It’s never bothered us that we go against the popular flow. If anything, we’ve learned to embrace it. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t glad that we’ve become more mainstream with the resurgence in popularity for tabletop gaming. During the dark COVID-19 lockdown years, we focused all of our entertainment budget on building out our game night collection so we didn’t go stir crazy. And honestly, we went a little overboard, as there are still games we have yet to play (yes, I’m talking about you, Scythe). We are a sucker for a game night. It’s a great frugal way to hang out and have fun with friends, and there are plenty of games with enough strategy that they have high repeatability. Below, we cover our top 10 best game night games that you can play over and over again for the best ROI on your investment.
Best Game Night Games for a Night In
While games come with instructions on how to play, they aren’t always the best. When in doubt, we recommend looking up tutorials on YouTube, which can save you precious game night time stumbling around trying to figure out what the rules are.
1. Catan
Type: Competitive
Hay, hay, now, I don’t need your stinking wheat! I need wood! Oh sheep, just kidding, I meant wool. (IYKYK)
I first learned about Catan during a study session in college. It took us a while to jump on the bandwagon, but we’ve been happy to drive the wagon ever since. Catan is a great mix of strategy, luck, and social engineering. Form alliances and backstab your family or friends as you get closer to collecting enough victory points to win.
The base Catan game is great by itself, but you can also expand game play (and add more players) with expansion sets. There are a lot to choose from. And if you have an entire day to kill, we hear there is even a way to mix all the expansion sets together to build one epic board, though we haven’t worked up the courage to try this ourselves yet.
There are also separate standalone Catan games, such as Starfarers and Game of Thrones. Starfarers is Catan in space, which makes every nerdy atom in me vibrate with excitement. I just need to carve out the free time to set it up and learn how to play it the first time, as it’s got the Catan feel, but the gameplay varies enough it isn’t an instant pick up and play transition.
2. The Oregon Trail
Type: Co-op
If you haven’t played The Oregon Trail card game but have some nostalgia for the OG computer game, adjust your budget and buy this immediately (I think it’s a Target exclusive), then call your friends over. Fair warning though: boy oh boy are you about to hate rivers for the rest of your life.
To survive the Oregon Trail card game, you’ve got to forge that motherfing gee dee river and watch out for the motherfing snakes on the motherfing trail. And even when you manage all that, you’re still likely to die of dysentery or get stranded on the trail with a broken wheel.
We have played this game countless times with several friend groups and we’ve only survived twice to beat the game. And I use the word “survive” loosely. The first time we won, the sole remaining player in our party immediately died as soon as he dragged himself into town at the end of the trail. The second time, we also only had one remaining player.
But not to worry, the game doesn’t end for you when you die, even though your friends strip you immediately of all your resources and soldier on without you. You get to write out your epitaph with a wipe-erase marker on a tombstone. It’s a gas.
3. Just One
Type: Co-Op
This is one of our favorite games for larger families or friend groups. The guess word is random, but there is some strategy involved as you try to give the guesser clues that will help them guess the word without matching anyone else. If any of the clue words match, they get eliminated. On particularly rough rounds, you might look up and have only one clue and have to take a complete stab in the dark.
I love the internal debate that goes on while you select your perfect clue word: will anyone take the easy one? What counts as unique enough but not so unique that they’ll never guess? Will someone else go in a different direction to help compliment your clue or are you just going to confuse the guesser? There’s no way to tell, so spend the time to deliberate, and then go with your gut and hope for the best.
4. Blank Slate
Type: Competitive
We got Blank Slate around the same time as Just One. They have a very similar feel but very different objectives. In Just One, you want to help the group as a whole guess the most number of guess words possible as you go around the group. With Blank Slate, you’re out to collect the most points fastest to win against your competitors. The trick is that you’re scored based on what others do. If you match a same answer word with one other person, you get 3 points. If you match with multiple people, you only get 1 point. If you don’t match with anyone, you get bupkis.
Let the mind games begin again, but in reverse. Will Karen take the easy answer? What’s Pete going to put? Knowing the competition can be an advantage, but people’s default answers have a way of surprising you. The good news is, even if you don’t win, there’s a thrill each round of flipping over the boards and assessing the competition.
5. Pandemic
Type: Co-op
This one was a little hard to play during the COVID years, but we did it anyway! Similar to The Oregon Trail, it’s difficult to win, even on easy mode. A lot of the luck aspect comes down to which characters your game night crew has to work with, as each character has a different special skill, and different special skills can pair together better than others to dominant the world and stop the evil viruses. After the initial luck of the draw, it’s a race against time as your group strategizes its way through more random draws of luck of where the evil plagues will infect populations across the globe. And don’t worry, after you eradicate one virus, there are more still to go, and the clock is ticking!
