Abby Laurie ‘26, Student Life Editor
Do you ever wish you had a new board game to play with your friends or family this spring? Well, here are some of the best, hilarious, and most engaging games that are sure to keep everybody entertained and competition sparked.
You Can’t Say Um:
You Can’t Say Um is a speaking game competing in two teams where players have two cards, ‘A’ cards and ‘B’ cards. ‘A’ cards will have adjectives, while ‘B’ cards will have nouns. For example, the phrase might say “Wobbly turtle.” The speaker must try to get their team members to guess the phrase without saying um, uh, like, or any kind of filler words typically used in everyday speech. If the speaker accidentally says a filler word, the other team rings a bell and moves their piece forward on the game board. Along the way, if your team’s piece lands on a danger space, your team gets a new rule added. For instance, some of the cards might say “you cannot say words starting with W,” or “clap your feet every time you get an answer right.” These rule cards get added on to the filler word rule, which makes the game really chaotic and harder to pay attention to what the speaker is saying. In the last few squares on the game board, teams reach the danger zone. Once a team is in the danger zone, everybody on that team cannot say the filler words, even those who are guessing. The first team that crosses the finish line and passes the danger zone wins. This game forces everybody to pay attention and can often get rowdy, which is great for a large group of friends.
Poetry for Neanderthals:
The game, Poetry for Neanderthals, is similar to You Can’t Say Um. Like You Can’t Say Um, everybody really has to focus on what they are saying. Players will split into two teams: Team Mad and Team Glad. One player from each team will be chosen each round to give clues of their card to their own team, while their team tries to guess what it says on the card. On the cards, there is a one point option, and a three point option, but the three points is much harder to guess. For example, on the card, it might say for one point “banana,” but for three points, it might say “banana bread.” The only rule is, when describing the cards, you must only say words with one-syllable. To describe banana, you could say, “long fruit from a tree”, but you can not say “yellow, tropical fruit monkeys like to eat.” If the clue giver says a word that is not one-syllable, the opposing team bonks the clue giver in the head with an inflatable bat, and the card must go in the minus one pile. If the team guesses correctly, they either put the card in the one point or three point pile, depending on what word they went for. After, they continue the game by picking up another card and guessing as much as possible before the time runs out. Whichever team collects the most points wins. This game is extremely fun, especially with the inflatable bat since things can get chaotic.
Imposter:
Imposter is a game that anyone can play without having to actually buy the game—any player can easily download an app for free. To play Imposter, each player will be passed one player’s phone. Each person flips over their own card that has their name on it. On that card, it will reveal a word that everyone knows, except the imposter. When the imposter flips over their card, it should say “you are the imposter.” After everyone knows the word, one player will start the rotation. Each player says something that relates to the word that was given and the person who is the imposter needs to try to blend in. For example, if the word was “shower,” someone might say “soap.” But in order to not let the imposter win, your clues need to be niche and specific to not give away the word. Once everyone has gone, the group can choose to either do another round if they are not sure who the imposter is, or they can try to guess the imposter. At any point in the game, if the imposter thinks they have guessed the word correctly, they can say “Is the word__?”, risking their identity and the chance of winning the game. If the group does not guess the imposter correctly, then the imposter wins.
Telestrations:
The game Telestrations is all about drawing and guessing. Each player gets a whiteboard/sketch book, a dry erase marker, a die, and a word card. Each player rolls the die, and then finds the corresponding number on the die to the word card. All of the words on everyone’s cards are different. Then each player writes that word down on the first page of their book. On the next page, draw a picture of your word. You can not use letters, words, or symbols to describe the word. Then, each player passes their book to the next player. The funny thing is, the player views your drawing and tries to guess what you drew. This can get really amusing and you will likely end up laughing since some of the words are really hard, and people have very different interpretations of drawings. What makes it even funnier are bad drawings as they throw off the whole game. After the second player guesses the drawing, they pass the book to the next person, and they draw based on the guess. The rotation happens over and over until everyone gets their own book back. Once everyone has their book back, each player goes through their book and shares what people drew and guessed. Oftentimes, the drawings are really funny, and the guesses are far off from the original word.
All of these games are great to play with larger groups. Whether it is family or friends, you will always have a good time. Although it is great to win, enjoy the chaos and inside jokes you discover along the way, and hopefully, you will be trying out some of these extremely fun games at your next game night.
Lyon Life 