Daniel (00:01.492) It's the joy of party games on this episode of Play Saves the World, the ongoing conversation on games and spirituality. Daniel (00:35.712) Well hello and welcome to this episode of Play Saves the World. My name is Daniel Hilty. Kevin (00:41.172) My name is Kevin Taylor. Daniel (00:43.182) And we are so glad to have you joining us today. Thank you very, very much for tuning into the podcast or watching on YouTube. We are just thrilled that you are giving up a little part of your day to spend with us wherever you are. We hope you're having a great day and you've certainly made our day better by tuning in. Kevin (01:05.494) This exquisite day has only gotten better because you are here. Daniel (01:08.322) It's exactly right. It was a 10, it's an 11. Now you've cranked it up and we're very, thankful. Kevin (01:13.987) It's an 11. I thought it only went to 10, but it goes to 11. Daniel (01:19.904) At place as the world it goes to 11. That's right. It was part of our Patreon stretch goal was that, that we could, and speaking of Patreon, Kevin, if, yeah, if people. Kevin (01:21.987) goes to 11 million. Right. Kevin (01:30.583) Pate, speaking of Patreon, if you, yeah, we'd love for you to be more involved in this channel and so reach out, tell us about yourself, email us, contact us, and also consider supporting us at patreon.com slash play saves the world and your support and contribution helps to cover the costs of this channel and video production and things like that. So yeah, thank you for considering that. Daniel (01:58.05) Yeah, we really. Kevin (01:58.241) And of course, like and subscribe and ring that smell. Shming that smell. Daniel (02:02.606) Ring that that ring that film. Yeah. We love hearing from our listeners and our viewers. It's a thrill to get to hear anything from y'all. And so, yeah, thanks so much for your support and your interest and we appreciate it. Today, we're talking about a very popular type of game, the party game, the party game. So Kevin, know, we have all sorts of, I say we have all sorts of wonderful listeners. Kevin (02:06.134) Bring that smell. Kevin (02:24.406) The partay game, partay. Daniel (02:32.728) to this podcast and this YouTube video series. Some people are really deep into hobby board games that are probably familiar with the idea of party games, but there are lot of folks who listen to maybe to, and there are others. Maybe this is kind of a new topic, a new subject. How would you define a party game? What, what, yeah, yeah. Kevin (02:42.786) Probably too deep into them, you know what saying? Kevin (02:52.386) You know, it's tricky. It's not going to say, well, it may say a party game on there. It may, but it doesn't always. Generally, you're looking for a game that has a high player count that is going to be a smaller box. You're not often. mean, there are some exceptions. We're going to get to one of those later, but in general, they're going to be a smaller. It's going to be card based, so you're not going to have a lot of set up. It's going to have variability about how many people can play and play three to twelve or something like that. Daniel (03:03.192) Mm-hmm. Daniel (03:07.374) Hmm. Daniel (03:21.708) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Kevin (03:21.898) Rules are simple. It's because you got a group of people and you know how people are. They're going to wander off. If you if the rules are too complicated, so they're going to be simple, explain in a couple of minutes. They tend to be a shorter playing time, especially because of with a high player count, probably people are going to be eliminated and that's going to get boring. to the people that are eliminated. So it's gonna go quickly. People get knocked out, ha ha ha, something like that. And then the game can restart again. So it moves along, maybe more luck based typically. You're not gonna have a lot or strategy where you're optimizing a move. You're gonna be doing one thing, know, bidding on something or choosing a card or guessing something. And it's gonna go bing, bang, boom. So the next person can go. Yeah. Daniel (04:14.221) Yep, yep, yep. That's great. Those sound like all classic traits of a party game. Yep, yep. Kevin (04:20.962) classic. And you know, if the point, as we said, the point of games is strangely to win, but also to not win, because the point of it is to enjoy the game. In a party game, that's especially true. That what you're really about is lowering barriers so that people can have a good time together. So the winning is really unimportant. It's more getting some laughs in. Daniel (04:33.867) Yeah, that's so true. Kevin (04:47.756) Getting to know someone, making people comfortable. They've never maybe met before, never interacted. So this gives them something to do in terms of guessing or bluffing or lying or whatever. And then, yeah, the point of it is to get people to socialize, not to win. Daniel (05:04.577) Yeah, that's a really, that's a great point. Yeah, I have a thought about that, but you're right. mean, if you're wanting to play games with people who aren't really into games, party games are the way to go, right? I mean, yeah, yeah, that's, they're very