Game night ideas: 30 games for your next board game night

• Best for2 to 8+ players, teams
• Timeabout 15 minutes

Two teams, a grid of 25 word cards and one spymaster per team. The spymaster sees which words belong to their team and gives a one-word clue plus a number ("Ocean, 2") to make their teammates guess the right cards. Guess the other team's word and you help them. Hit the assassin card and you lose. A modern classic for a reason.

Tip: Let different people take turns as spymaster. It's a completely different game from that side of the table.

• Best for2 to 12 players, teams
• Time30 to 45 minutes

One player, the psychic, secretly sees where a target sits on a spectrum between two opposites, like "hot" and "cold" or "underrated" and "overrated". They give a clue and their team turns a dial to where they think the target is. The fun is in the arguments: is pineapple pizza more "overrated" or "underrated"?

• Best for3 to 7 players, cooperative
• Timeabout 20 minutes

One player has to guess a mystery word. Everyone else secretly writes a one-word clue. The twist: identical clues cancel each other out before the guesser sees them. So you have to be helpful, but not too obvious. Very easy to learn and great for mixed groups.

• Best for4 to 8 players
• Timeabout 30 minutes

Telephone with drawings. Everyone writes a secret word in their little booklet, draws it and passes the booklet on. The next player guesses what the drawing shows, the next one draws that guess and so on. At the end you flip through the booklets and see how "birthday cake" turned into "volcano". Being bad at drawing only makes it funnier.

• Best for3 to 8 players, teams
• Time15 to 45 minutes

Each team has four secret keywords. Every round, one player gives clues that point to a three-digit code, like 3-1-4, built from those keywords. Their team has to decode it, while the other team listens and tries to intercept. A step up from Codenames for groups who like word games.

• Best for3 to 6 players
• Time15 to 30 minutes

Each player has four coasters: three flowers and one skull. You place them face down and bid on how many flowers you can flip without hitting a skull. A pure bluffing game with almost no rules. It's very quick to learn and you'll be suspicious of your friends forever.

• Best for5 to 10 players
• Timeabout 30 minutes

A social deduction game: most players are loyal knights, a few are secretly on the evil side. The group sends teams on quests and the hidden traitors try to make them fail. One loyal player, Merlin, knows who the evil ones are but must not be discovered. Great for talkative groups who like a bit of drama.

• Best formixed ages, groups
• Timeabout 30 minutes

Every player holds cards with dreamlike illustrations. The storyteller picks one and gives a clue: a word, a song line, a sound. The others each add a card from their hand that fits the clue, then everyone votes on which card was the storyteller's. The storyteller scores only if some, but not all, find it. Beautiful and very creative.

• Best for2 to 5 players
• Time30 to 60 minutes

Collect colored train cards and use them to claim railway routes between cities on a map. Secret destination tickets tell you which cities you're trying to connect. Simple turns, a lot of tension when someone takes the route you needed. One of the best first board games for adults.

• Best for3 to 4 players (5 to 6 with an extension)
• Time60 minutes or more

Build roads, settlements and cities on an island and trade resources like wood, brick, wool, grain and ore with the other players. Dice decide which resources come in each turn. Trading is where the fun and the arguments happen. The first player to 10 victory points wins.

• Best for2 to 4 players
• Time30 to 45 minutes

Players take colorful tiles from shared displays to decorate their palace wall. Take too many of one color and the extras fall to your floor line for minus points. Easy to learn, pretty on the table and more strategic than it looks.

• Best for2 to 4 players
• Timeabout 30 minutes

Collect gem tokens, buy cards that give you permanent gem bonuses and build up until you can afford the valuable cards and attract nobles. First to 15 prestige points triggers the end. Very few rules, a lot of "how did they get ahead so fast?".

• Best for1 to 4 players
• Time30 to 45 minutes

Build a landscape of habitat tiles from the Pacific Northwest and place wildlife on it: bears, elk, salmon, hawks and foxes. Each animal scores in its own pattern. Calm, puzzly and good for groups who prefer quiet focus over shouting.

