The holiday season is nearly here, and if that means family gatherings for you, you’re probably looking for ways to keep a large group of people of diverse ages entertained. Games work great, but not every game will do. Scythe is a fun game, but it’s not suitable for every age group, and games like Twilight Imperium often require too much commitment.
There’s an entire category of games called “party games” that are perfect for entertaining larger groups. They often have simple rules, don’t take more than a half-hour to play, and can be played by large groups of people. Popular examples of party games include Werewolf and Codenames.
Calliope Games focuses on the sorts of games that create memorable moments. One game that’s received a new edition glow-up is Hive Mind. The game takes five minutes to explain, can be played by anyone with who can write (they don’t even need good spelling or penmanship, since they’ll only be writing short lists), and doesn’t favor the old over the young.
The setup is simple: everyone has a pad to write on and a writing tool. The designated player this turn asks a question that usually requires a short list of responses, questions like: “what are the three least-popular types of cookies,” or “what are three candies that would make a good name for a child?” Everyone has two minutes to write their list.
Everyone scores 1 point for every answer they listed. They score another point for every other person who gave the same answer. Easy-peasy.
However, this game was created by Richard Garfield, the math wiz behind Magic: the Gathering, so it has a fun little wrinkle. Every round, you roll a specialized six-sided die. If you roll one pip, every player had the lowest score move one space on the game board. If your roll comes up two dots, all players that had the two lowest scores move their meeple on space. If you roll the star, everyone with the lowest score moves their meeple one space, and everyone with the highest score moves their meeple up one space instead of down.
The game ends when one or more players’ meeples leave the board. Everyone still on the board is a winner.
Here’s a special Dragon’s Lair® hint to add some extra fun to the game: before you play, create rewards for things like “Grossest Answer” or “Nerdiest Answer” but don’t tell people ahead of time. After the game, read out a category and have everyone vote on which answer best fit each category.
Hive Mind is just one of many party games out there that you can use to entertain people who are not hard-core gamers, or even people you don’t know well. Talk to the party experts at your local Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy® today about picking the best party games for your crowd.