good entry-level welcoming games to the world of games. And generally everybody can like them, whether they normally like board games or not, or card games or not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kevin (05:15.916) Mm-hmm. Kevin (05:25.238) Yeah. Kevin (05:31.68) Right, yeah, and a real strategy type game like Gloomhaven or something is gonna top out at four people. It's gonna get incoherent more than that. So, and there's a reason for that. Daniel (05:35.457) Yeah. Daniel (05:41.741) Yeah. Hearing you describe party games, I don't know why, but I remembered, I guess that's a party game that I haven't thought about in a long, long time, which was a game we played as a kid, Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Did you ever play Pin the Tail on the Donkey as a kid? Yeah. Yeah. mean, that is an example. It may not necessarily be the most fun or engaging. Kevin (05:56.458) Yeah, yes. Yes, very small. Daniel (06:09.259) game, party game, but that's a party game, right? I the rules are very simple. You, it's in fact, the name of the game is also the rules of the game. We need, I wonder if there are any other games you are blindfolded. Kevin (06:17.504) That's a rule. That's going in our title rule game of the year award goes to pin the tail on the donkey, which is all you need to know, except that you are blindfolded. Whilst blindfolded thou must pin a tail on the donkey. And the more the failure, the better. So you end up pinning it not even on the board where the donkey is, but on the wall. It's going to it's going to be a win. Right. Everyone laughs. Daniel (06:32.749) in the tail of the marquee. Daniel (06:41.121) Right, right, right, right, right. I had, maybe it was the Mennonite pacifist version, but instead of having a pin, there was like a little piece of rubbery gum, like on the back of the tail that you could like, that way you weren't actually like, you know, doing harm to anything. You were just sticking it with, not even the wall. Yeah, you were just sticking it with gum. Kevin (06:52.514) for. Kevin (06:57.954) Bye. Kevin (07:04.628) Even the The ghost that lived in the wall. Please don't hurt me. Daniel (07:10.613) I mean, what did the wall do to us? That's right. That's right. Yeah. It kept us out. What did the walls go ahead? No, I should agree with you. What did the walls do except keep us divided? Yeah. Yeah. Kevin (07:13.76) Right? It kept us out, Daniel. Kevin (07:21.654) The hardest, the hard, good, you go, go. Kevin (07:29.314) Yeah, which reminds me the hardest pin the tail I ever played was when I was in the clink one night for in prison. Because the bars right like the game went on for days. And blindfolded to yes. Yes, I was in solitary. By one meal a day I stabbed the guy the garden that I didn't get to eat. It was terrible. It's terrible. That's terrible. Daniel (07:37.511) no. Daniel (07:42.978) That's awful, especially since you were blindfolded, right? Because you were, yeah. Yeah, and it was solitary confinement as well, right? So I mean, no one could help you to tell you where to go. That was, didn't even get to eat. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, yeah. I wonder how Pain in Tail of the Donkey got started. I mean, how did someone with the idea, I wonder, they were going off script here, if that's not obvious. Kevin (07:59.196) Yes, yes, that was a tough one. Kevin (08:05.238) Yeah, where, when has anyone seen a tailless donkey? No, no, this was all mapped out. A tailless donkey. Some Irishman is like, this can't be. We must prepare the donkey. Daniel (08:12.097) Hahaha! Daniel (08:18.977) I've got a great idea. That's right. That's right. Well, anyway, so yeah, so those are party games. They're quick, as you said, simple rule set. Any number of people can play. Yeah, it's just, it's great. And more luck than strategy. Now, know, Kevin, I have here on the show notes, I wonder if you'd be interested in talking any bit about, we were both pretty... pretty deep into the hobby board game world. So there are certainly others who are deeper than us, but we both enjoy deeper than we are. But we certainly enjoy what's often called a hobby board game. It's like, what's the newest, hottest board game, table game that's coming out right now? And they're often very more strategic games, a lot of pieces, and they take hours or things like that. In the hobby board game world, it seems sometimes there's kind of like a... Daniel (09:16.173) stigma attached to party games, you know what I mean? there's kind of a certain negative perception of them sometimes. Does that seem fair to you? am I... Yeah, yeah. I mean, is that a fair characterization of that world? Kevin (09:26.9) It does, absolutely. Yeah, because hobby board gamers really enjoy strategy and there's not a lot of strategy in a party-based game. So there's not a way to get better or repeat plays or it just doesn't attract the interest of the hobbyist. Daniel (09:38.197) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Daniel (09:51.851) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kevin (09:53.398) But you know, you want to hang out with your friends and play game and it's not going to happen by