Among longtime tabletop hobbyists, the tendency is often toward tackling deeply complicated games that extend their playtimes over many hours. Those involved play sessions can be rewarding, but sometimes you’re in the mood for something lighter. Maybe you’re a veteran gaming group looking for a “warm-up” title before diving into one of those other longer games. Or perhaps you and your friends or family are just dipping your toes into board and card games for the first time, and you don’t want to be overwhelmed or lose the attention span of younger or inexperienced players. Either way, you don’t need to settle for a subpar game night. Here are ten awesome tabletop games that can be played in under 30 minutes.
Hanabi
Publisher: R&R Games
Designer: Antoine Bauza
You are an inept firework manufacturer, and you forgot to plan the evening’s all-important fireworks display. You’re going to have to wing it! The amusing setup for this cooperative card game hides a sophisticated guessing game in which all players work together to try and win. Each player holds a hand of cards, but he or she holds them backwards – only the other players know what you have in hand, replicating the idea that your team is working together in the dark to arrange the fireworks. Using specific clues about the color and number of particular cards, each player must play the next card in a sequence without knowing for sure it’s the right “firework” in the sequence. Hanabi plays fast, and the clue-giving system demands critical thinking and careful memorization. Whether played with complete beginners or long-established gamers, I’ve yet to find a gaming group that doesn’t fall in love with this one after just the first game.
Tsuro
Publisher: Calliope Games
Designer: Tom McMurchie
Even after being around for over a decade, Tsuro sees regular play in my gaming circles, thanks to its ease of play, beautiful Asian-inspired art style, and endless variation. Each player guides their dragon along the wind currents represented by tiles of twisting and intersecting lines, attempting to stay aloft while driving opposing players off the board. Dragon playing pieces are forced to follow the line they’re on, even if its inevitable conclusion leads them to failure. Tile placement creates a fascinating and increasingly complex web of traps, twists, and circuitous flight patterns, but the grid is small enough that games wrap up in minutes, and it’s back for a second run.
Codenames
Publisher: Czech Games Edition
Designer: Vlaada Chvátil
Two opposing teams of spies are trying to find their agents in the field, but they only know each agent’s codename. Which team can find their agents first, but without accidentally coming in contact with the assassin? Codenames is a game about words, meanings, and understanding the way your fellow players think. In each game, two players are designated opposing spymasters, and they give one-word clues to their teammates that connect to one or more cards laid out on a grid, each of which has a codename on it. Only the spymasters know which codenames connect to the correct field agents. Spymasters must think carefully not just about what correct cards might be selected from their clue, but also which incorrect cards might be misconstrued through the clue, ending the turn and aiding the opposing team. Codenames happily supports varying group sizes as players come in and out of rounds. My experience? New players drop in to try their hand at guessing, and end up refusing to leave before they get a try at spymaster.
Mafia de Cuba
Publisher: Asmodee
Designer: Philippe des Pallières, Loïc Lamy
Like lying to your friends? Boy, do I have a game for you. Mafia de Cuba is a delightful twist on the popular genre of bluffing games. The game box doubles as a Mafioso’s cigar box, and it’s filled with diamonds. The box also holds character tokens for particular roles like loyal henchmen and infiltrating FBI agents. The box gets passed around the table, and players must either take some of the diamonds, or adopt one of the character roles still in the box. The godfather player then relentlessly interrogates everyone else at the table, trying to ferret out the thieves. Mafia de Cuba offers a fascinating mix of potential outcomes as each of the different character roles requires different win conditions, and most of those conditions require alliances, betrayals, and outright deception to reach success.
Timeline
Publisher: Asmodee
Designer: Frédéric Henry
Timeline suffers under the often-damning label of being an educational game for kids – a classification that sometimes keeps players at bay. That’s really too bad, because my time with the game suggests this excellent card game can be enjoyed and embraced by all ages. Players take turns trying to get rid of their hand of cards by placing them one by one into an ever-growing timeline of historical events. Do you know if the printing press was created before or after the first video game? That might be easy, but how about knowing whether the death of Elvis Presley is before or after video games? Timeline has a base game, but a huge number of expansions add more cards on topics like Inventions, American History, or Music & Cinema. I’ve seen even studied history buffs stumble from time to time as the timeline grows ever more complicated, and Timeline has a way of opening up great conversations as people realize just how wrong they were about the grand scope of the past.
Next Page: Travel to feudal Japan, or become a boss monster at the end of a video game dungeon.