Category: Party Games

dude

| OTSG Staff

dude is a game where you say “dude”. The word “dude” appears on each card in one of six different ways, with 12 dooode cards, 12 dewd cards, 12 dude. cards, 12 dude? cards, 12 tiny dude cards, and 12 tie-dyed dude cards.

The goal is to quickly find matches for as many of your cards as you can. To play, you say the word “dude” as you think it should be said, based on how it appears on your card. At the same time, listen to how the other players are saying the word “dude”. Trying to figure out whether you have the same card as another player is the essence of dude.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • 1 – 5 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.00

Decrypto

| OTSG Staff

Players compete in two teams in Decrypto, with each trying to correctly interpret the coded messages presented to them by their teammates while cracking the codes they intercept from the opposing team.

Each team has their own screen, and in this screen they tuck four cards in pockets numbered 1-4, letting everyone on the same team see the words on these cards while hiding the words from the opposing team. In the first round, one team member from each team takes a code card that shows three of the digits 1-4 in some order, e.g., 4-2-1. They then give a coded message using synonyms of the code words so that their teammate can guess the sequence. If the teammates guess incorrectly, the team receives a black mark of failure.

Subsequent rounds have the same structure, except now the other team can attempt to guess your code. If they’re correct, they receive a white mark of success; if not, then the first team must guess the number correctly or take a black mark of failure. (Guessing correctly does nothing except avoid failure and give the opposing team information about what our hidden words might be.)

The rounds continue until a team collects either its second white mark (winning the game) or its second black mark (losing the game). Games typically last between 4-7 rounds. If neither team has won after eight rounds, then each team must attempt to guess the other team’s words; whichever team guesses more words correctly wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Communication Limits
  • Paper and Pencil
  • Team-Based Game

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 8 Players
  • 15 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Danger the Game

| OTSG Staff

The World is a Dangerous Place!

Disappointed fathers, depressed giant squids, dynamite on train tracks, and so much more! It’s up to you to rescue those in need. Use your skills, tools, and imagination to devise foolproof plans and save the day!

The first victim is the person who lives the most dangerously. Each of the other players is called a rescuer. The victim draws and reveals a danger card containing the perilous situation they are caught in. The rescuers then place one skill card and one tool card from their hands which they will utilize to tell a story of how they will save the victim. While a Rescuerer presents their rescue story another can play a plot twist on their cards tripping them up and changing the story for more engaging play. the Victim awards the Danger card to the Rescuer with the best Rescue.

All cards are written for embellishment and lateral thinking. “Able to transform into a rock” well what kind of rock are you?!

Game Mechanics:

  • Card Game
  • Storytelling

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 12 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.20

Chili Mafia

| OTSG Staff

Chili Mafia is a set-collection party card game for 2-8 players. Compete to assemble the most powerful Chili Pepper Gangs (sets of cards) and become the most respected mafia boss. In Chili Mafia, you will find existing Chili Peppers from around the world that are the main characters of the game. Just to mention a few, such well-known Chilies as the Jalapeño, the Tabasco or the Carolina Reaper clash with each other. To reflect hierarchy, each pepper carries points that are in proportion to the respective Chili Pepper’s strength on the Scoville scale. Moreover, the game includes various action and attack cards (inspired by Mafia jargon) that will not necessarily serve your interest. To win, score the most points at the end of the game.

[CLASSIFIED INFORMATION]

Things are heating up in the world. Chili peppers are splitting into factions, leading to organized crime and unrest. The Chili Mafia reigns supreme.
The Ministry of International Chili Security has hired you—a group of agents—to work undercover and round up the most wanted chili pepper mafiosi from around the globe. Your goal is to bring them to Mexico for a peace summit. As you arrive in the Chihuahuan desert, the spicy criminals jump out of your luggage. It’s obvious they have no interest in peace. Instead, they want a showdown. You and your fellow agents have no choice but to seize control of the Chili Mafia. But to gain their respect, you must fight amongst yourselves to determine who will be the most powerful mafia boss. Once you control the peppers, what will you do next?

Players draw and play cards to form gangs and perform actions. When a player draws the last card from the draw pile, they may complete their turn. Then every player (including the one that drew the last card) may take 1 more turn. After the last round, players calculate their scores.

Game Mechanics:

  • Set Collection
  • Take That
  • Team-Based Game

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 8 Players
  • 20 – 40 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.83

Burn the Witch

| OTSG Staff

Step back into a dark period in our past, when frenzy and paranoia dominated peoples’ perception of ‘the other’, driving communities across Europe to take the most extreme measures against their fellow man… or woman, as history would have it.