• Best for2 to 4 players
• Timeabout 15 to 20 minutes

Pick domino-like tiles and connect matching landscapes to build a small kingdom. Crowns on the tiles multiply your points. Rounds are fast and the rules fit on a napkin. A great warm-up or a game for families with older kids.

• Best for1 to 5 players
• Time40 to 70 minutes

Attract birds to your wildlife preserves. Each bird card has its own power and the birds you play make your next turns stronger. Beautiful artwork and a satisfying build-up. Better for a group that's already played a few board games.

• Best for2 to 5 players
• Time30 to 45 minutes

Draw a landscape tile, add it to the growing map and decide whether to place one of your little wooden followers on a road, a city, a monastery or a field. Finished features score points. Every game builds a different map and the rules take two minutes to explain.

• Best for2 to 6 players
• Timeabout 30 minutes

Giant monsters fight over Tokyo with dice you roll up to three times, a bit like Yahtzee with claws. Attack, heal, collect energy for power cards or race to 20 victory points. Loud, silly and good with players who don't like long rules.

• Best for2 to 4 players
• Timeabout 30 minutes

Your team explores a sinking island and has to collect four treasures before the tiles flood and you're stranded. Each player has a special role. Short, easy to learn and a great first co-op game.

• Best for2 to 4 players
• Timeabout 45 minutes

Four diseases spread across the world map and your team of specialists races to find all four cures before outbreaks get out of hand. Lots of discussion, real tension and a good sense of victory when you make it.

• Best for2 to 5 players
• Timeabout 25 minutes

A card game where you hold your cards facing outward: you see everyone else's cards but not your own. With a limited number of hints, the team tries to play cards in the right order to build a fireworks show. Quiet, clever and fits in a pocket.

• Best forsmall groups
• Time5 to 20 minutes per mission

A cooperative trick-taking card game, like Hearts or Spades but as a team. Each mission gives the crew tasks, for example a certain player has to win a certain card, and you're barely allowed to talk about your hand. The missions get harder as you go, so it works for a whole series of game nights.

• Best for2 to 5 players
• Timeabout 15 minutes

Pick one card from your hand and pass the rest on. Collect sushi combos, dumplings and pudding over three rounds. Very easy, very cute and a good game for people who say they don't like games.

• Best for2 to 5 players
• Timeabout 15 minutes

Players draw from a deck until someone draws an exploding kitten and is out, unless they have a defuse card. Action cards let you skip, peek at the deck or force others to draw. Fast, chaotic and silly.

• Best forsmall groups
• Timeabout 20 minutes

A tiny deck of well under two dozen cards: each turn you draw one and play one, trying to work out who holds which card or to knock others out of the round. Rounds take a few minutes, so it's perfect between bigger games.

• Best for3 or more players
• Time10 to 20 minutes

A classic with a regular deck of cards and one spoon fewer than there are players. Pass cards around quickly, trying to collect four of a kind. When someone has them, they grab a spoon, and everyone else scrambles for one. The player without a spoon gets a letter. Loud and funny, mind the elbows.

• Best for6 or more, teams
• Time30 to 60 minutes

Everyone writes a few names (famous people, friends, characters) on slips of paper and puts them in a bowl. In round one, describe them without saying the name. In round two, only one word. In round three, only gestures. The same names come back each round, so the inside jokes build up. Commercial versions with ready-made cards exist too.

• Best forany group
• Timeas long as you like

Act out or draw movie titles, songs or things from your friend group, with a timer on your phone. No board, no box, no problem. A whiteboard or big paper pad makes Pictionary much better.

• Best for4 to 8+ players
• Timeflexible

Some party game packs run on a TV, laptop or console while everyone answers, draws or votes on their own phone in the browser. Writing funny answers to prompts and voting for the best is a typical format. Good for big groups and people who don't like rules.

• Best forany group
• Time15 to 30 minutes

Each player tells three short stories or facts about themselves. Two are true and one is invented. The others guess the lie. Perfect as an opener when not everyone knows each other, and surprisingly revealing among old friends.

• Best forany group, teams
• Time45 to 60 minutes

Five rounds of five questions: general knowledge, music intros, a picture round, one round about your friend group and a final round worth double. One person hosts, teams write answers on paper. Easy to prep and easy to make personal.