May We [Game] in the Forest

Noggin

Next Friday afternoon I will be going camping with an old friend, his wife and their friends. Each of us should be bringing a game that everyone can play.

Problem: All the games I own are designed for 2 players, or have small pieces that I'd rather not take out in the wild! As awesome as monopoly, risk, and LEGO Creationary are, I'd just rather not take something like that on a camping trip.

So, I'd really appreciate some ideas for a game that...
- multiple people can play
- does not have super small pieces or paper handouts (money, etc)
- is engaging. Either short & repeatable, or a decent length without being too drawn out
- is perhaps a bit out of the ordinary. No disrespect for the classics, but this could also be an opportunity to discover some awesome game I never heard of!


Thanks!

bowen

I assume you're going to be inside a camper or something right?

Esh

Apple To Apples

Belruel

You could always play Mafia, all you need is a deck of cards. It is basically a simpler party-game version of the phalla games they do here on the forums.

edit- this game is best with a group though, I'd say 7-8 people at the least, the more the better

Madpanda

Are cards out of the question?

Any of the munchkin games are good pick up and play types. I don't remember if they had any small pieces besides cards and maybe some dice.

Noggin

No camper, we're bringing tents. Ought to be picnic tables I guess.. I haven't been to that site before.

I think my family might have Apples to Apples, I'll look into that.

Rayze

My boyfriend just bought me a card game called Zombie Fluxx that's pretty fun and has a 2-6 player range

Tef

See if you can find a game called, "Taboo" it's pretty great.

Noggin

Mafia is a possibility.

Cards should be fine - they're only bad if it's windy.

Dunno about zombie fluxx, but that reminded me of zombie dice from the PATV episode. That game seemed hilarious! I guess I was mislead into thinking it was for a small number of players, but apparently not.

I'll check out Taboo as well.

Thanks, all!

Belruel

If you have a car nearby when camping, you could always buy a cheap large pad of newsprint, and a pack of crayola markers and play pictionary.

edit- whoops, just remembered the bit about 'not the classics'. pictionary is pretty classic haha

bowen

Fuck that, play some pictionary if you're gonna be playing it in the daytime.

Belruel

pictionary really is a whole lot of fun. cheap and easy too, everyone knows the basic rules, you just need the paper/markers, a watch with a stopwatch ability, and a bowl with slips of paper for the prompts. I bet there are some good ones you can print off the internet.

you can play teams, or just have fun with everyone playing as a group.

The_Glad_Hatter

i don't know where you live or how easily you can get it, but Kubbs, the viking game, seems to be enjoyed by just about anyone who plays it. i
Wooden blocks thrown around in a game of (low) skill and dexterity. not a lot of strengthe required so even the wives can play.
4 players is idea, but you can go up to 6. one game lasts about 20 mins.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubb

TNTrooper

Curses, Munchkin, and Zombie Flux are all fun as hell card games. Could go Monty Python fan instead of Zombie if everyone is a fan.

Sentry

Gloom

Noggin

True, pictionary is pretty good. "Classics" aren't necessarily excluded, I just wanted to encourage suggesting lesser known options. Lots of good suggestions here

mere_immortal

The Roxanne drinking game is all you need for a successful camping trip.

VanityPants

Dominion is a card game that you want to get.

It is absolutely one of my favorite games. It's a card game that plays kind of like a simplified, streamlined version of Magic. An average game is also about 30 minutes, and the way the game is played allows you to change it up so it's a little different each time you play.

Look it up on Amazon, or check out the reviews on youtube. It's a ton of fun!

starmanbrand

Forbidden Island would be good for camping. I think Ingenious would be fun. Also Roll Through The Ages.

To add more: FI is 2-4 players (although you could have more people play, there would just be less turns overall). Uses a couple small decks of cards that could be kept in the boxtop to protect from wind and cardboard tiles that could be set on a tarp or table. Co-op, so everyone is working together to collect treasures and escape a sinking island.