Burn the Witch is a game of social deduction where players are divided into two factions (zealots and sympathizers), which are pitted against each other in a bid for survival. Players represent houses, comprised of two to four villagers, one or more of whom may be a witch. The zealots win by uncovering the identity of all witches in play—a discovery made only through fire. The sympathizers win by keeping the witches’ identities hidden. With witches forming a small minority, the sympathizers’ only chance for success depends on their ability to employ cunning and misdirection as they seek to outwit the other players by turning the zealots’ xenophobia and pyromania back onto themselves.

The game typically goes for 45-75 minutes and concludes when either every witch in the village has been uncovered or enough innocents have been wrongly condemned that the witch hunt is called off, and the sympathizers win.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hidden Roles
  • Player Judge
  • Roles with Asymmetric Information
  • Traitor Game
  • Voting

Game Specifications:

  • 5 – 15 Players
  • 45 – 75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.75

Adventure Party: the Role-Playing Party Game 🟢

| kithorning

Adventuring Party takes your favorite moments from RPG’s and puts them into a great guessing game! Over the course of 3 Adventure Scenarios, players will take on the role of a brave adventurer and describe in epic detail their plans for that adventure. Of course, however, the dice always have different plans, and after making a secret d20 roll, you will then recount what actually happened. The goal of the game is to have the GM guess what number you rolled as accurately as possible, thereby earning the most Experience Points possible.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 8 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Bohnanza

| OTSG Staff

In the game, you plant, then harvest bean cards in order to earn coins. Each player starts with a hand of random bean cards, and each card has a number on it corresponding to the number of that type of beans in the deck. Unlike in most other card games, you can’t rearrange the order of cards in hand, so you must use them in the order that you’ve picked them up from the deck — unless you can trade them to other players, which is the heart of the game.

On a turn, you must plant the first one or two cards in your hand into the “fields” in front of you. Each field can hold only one type of bean, so if you must plant a type of bean that’s not in one of your fields, then you must harvest a field to make room for the new arrival. This usually isn’t good! Next, you reveal two cards from the deck, and you can then trade these cards as well as any card in your hand for cards from other players. You can even make future promises for cards received right now! After all the trading is complete — and all trades on a turn must involve the active player — then you end your turn by drawing cards from the deck and placing them at the back of your hand.

When you harvest beans, you receive coins based on the number of bean cards in that field and the “beanometer” for that particular type of bean. Flip over 1-4 cards from that field to transform them into coins, then place the remainder of the cards in the discard pile. When the deck runs out, shuffle the discards, playing through the deck two more times. At the end of the game, everyone can harvest their fields, then whoever has earned the most coins wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Hand Management
  • Negotiation
  • Set Collection
  • Trading

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 7 Players
  • ~45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.67

Blockbuster

| OTSG Staff

Blockbuster is a movie game for anyone who has seen a movie, and like all the best films it comes in two parts:

In the Movie Buzzer Battle, both teams are given a topic, such as “Movies with dogs”. You start the 15-second timer, yell out a relevant movie, then whack the buzzer to reset the time. The other team is now in the hot seat and has to do the same. Whoever runs out of time hands the advantage to the other team, which takes control of the next round: Triple Charades Jeopardy.

In this round, teams have to guess the movie, while you act it, use one word, or quote from it. There is all sorts of strategy and stealing, too.

Game Mechanics:

Game Specifications:

  • 4 – 10 Players
  • 30 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.09

BANG! The Dice Game

| OTSG Staff

In the U.S. wild west, the eternal battle between the law and the outlaws keeps heating up. Suddenly, a rain of arrows darken the sky: It’s an Indian attack! Are you bold enough to keep up with the Indians? Do you have the courage to challenge your fate? Can you expose and defeat the ruthless gunmen around you?

BANG! The Dice Game keeps the core of the Bang! card game in place. At the start of the game, players each take a role card that secretly places them on a team: the Sheriff and deputies, outlaws, and renegades. The Sheriff and deputies need to kill the outlaws, the outlaws win by killing the Sheriff, and the renegades want to be the last players alive in the game.

Each player also receives a character card which grants him a special power in the game. The Sheriff reveals his role card and takes the first turn of the game. On a turn, a player can roll the five dice up to three times, using the results of the dice to shoot neighboring players, increase the range of his shots, heal his (or anyone else’s) life points, or put him in range of the Indians, which are represented by nine tokens in the center of the table. Each time a player rolls an arrow, he takes one of these tokens; when the final token is taken, each player loses one life point for each token he holds, then the tokens are returned to the center of the table.

If a player collects a trio of Gatling symbols on the dice, he fires one shot at everyone else and rids himself of Indian tokens. Who’ll get his shot off first? Play continues until one team meets its winning condition – and death won’t necessarily keep you from winning as long as your teammates pull through!

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 8 Players
  • ~15 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.28