Hi everyone, Sarah here and I’m so happy to share with you all another board gaming post. This time I wanted to highlight some games that are great for playing with your teenagers (or for teens to play with one another). I have a teenaged daughter that has been playing board games since she was two and I asked her what some of her favorite games are (nothing like going right to the source). Hopefully you’ll find something here that appeals to your teen (or even yourself as these games are enjoyable for adults as well).
The first game I’m going to talk about is Smash Up. In this game you take two decks of cards and smash them together to form your deck that you play with. Some fun examples you can wind up with are Robot Dinosaurs or Alien Pirates. There are quite a few expansions available to enhance the experience, the latest being Pretty Pretty Smash Up. We don’t own it yet but my daughter is excited to try playing Princess Zombies or Ninja Kitty Cats.
The next game is One Night Ultimate Werewolf. This is pretty similar to the Werewolf (aka Mafia) games that have been popular for a while, but this game takes Werewolf and eliminates the need for a moderator. Each player is given a different role and it’s up to the group to determine who the werewolf is. This is a great exercise in social deduction as everyone tries to figure out who is telling the truth about who they are and who is not. There is also no player elimination and each game only lasts a few minutes making it a great game to play multiple times in one sitting. There is also a phone app available making it even easier to play this game.
Next up is Pandemic. This is a cooperative game as everyone works together to try to rid the world of diseases that are threatening to destroy mankind. The game seems pretty simple at first but as time passes the diseases spread faster and it’s so much fun to work together to try to save the world. My teenager is a big fan of cooperative games, we play lots of competitive games but sometimes it’s fun to work together toward a common goal and the game itself can definitely be a worthy opponent.
For a really fun party game/activity try Telestrations. The idea behind this game is that everyone writes down a word or phrase and the passes their book to the person on their left, that person then draws a picture based on what was written, then the next person writes down what they think the picture is and so on until you get your own notebook back. One of the best things about this is that everyone plays at the same time so there’s no down time waiting for your next turn. When we play this we ignore the rules and scoring, pretend there aren’t cards included and basically just use the white boards and dry erase markers. We make up our own words/phrases pass the boards around the table and hilarity ensues.
The last game I’m going to talk about is Munchkin. In this game you play a group of adventurers going into a dungeon to fight the monsters and get the treasure. The players can work together to kill the big bad monster but there is also a chance of backstabbing and someone grabbing all of the experience and loot. Munchkin is a game that gets it’s legs from it’s humor. This game has several expansions including the punny Clerical Errors and Half Horse, Will Travel. Munchkin has also spawned some stand alone Munchkin titles such as Super Munchkin and Munchkin Adventure Time.
These are just a few of the amazing games you can play with your teenagers. I’d love to hear what board games are big hits with the teens in your life.
Jenn McCabe says
Sarah! This is awesome! I have never heard of any of these … but at least one will have to make the Christmas list this year! Thank you! :)
Danyale says
I have tried one of these (Munchkin – the cards are hilarious), and marked the others for research! Thanks for the suggestions!
Jimmy says
Great list!
Telestrations has had so many fun moments for us. Laugh Out Loud type stuff with stories to tell later. Definitely a great one with the right group.