Ingenious is an abstract tile-placement game. Plastic tiles on a cardboard board with wooden squares to track score. You place domino like plastic tiles to match up colored symbols that earn points. your score is the score of your lowest value, so you can't focus on one color and win.

Roll Through The Ages is like Yahtzee, except it has modifiers. Wooden board+pegs, sheet of paper, and self supplied pens are the bits. You build more cities to add more dice to your rolls or use goods you've earned to purchase upgrades that modify die rolls.

all three are fun, simple to explain, short, and highly replayable.

Cryana

VanityPants wrote: »

Dominion is a card game that you want to get.

It is absolutely one of my favorite games. It's a card game that plays kind of like a simplified, streamlined version of Magic. An average game is also about 30 minutes, and the way the game is played allows you to change it up so it's a little different each time you play.

Look it up on Amazon, or check out the reviews on youtube. It's a ton of fun!

Huge Diminion fan here. But I think the game is way too big (need 14piles of cards min. and each person is constantly shuffling a deck of cards.). All I can see is cards flying in the wind and slipping through cracks in the picnic table. HOWEVER if you don't own Dominion already and you just love card/board games in general than you are going to love this one.

SammyF

HOW TO PLAY FISHBOWL


For this game, you need paper, pencils, a watch or timepiece (preferably one with a second-hand) and a bowl or bowl-like apparatus. Additionally, you may want beer, wine or some other form of liquor.

Each participant writes out five nouns (simple objects suffice; proper names are better), each on an individual slip of paper. All of these slips of paper are placed into the bowl. Players are then divided evenly into two teams.

ROUND ONE: NO LIMITS

In turns each lasting sixty seconds, players take turns drawing slips of paper out of the bowl and attempting to describe what is written on the paper until his or her teammates correctly guess what is on the paper. The two rules governing what is said are as follows: (1) obviously, you cannot actually use all or any part of the noun or name which you are trying to describe in your description (excluding articles and conjunctions: if you're trying to describe the novel "The Old Man and the Sea," you can obviously say "the" or "and"). (2) You may opt to pass on any slip of paper that you draw rather than describing it; in that instance, it goes back into the bowl. HOWEVER: If you begin attempting to describe something, you must continue describing it until your team correctly guesses it or your 60 seconds expires. When your team correctly guesses a slip of paper, set it aside in a place where you won't lose it. At the end of sixty seconds, tally the total number of names or nouns correctly guessed by your team and then pat yourself on the back: you have earned that many points for your team.

Round one lasts until there are no more slips of paper in the bowl; at this point, IMMEDIATELY place all the slips of paper back in the bowl and proceed to round two (even if you are already in the middle of someone else's turn -- the balance of that player's time will be spent as he starts round two).

ROUND TWO: THREE WORD DESCRIPTIONS

Round two functions almost identically to round one, with one major difference: you may use no more than three words to describe each noun or proper name. Again, you may not use all or part of the word you are trying to describe as part of your description, excluding conjunctions and articles. Also, you may opt to pass on a word after drawing it from the bowl, but you may not pass after you begin to attempt your description. ADDITIONALLY, after you have used your three words, you may not say anything else or draw another slip of paper until your team has successfully guessed the noun or name or time expires.

This is not as hard as it sounds at first blush: because everyone has already heard the nouns or names in the bowl described once, you should already have a good idea of what is in the bowl and what is not in the bowl. However, there will invariably be moments when someone immediately utters the first three words which pop into her head without considering that the are the least helpful words she could pick. After realizing this, she will spend forty seconds stamping her foot in silent rage. Everyone else will laugh.

Remove all successfully-guessed slips of paper from the bowl and set them aside somewhere you won't lose them. At the end of each turn, tally the total number of correctly-guessed slips: again, each is worth one point for that player's team.

Again, as in round one, round two lasts until there are no more slips of paper in the bowl. When the bowl is empty, immediately place all the slips back in the bowl and proceed to round three, even if you are in the middle of someone else's turn -- the balance of that player's time will be spent at the start of round three.


