Best tabletop/card games for ages 5 to 12

No Great Name

Hi all, looking to get some input on some good tabletop and card games for this age group, as I have a summer camp that will still be running with social distancing practices. So we'll have a lot of inside time on nice days and a ton on bad weather days.

I know of some things like ticket to ride first journey and ghost fighting treasure hunters. Seeing if anyone has experience with other games they can recommend

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@No Great Name I´ve had good luck with Lotus and Alhambra with my nephews (6 and 9).

discrider

I'm not sure how board games would be played with social distancing in place to be honest.

No Great Name

It's annoying but it's doable. It's very game dependant though.

discrider

Codenames - Pictures?
Maybe if you can project the board up on a wall, then the two teams wouldn't need to be at the board itself?

Jackbox games would be good too, if all your kids have a mobile, and you have a TV setup that they can stand back from.

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Tsuro. I gave it to my nephews for the oldest's birthday. Easy to learn, quick to play, fun, appropriate (thematically and complexity-wise) for all ages.

Tastyfish

If you can find a copy, we've had great fun over a few generations with Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs.
They pop up on ebay occasionaly for around £40 and it'd be relatively easy to make your own version if you needed several copies - particularly if you wanted to do a big/'garden' sized version to make distancing a little easier.
I also expect there's probably a newer game that does a lot of the same kind of things.

It's very easy to learn, as it's just draw a card do what it says and then move your figure the distance rolled on a dice. The theme is great but it also teaches a lot of fun mechanics and gets the players to think differently than they would with a more traditional board game. When playing with nieces and nephews, we found that even younger players (3-4) who struggled to read the text were able to pick it up fairly quickly when they recognised the pictures on the cards.

There's a lot of social interaction as the players move the dinosaurs to make routes to the temple more or less risky, and whether or not they act ruthlessly or co-operate when their own pieces are in danger. Do you get the Pteradon to throw a rival into the swamp in front of the swamp monster, move one of your pieces further up the board, or rescue someone else from a sticky situation (perhaps having previously been thrown in the swamp by another player) in return for them helping you out with the dinosaurs guarding the temple.

I think they've got pics of all the components on BBG, but I can send you some as well if you wanted.

DarkPrimus

Try out Hanabi? It's a cooperative card game where players can't see their own cards but everyone else can, and have to work together using limited information communication to play correctly.