That time of the year has come when we are ready with our suitcases to say goodbye to everyone and leave for the holidays. But if the holiday is long, well-deserved and dedicated to relaxation, we should also consider bringing some games to kill time with our family or friends under an umbrella or between a walk in the mountains.
Among board games, pocket and card games, there is only the embarrassment of choice. We have selected five portable games, excellent for the holidays but also to keep at home and to take out when needed.
The Mind
The Mind is a “filler”, that is a board game useful to fill the dead times, of short duration and very limited difficulty. The idea is all in the title, you must in fact be able to “read” the minds of the other players: each one has a set of cards in his hand that must be discarded one after the other, always throwing a card of a lower value than those that the other players are holding. How? Simply by looking at them and understanding what they may have in their hand.
As you may easily guess, The Mind can be a good way to tune into – or find out how in tune we are with – other players.
Yah
tzee
Yahtzee is one of the most classic dice strategy games: born in the 1950s – from a Canadian couple who loved to play it on a yacht, hence the origin of the name “Yahtzee” – in over 60 years of history it has not been losing success and appeal thanks to its formula: each player rolls his 5 dice up to three times trying to get all the possible combinations of the game corresponding to an x number of points. The game runs fast between one roll of the dice and the next, making it exciting both for two players and in a group of friends. The capital advantage of Yahtzee: the space for 5 dice, paper and pen is very little and we can therefore easily slip it into a pocket or into any drawer of our sideboards.
Quarto (Mini)
For those who are fed up with draughts, chess or Chinese checkers, Quarto is a very valid alternative. The rules are apparently easy: line up 4 pieces of the same type (light, dark, hollow, solid, high, low, round or square). Only little problem: there are also opponents. And they will be the ones who decide to pass us a new piece in each turn. Result: intense but short games (maximum 15-20 minutes) where it is important to keep the concentration high on the pieces in front of us. Furthermore, the mini version is ideal for traveling, but thanks to the beautiful wooden platform it would look good also if we want to play on a Target Point table during an evening with friends.
Bananagrams
Among all these, a word game could not be missing. Bananagrams is a kind of Scrabble but faster, easier and easier to transport. As for his famous predecessor, here too each player must use the letters he has at his disposal to compose meaningful words. There is no need for boards, pencils or pens: everything is arranged on the table and the words cross horizontally and vertically freely – like a crossword puzzle.
Dixit
Dixit is one of the most successful board and storytelling games of recent years: for each game we have a Narrator who will have to select a card and give a concise description – a single sentence – to the other players, and they will have to guess the Narrator’s card, being able to choose only between the 6 cards that everyone has in their hand. The game, as can be easily deduced, lies in the Narrator’s skill in not revealing either too much or too little of his card. If he does a good job, the game will play out as a fun puzzle game.
Target Point, Italian Ideas