ROUND THREE: NO WORDS

This round proceeds in nearly the same manner as the previous rounds; however, in this round you may not say anything to describe what is written on any given slip of paper. Instead, you must gesticulate or pantomime it. You may take a pass on any individual slip of paper and return it to the bowl if you wish; however, you cannot opt to pass on a noun or name once you have begun an attempt to pantomime it. Every successfully-guessed slip of paper is worth one point and should be removed from the game.

Again, this is not as hard as it sounds because all of the nouns or names in the bowl have been successfully described twice now; then again, it is not what you would call easy. The more you've had to drink, the better this round will be.

Once the bowl is out of slips of paper, the game is over.

The team that has earned more points wins.

blakfeld

Rayze wrote: »

My boyfriend just bought me a card game called Zombie Fluxx that's pretty fun and has a 2-6 player range

I second any version of Fluxx you can find. Fucking awesome card game

Raiden333

Aye Dark Overlord is an insanely fun card-based humor storytelling game, and I try to spread awareness of it whenever I can:

The concept of the game is that one player is the Dark Overlord, Rigor Mortis and the others players are his Goblin Servants. The Dark Overlord starts the game by asking his servants a question about the results of the last mission he sent them on, after which the servants need to make up a story to excuse any failures on their parts and to avoid angering the Dark Overlord.

A player’s turn begins when the Dark Overlord addresses them or when they have been played a “Pass the Buck” Card. The player then will start to construct his story using a series of Hint cards and end the turn when they play a “Pass the Buck” card on someone else or when they get a Withering Look from the Overlord.

The Hint cards have various different object and action on them; anything from “Fashionable Shoes” and “The Impossible Artifact” to “The Desperate Situation” and “A Window onto the World”. Players need to include any of the things on their cards in their story. They will end their round by playing a “Pass the Buck” card along with one of their Hint cards on another player. That player then needs to include whatever is on that card into their story and continue on. The stories start to get rather crazy and outlandish as the game goes on, with rounds ending with things like, “and after making the peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich, I heard a noise and saw a mummy standing behind Karen! And you won’t believe what she did! Karen, tell our Overlord what you did!”, as a card with “Mummy!” on it is played on Karen.

As the Overlord listens to the story, he can, at any time, play a “Withering Look” card on the player or players in question. The really fun part about this is that the Overlord can play these cards for any reason he wishes to: if he doesn’t like the direction the story is going, if a player pauses to long, if The Overlord doesn’t like the tone of the players voice, if he’s bored; any reason at all. Once a player receives his third “Withering Look”, he must then make a plea for mercy. If he is successful, the Overlord may spare his life; if he is not successful, then he is to blame for whatever occurred and loses the game.

There's also an advanced version with more rules (but playable with the same exact cards) that is pretty fun once everyone gets the hang of the basic game.

riz

Quiddler!

Sojorn

Ladder Golf (huh? Blongo Ball?)

You can probably find a set like this in Toys'R'Us or somewhere similar for about the same price. This game is surprisingly fun for groups, and easy to pick up and play/learn, challenging enough to stay entertaining. The rules are simple...3-tiers of horizontal poles. Throw the lasso w/ the balls on each end, try to get it to wrap around the poles for points.

Edit: Oh, and it's great for outdoors. We used to play this at friends-within-the-company BBQs in the park all the time.

Edit #2: Price point is around $30 almost everywhere I looked. There are a lot of off-brands that sell this, the Blongo-Ball link above was just the first I found.

Edit the III: Requires some very minor setup, but comes in a small box that is pretty portable. Honest, it's (probably) easier than setting up your tents.

Dracil

Cash 'n Guns Live

The Resistance (better than Mafia if you have 5-10), just need a deck of playing cards.

Rock the Beat

Also see Liar's Dice, Zombie Dice, Set, Spot it

Also, check out these geeklists:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/44276/camping-games
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/32541/games-that-work-camping-arent-limited-to-a-tableto
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/23269/game-well-suited-for-outdoor-play-please-read-ru

Noggin

Wow, looks like I have a lot to check out, even after the trip. Thanks!