Board games are an excellent and versatile pastime for young and old, couples, families and groups of several people. It’s also an ideal way to spend an evening and break the ice with new friends.
Nowadays, the choice of board games on the market is huge, and the design of most is simply stunning. Some have simple rules, others are a bit more complicated, but we can easily find one that will suit all our guests. And what if not everyone knows Polish? That’s not a problem either! In that case, language-independent games and those whose rules everyone knows will work. Here are some examples.
Uno is a simple, fast and fun card game that requires no words except one – “uno” – when a player has one card left in his hand. The rules can be explained in seconds, and if our lack of knowledge of the language doesn’t allow us to do so, we can easily find instructions in any language version online. The entire gameplay is based on numbers and special symbols found on the cards themselves.
Twister is more of a floor game than a board game, but it is well known around the world and does not require knowledge of foreign languages. Here it’s all about flexibility, perseverance and luck – no words are needed. Twister guarantees great fun and lots of laughter. If your guests like to move and have a sense of humor, this game will be perfect for you.
The simplest board game that is great for entertaining small and larger groups. The set contains 54 blocks, from which you need to build a tower. Then each participant takes turns pulling blocks from any part of the tower and placing them on top. The longer the game goes on, the more difficult the task becomes and the less stable the tower itself becomes. The rules are so simple that they can even be explained by sign language.
This is one of those games that requires thinking and dexterity, while breaking down any language barriers. The gameplay is based on symbol cards and a wooden totem. Each player has a stack of cards face down in front of them, which they reveal one by one. When two players have the same pattern on a card, they must grab the totem standing in the center of the playing field as quickly as possible. The slower player takes the opponent’s face-down cards. The whole game is won by the one who gets rid of all his cards.
A strategic board game for everyone that practically never gets boring, and most importantly, can be played all over the world! The players’ task is to rebuild a medieval principality using cards symbolizing roads, monasteries, towns and fields. The cards have to be filled with tokens of their people, receiving points for each completed stage. Human tokens, depending on where they are placed, will turn into robbers, monks, peasants or knights. The game will end when the last card from the playing field is on the table.
Dixit is a highly customized game that has quickly gained popularity around the world. The gameplay is trivially simple – in each round, a different player comes up with an association (word, phrase, sound) for one of his cards and places it face down in the middle. The others each add one of their cards to it. The shuffled cards are then uncovered and players guess which one belongs to the author of the association.
Our list closes with the not very popular, but extremely simple “Color Game.” Players must get rid of the colored cards they have in their hands as quickly as possible, but which cards they can discard in a given round dictates the throw of two dice.
main photo: unsplash.com/Simon Ray
