At a certain age, the bachelor should have acquired some killer games to play around the table, maybe as a pre-going out activity, for example. Board games and other games work particularly well when kicking off a party where there may be people who don’t know each other, it forces them interact and have fun together! And, most importantly of all, the games in this article create laughter; proven by science to bond people together.
I am basing this largely on the games me and my friends play occasionally before we go out, or if we are just staying in and getting pizza/completely smashed. These are always great fun games to have laying around the man cave or you apartment.
Disclosure: The links present in this article direct you to amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more information see our About section.
#1 Secret Hitler
No. Players 5-10
Who knows how Google will rank this article with the very mention of Hitler!
Players are secretly divided into two teams – liberals and fascists, with one player being Hitler. Only the fascists know who Hitler is, but Hitler doesn’t know which teams the other players are on. The aim of the game for the fascists is to get Hitler elected as Chancellor, the liberals aim is to either kill Hitler or get 5 liberal laws passed.
One round consists of players electing a President and a Chancellor who will work in tandem to enact a ‘law’ from a shuffled deck of law cards. If the government passes a fascist law, players must try to figure out if they were betrayed by the fascists or just unlucky with how the cards fell. Secret Hitler also features new government powers that can be used as more law cards are placed. The fascists can use those powers to create chaos unless players on the liberal side can figure out, and thwart secret Hitler from being elected.
It is difficult to explain, but super fun to play. When playing this the other night, I was Hitler twice in a row which made for a hilarious game. At one point playing this I over heard one of my friends saying ‘I really want to be Hitler’. You don’t hear that very often! Trying to hold in the laughter from this game was very difficult.
#2 Codenames
No. Players 4+
By Czech Games, this is a great game which has a pretty fast turnover of games, but still has a great tactical/fun ratio. A single game consists of a grid of cards with words on them, two teams, and two elected members of each team. The two elected members of each team will come up with a single word which links to the words on the grid of cards, for example Team A’s elected member may say ‘two- sharks’ and the rest of the team will need to find two words that relate to shark, maybe the card grid has ‘water’ and ‘jaw’ on it…And these will be selected…But! The grid may also have ‘Scary’ on it… So the team will need to decide which two cards represent the word ‘sharks’.
Okay there is slightly more to it than that but it’s hard to explain, but don’t worry its easy to play and super fun, especially if you think of yourself as a bit savvy and a bit of a wordsmith. I thought of the word ‘two-spearing’ and hoped my team would say ‘whale’ and ‘point’ on the grid… And they did! Winning us the game, luckily they avoided ‘shark’ and ‘sharp’ which were also on the grid.
Ultimately, everybody playing this was laughing and cheering throughout, and everybody got a turn as the elected member of each team.
#3 What do you Meme?
No. Players 3+
What Do You Meme is a brilliant and very modern game, probably mainly aimed at millennials. I mentioned this game in my article on house warming gifts for guys. It is best to play this with your friends and probably not with family members, as the game can easily get rude/offensive – in the good way of course! The game works by matching cards with random captions to random memes, the funniest one (deemed by whoever’s turn it is to present a meme photo) wins a point. With over 8000 reviews and a 4+ star review you are in safe hands (or safe memes?). Any fan of internet memes will enjoy this game. Not suitable for the easily offended.
#4 Telestrations
No. Players 4+
Made by USAOPOLY, if you want bonding and laughter, lots of laughter, then this game is perfect. This game is equally funny when you get a person good at doing doodles, as it is for people who can’t draw at all. The basic gist of the game is similar to Pictionary; a random word is prescribed to each player, and though the course of the game the drawings get passed to the next player and everybody gets a turn trying to guess, and draw other people drawings – so in essence it is like Pictionary meets Chinese whispers.
The sketch pads are mini-white boards so they are easy to amend and doesn’t require endless reams of paper. This game looks quite tame, and can be played with family memers, however you have the option to come up with your own words, so it can get as messed up as you want!
#5 Weird Things Human Search For
No. Players 2+
Made by Big Potato Games, players take turn and ask questions based from a series of cards with a search phrase, and the rest of the players write down the answer, like ‘why does my cat always’ – and the rest of the players finish it off. After a few questions the round is then scored based on the top answer which scores the most points, and the other answers which score less points. This is another laugh a minute type of game with a quick turn around time so you won’t get bored.
Thanks for reading!
– James
FURNISH HIM 