We really like the Reign of Cthulhu version, which adds magic to the mix. It’s like COVID had a baby with Stranger Things and now you’ve got Demogorgons to deal with as well.
If you’d rather shy away from losing your sanity and traveling through weird magical portals, you can always consider the “season” campaigns of Pandemic, where each game you play affects future playability as you build out different character cards. We’ve bought this, but being frugal, we’ve been a little too afraid to play it the way it’s meant to be played because we aren’t sure how much repeatability it will have once we alter character characteristics and rip up game pieces.
6. Rummikub
Type: Competitive
Break out the Jeopardy humming and prepare yourself for some brain scrambling. Rummikub is like Scrabble with numbers but on acid. (If that comparison makes your brain hurt, think Scrabble with Gin rummy.) It’s so much fun to finally get your turn all planned out with your numbered playing tiles, only to have the player before you break the entire board apart. Suddenly, it’s your turn, the timer is ticking down, and you have no idea how to dump any of the tiles in your hand. Damn you, Joel!!!!! Rummikub makes you think fast on your feet and really works the pattern-finding part of your brain. You can play one round to see who gets to job around the dining room table shouting We Are the Champions, or you can keep score over multiple rounds.
7. Transforming Mars
Type: Competitive
More space games! This one has a bit of a learning curve, so I highly recommend learning from a friend who has played in the past or watching an online tutorial. It takes a while to set-up and another good while to play, so it isn’t for the casual gamers who want to play a few quick rounds while they chat and snack. Another blend of luck and strategy, a lot of your luck with Transforming Mars comes down to the corporation card you draw at the beginning of the game, similar to Pandemic. The rest of your luck comes down to how well randomly drawn cards match up with the game strategy you pick from the different tactics available to score points in the game, similar to Catan. It’s hard to explain why I love this game so much, except maybe just space strategy. With the number of different corporation cards, action cards, and ways to score points, each game feels like a truly unique campaign, so I love the repeatability here, so long as you find family members and friends who are willing to sit down for two hours to play with you and don’t mind if dinner runs half an hour later because you don’t want to trigger the end game sequence until you build more greeneries.
8. Ticket to Ride
Type: Competitive
It’s trains. What’s not to love? All aboard, let’s play. There are several versions of Ticket to Ride and each has a slightly different playing style. We haven’t invested in all of them yet, but we got the European version, which is fun because it adds the complexity of tunnels as you build out your railway routes to connect your destination cities. This game is built on luck as you draw cards you’ll need to complete different routes between cities, but there’s some strategy, along with guessing, as you watch the board. If I can tell where someone else is planning to go, I like to throw in my own little choo-choos to break up their train of trains and throw off their whole strategy. There’s nothing like a little sabotage to start the weekend. Just be prepared for them to retaliate.
9. Uno
Type: Competitive
It’s been around forever and for a good reason. There’s just something about holding onto that Draw 4 card until Jonny has one card in hand and a glint in his eye. That’s right, buddy, you get to start all over again. Muawhahahaha. There are enough specialty cards to keep the game interesting, especially with larger groups where Skip and Reverse can really bone someone.
10. Cards Against Humanity
Type: Competitive
There have been so many iterations in this genre since this OG, and a notable one to consider is What Do You Meme, but we like Cards Against Humanity not only because it felt like the first of its kind, but also because the starter deck seems to come with enough options to keep it interesting for multiple plays, while others like What Do You Meme feel like they can get repetitive sooner.
We love playing this when there’s a large group of friends who would rather stab their eye with a #2 pencil than watch you trying to build an outpost on Mars. It isn’t complicated to learn or play and there isn’t a huge strategy to master to win. You just have to be funny. Or twisted. You know your group and their personalities. Take your best guess. Just don’t plan on ever looking your mom in the eye again.
The final word
With tabletop gaming enjoying a renaissance in popularity, there’s no storage of games to choose from. Some libraries even allow you to check them out for free so you can try them before you buy them to decide if it’s something you’d enjoying playing more than once. The great thing about having game nights with friends is that you don’t have to buy out the entire game store. Let your friends contribute picks for playing. This will further increase your repeatability by increasing your game options, and will add a little extra anticipation of wondering what you’ll be playing tonight. Not all games are good—some are true flops—but there are so many great options out there. We hope the list above helps you choose. Feel free to drop recommendations for others in the comments, or ask the hive mind in our budgeting and personal finance Facebook group for specific ideas for your groups’ demographic and interest. We always like talking gaming.