Recently someone in a Discord I'm in asked for recommendations on upgrading from the classic board games (Life, Uno, Sorry, etc) to new games that might be nice to play with other adults at a family gathering. Here are some recommendations I shared!

I like Coup a lot, it plays 2-6 people. It uses deduction and bluffing - is that person telling the truth about having a card that allows them to do this action? Or did they do it in hopes they won't get caught?) and the rounds go pretty quickly, but it stays fun for a long time. So you can play for 10 minutes and be satisfied, or keep playing it for much longer!

If you like bluffing you may also like Skull, which needs 3-6 players.

One of my all-time favorite games is Bohnanza, a bean-themed board game where the main thing you do is negotiate & trade with other players to make sure you have the right beans to plant in your bean field when your turn comes around. It plays 2-7 players, and I love how interactive it is - you're not just focused on your own hand or mentally plotting; you've got to wheel & deal for the beans you need.

Dixit is a nice party game in a similar genre as Apples to Apples for 3-8 players. The person whose turn it is gives a clue and puts a card from their hand in whose art matches the clue (in the turn-taker's mind). The other players submit a card that could plausibly fit that same clue, and then everyone guesses which card was the turn-taker's.

I've really been enjoying Point Salad the last year or so, for 2-6 players. I'd put it in a similar category as Sushi Go. On your turn you either collect cards that either give you a way of earning points from your cards at the end of the game (5 points for every 2 cabbage you get, for example), or you collect the vegetables you need to get the points from your point cards. Goal is to have the most points when all the cards are gone and it's time to count the points!

The Game (terrible name yes) is a very easy to learn/teach co-operative game - meaning a game where you either win or lose as a group rather than play against each other competitively. And in The Game, winning is more of a spectrum - you want to play out all the cards in the deck, and the closer you get, the better you've done. You have to work together to maximize the number of cards that can be played, without revealing the exact details of what's in your hand.

Fluxx was mentioned several times by others in the conversation- I like it, but my family who haven't played a lot of modern games had a hard time grasping the changing nature of the rules, so I no longer bring it on holidays.

Sushi Go was also mentioned a lot by others; it's great too! It plays up to 8 if you get Sushi Go Party, or 2-5 in the regular Sushi Go. (Get one or the other; Sushi Go Party is a standalone game that re-implements and expands the base game, and not an expansion that requires you to already own the base set!)

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