.
I also very much enjoy Burgle Bros, though it takes quite a while to play through. It’s easy to pause and come back to and socialize while playing.
Other ones my family enjoys playing together are Castle Panic and Magic Maze.
Just watch out for the recent trend of heavy roll-and-writes like Tend or Twilight Inscription. You can no longer automatically assume a roll-and-write game will be lightweight and quick.
Just so you know, there are now five games in the Horrified series. The original was based on the Universal movies from the thirties (Dracula, Frankenstein, the Werewolf, etc). Then there were sequels based on American folklore, Greek mythology, H.P. Lovecraft, and Dungeons & Dragons. If she liked one, you might consider one of the others.
One we got recently which seems to be a real crowd pleaser is Flip 7. It’s like $6 at Target. You can teach it to someone in about a minute and plays 2-12 people.
A risk taking ‘push your luck’ card game where you’re trying to collect the most points without busting. We played with a dozen people at once and everyone loved it.
Can second that recommendation… Flip 7 is good!
I was coming in to recommend Dixit!
We have an extended family gathering once a year or so, and finding activities can be a challenge as we have a wide range of ages (and political convictions). But one year we brought Dixit and everybody fell in love with it; nowadays, scarcely such a gathering is planned without someone texting ‘you’re bringing Dixit, right?’
The only drawback is, if you play a lot, you start to get familiar with all the cards, which takes some of the fun out of it. But that’s what expansion packs are for!
And they’re great! There’s several original expansions, along with a Disney one and maybe other themed packs.
You can also use cards from some other games from the same company, like Mysterium, in Dixit. Mysterium itself is merely OK, but the ability to reuse the cards in Dixit is pretty neat.
Came here to also say Flip 7.
Side note on Flip 7: We have a first edition set that came in a box. The quality of the cards is kind of cheap. Does anyone know if the sets at Target that are sold in a peg hanging box are a better quality?
No idea, but you could sleeve your cards. Some folks sleeve everything, I only sleeve cards that get used A LOT or are poor quality.
Brian
Is it really worth worrying about card quality or sleeving in a $8 game?
No, but these are so thin that after shuffling them the first time they are all permanently bent.
That does sound pretty bad.