When first looking at the list of games to rent, it can be a little overwhelming! The hope with the post is to give some suggestions for games for different groups of gamers! I started out with four categories of games, but expanded it to five. I tried to limit it to four games each, but they start adding up pretty quick! Hopefully the categories give you a starting point to find the type of games you want.
Small Group Games
Looking to have a small gathering with your friends? These are some great, quick, easy-to-learn games that work best with 4-6 players. Sushi Go! is a quick, set making game that will really make you crave some sushi afterward. Sequoia is a fast dice game where you're trying to grow the biggest forest in different groves - hopefully you can get the rolls you need.
Cover Your Assets is a great collection game where you try to collect the assets you can while protecting them from others. Become the first millionaire to win! Rounding out the set, Love Letters is a quick role deception game where you try to determine the roles of others before they find out yours. Any of these game are great on their own or for kicking of any kind of gathering.
Party Games
Looking for lots of laughs with a group of friends? These are the games for you. Best for around 6-8 people, though werewolf can do up to 11. These game play quick and are easy to learn, but you'll probably want to do another round after the first one!
Charty Party and Puns of Anarchy are both based off of the familiar Apples to Apples format, but with a twist. In Charty Party, players are given a graph and chose an label for the axis: it sounds nerdy but it's tons of fun. In Puns of Anarchy, you are modifying cards to make hilarious puns for different categories.
Gorilla Marketing is a beast of its own. Players are trying to come up with clever names and mottos for everything from food trucks to college classes. A bit of a challenge considering you have to work around certain acronyms, but it's worth the effort. Wrapping up this group is One Night Ultimate Werewolf. If you've ever played a multi-round game of werewolf or mafia, this condenses all of that into one intense night of action. Plus, it has a great app to help run the game.
Big Group Games
If you've ever wanted to play a game with A LOT of people these are the games for you! They can all support up to 12 (or more) players, so feel free to grab them for your next family gathering.
On Tour is the only "roll-and-write" game in the collection, but it's a good one! While everyone gets the same rolls, it's up to you to decide your bands route across the US while trying to hit as many cities as you can. While the box is similar, The Metagame is several different games in one. With a wide variety of cards and game to be played, this is a great party game for groups big and small.
One way to accommodate more players is to have teams, which both Wavelength and Monikers do. Monikers is a "official" game based off of what I've heard referred to as the "celebrity name game", Three rounds of guessing the cards: Everything but the word, one word, and then charades. By the third round, you know which cards are in and can hopefully act it out! Wavelength is all about trying to get on the same, well, wavelength as your team. Given a random scale (bad movie, good movie) and a random point on the scale, you try to give a hint that is right in the sweet spot. It can be tough, but when you get it right on, it's sweet!
Gateway Games
What exactly is a "gateway game"? I like to think of it as a good representation of the new age of board games: better/more fun than monopoly, but still easy enough you could maybe play it with parents/grandparents (depending on your age). It's the bridge between the casual and the hardcore.
Starting on the more casual side, Carcassonne is a very chill tile layer. You draw a tile, add it to the growing scene, and maybe claim a road. A fun and fairly simple game with enough variability to keep it interesting. (Note: mine is the winter edition, but that doesn't change the gameplay at all.)
Getting more complicated, we have 7 Wonders, which is an excellent take on the same "pick and pass" gameplay that Sushi Go uses. Players are different civilizations competing to complete their wonder, while both working with and fighting their neighbors. It's quick, somewhat easy to learn, and with simultaneous play, everyone is involved all the time.
Rounding out these gateway games, we have Pandemic and Munchkin. Pandemic basically defined the cooperative game genre, where players are working together to defeat everything the game can throw at them. In Munchkin, players will work together....until one of them is about to win. In this bizarre dungeon crawler, players will collect get and fight monsters to be the first to get to level 10. Just don't get back-stabbed.
Modern Games
I wasn't sure how to label this last category. While definitely not as hardcore as some games, they require a bit more thought and strategy than Monopoly. I love all of these games for different reasons and am eager to get them to the table whenever I can.
Tiny Epic Galaxies is on the easier side of this four, but still tons of fun! Players are competing to capture different planets while building up their own colony. The gameplay revolves around dice, so trying to get the right rolls can make a big difference. Continuing the space theme, Moonrakers is a great deck-builder of trying to rise to the top of a gang of space mercenaries. Players all start with the same deck of cards and over the course of the game they will different crew and ship parts that can drastically change your playstyle as you work to complete contracts, sometimes shrewdly negotiating with others for help.
Betrayal at House on the Hill has been around for a few years, but it still holds up well. Explore a creepy house with your friends, but watch out as one of them turns against you! A variety a scenarios and a totally random house each time makes this a great game for a spooky game night.
If you're looking for some more intense competition, Rival Restaurants is for you! Up to 8 players take on the role of a chef trying to make their restaurant the best and be crowned the winner. A wide variety of chefs, restaurants, and recipes makes for a different game every time. Almost everything is up for grabs, so be prepared to barter, haggle, and buy your way to to the top!
Wrapping Things Up
I was hoping to make this shorter, but it ended up going on quite long. As you can tell, we have a lot of games I love to play and I'm sure we'll have something you can enjoy to. Hopefully this gives you some ideas of some games you could rent for you next game night, family gathering, or whatever else it may be. Feel free to reach out to us for recommendations or questions and don't forget to keep on gaming!