trying to teach them SETI with teams. It's just not going to happen. So if you want to game with friends in a light, fun setting, you should appreciate the role of the party game. Daniel (10:02.678) Great. Daniel (10:09.632) Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Kevin (10:13.526) Yeah, maybe there's some resentment that people think that's all games are. They don't understand there's a whole other world. So maybe that's part of it, is thinking, yeah, games like, Pictionary. And you're like, yes, but no. Daniel (10:20.428) Mmm. Mmm. Daniel (10:26.54) great. Daniel (10:29.868) Right, right, yeah. Or the kind of mass market games you'll, yeah, that you can find in stores now, which, and there are some really good mass market games you can find out there, but yeah. But some maybe, I don't know, for whatever reason, don't quite connect to. Kevin (10:39.854) there are. Daniel (10:49.194) the average high board gamer and yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I know we'll be getting into this later on, but you know, I have to admit, I think I probably had a time. We'll be getting into this later on. I've come around to party board games. I'm really quite fond of them now more than I used to be. And we'll talk about it in a moment. But yeah, so speaking of which, I'm we properly defined party board games for our? for our time together, you think, for our listeners and our viewers? Okay, all right, so now we're gonna get around. You know when you see it, that's right, that's right. So we're gonna just tell our listeners and viewers where we're heading. We're gonna end up with a top five list of party board games with honorable mentions. But before we get there, some benefits of party board games. Kevin (11:17.526) think so. You'll know it when you see it. Kevin (11:33.41) Mm-hmm. Daniel (11:46.772) What are some of the joys of party games? I mean, we've already talked a lot about them already, a lot about, I think, some of the reasons, you know, just for all the reasons that they're popular to start off with, you know, the small ruleset, high player count. I mean, all of those things are just really things to celebrate. They really bring in more people. But I'd like to throw in something which I want to celebrate about Party Board Games. And this is what I call the Kevin Taylor principle of luck-based delight. Kevin (12:24.258) Aww. Daniel (12:27.563) And this is, you are such a good evangelist in all of our, so many of our episodes prior to this one about the joy of luck-based games, right? That, as you have said, a game that has luck is a game that can really, is really already has a head start on creating a compelling narrative, on creating stories and memories that you can share into the future. You if it's just a game about, Kevin (12:50.903) Hmm. Daniel (12:59.309) You know how I sat for two hours trying to come up with a deep strategy on how to maximize this spreadsheet in the form of a board game I mean that's so that's fine, but if it's That's right. That's right But you know if you told that story from stranger things about the Dungeons and Dragons game and other you know where where you just The moment where you throw some dice and you get the impossible combination that you need and everybody just roars to life around the table and how exciting that is and so Kevin (13:06.636) Right, in order to have more sheep, yay. Kevin (13:26.018) Mm-hmm. Daniel (13:29.119) So I just want to celebrate. This is something that you've been such a good evangelist for, Kevin. I think that's really what makes party games so exciting is there's a certain delight that comes with luck. I mean, does that seem fair? Or is that how you would describe it? Yeah. Kevin (13:33.794) thanks, man. Kevin (13:40.642) Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, luck is thrilling and it's fun to watch someone trying to make a tough role. it's often, I mean, it's going to be difficult and it's often not going to work out. But when it does, it creates a great story, a great moment. It's electric. Everyone's, you know, it's a lot of tension going on. yeah, and luck is also a great comeback mechanism that. Okay, if you can do this, you can all of a sudden get 50 points, right? And that makes it, again, for a fun arc and moment and story, so yeah. Daniel (14:04.941) Yeah. Daniel (14:15.063) That's a great point. There's there's luck is also hope in a way that's in luck. We hope that's right. That's right. Yeah. Hope is a fragile thing. Kevin (14:22.464) It is hope. It is hope. Kevin (14:27.116) That's right. And hope is a fragile thing, but occasionally, occasionally you roll the critical success, natural 20 and yay. Daniel (14:38.209) Yeah, that's a great, I love, thank you so much for how you have introduced that to me and to our listeners and viewers, because you're right. if, sure. I mean, if I'm down hopelessly in a Euro game, I mean, if it's hopeless, by definition, there's no hope. I I know there's nothing that I can do to win this game, but if there's a chance that I can get a really lucky roll of the dice, I mean, that's, then there's still chance that I'm in it, right? Kevin (14:45.832) Aw, thanks. Kevin (14:57.921) Mm-hmm. Kevin (15:07.926) Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Daniel (15:08.043) And that's pretty cool. What I probably didn't mean to steal, you're probably primary one. what other, can you think of some other joys of party games or benefits of them? Kevin (15:22.53) Uh, yeah, it's just good memories. You know, it just brings about some fun times. What I like is sometimes you can grab one because they are often small, throw it in a bag. You're going to a Thanksgiving meal or a holiday event or family event and the stars align and some people are willing to play a game and then they have a great time and they're laughing and it's just like, ah, right. All this reminds you why games are so great because this little box all of a sudden made everyone. Daniel (15:25.185) Yeah, yeah. Daniel (15:45.409) Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Kevin (15:52.482) sort of have a nice moment. they're often very portable and they can just bring a lot of joy and you can see somebody get into a game that maybe doesn't think they like games. And then they're like, that was really fun. So there's certain elegance to them. They tend to be simple. Yeah. Daniel (15:55.021) Yeah. Yeah. Daniel (16:06.55) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because they're so simple. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true, that's true. Yeah, yeah, just because something is simple doesn't mean that it's bad or inferior. Simple can be, yeah, elegant, know, yeah. Kevin (16:29.57) It's a different joy. Getting a group of people to play a game together, you just can't do that with the Euro. You're stuck with the same gaming group, which is great, but everyone knows how Ted's going to play it because you've been playing with them for years and you know kind of what his strategy or what he's going to try to do. you got 15 people or whatever, 10, 15 people and some of them strangers. It's much more surprising and exciting, I think. Daniel (16:31.136) Yeah, yeah. Daniel (16:40.555) Yeah. Daniel (16:58.752) Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah. Kevin (16:59.85) unpredictable and somebody that is you know, the last person you think is gonna lie has been lying in because it let's say it's a game that rewards lying like you're supposed to be treacherous or have a secret and there's that moment where like I can't believe you lied to me the whole time and just die laughing so I can't remember the game we were playing but Jenny was so shocked one time she's like I can't believe you lied so I'm like I know it's normally not me but I got you Daniel (17:14.956) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. I like that. like that Daniel (17:26.058) Hahaha you're lying throughout. Yeah. Kevin (17:30.614) Yeah, because I was supposed to be. I'm not breaking the rules. I was playing the game correctly and bluffing of some sort. Yeah, bluffing. Everyone knows you can lie. Yeah, or you have to lie to play the game. Yeah, I think it was Coup. I think it was Coup, is kind of, I think that didn't actually make the list. So let me go ahead and give it a little nod that Coup, C-O-U-P. It's not a huge game. It's maybe. Daniel (17:34.378) Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. A bluffing game. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Otherwise, you're not playing. Daniel (17:52.684) Yeah. Kevin (18:00.062) six people, seven people, so it's not a big party game, but it's a very simple rule set where certain cards can have power over other cards, but it's in secret and you can lie and people can call you on it and then you find out if you were lying or not and it can be really fun and hilarious and kind of mean, but in a funny way because sometimes it's the five-year-old that's being mean and that's pretty funny. You're like, I would beat you up, but I can't, you're too little. Daniel (18:03.669) Yeah. Daniel (18:20.448) Yeah. Daniel (18:25.27) Yeah Daniel (18:30.58) Is it cool like a sequel to another bluffing game like a party game like Resistance or something like that or? Anyway, something like that. Yeah, yeah, no. Kevin (18:30.597) I'm Kevin (18:35.97) don't know. No, I think they're similar at times, but they're different games. Yeah, but they have a hidden wealthier. Yeah, resistance is like a there's a good team and a bad team and the bad team is lying. Kind of like secret Hitler, that kind of thing. Yeah. Daniel (18:42.42) Okay, okay, okay, cool. Daniel (18:55.016) I see. see. Okay. Okay. Okay. Cool. Kevin (18:59.394) And Ku is just you're on your own, but you're trying to trick people into basically losing their cards and being out of the game. It's fun. You're out. Yeah, you have two cards and they're two different roles, but you can lie about what they are in some roles like if you say you're the assassin, I'm going to get this wrong. but if you say you're the assassin, you're going to kill me on your action. I can say, well, I have the. Daniel (19:09.556) So once you lose all your cards, you're done. Okay, okay. Okay, okay. Kevin (19:27.852) Duke and the Duke blocks the assassin and now you have to decide whether you call my bluff and I could be lying or not. So that's what makes it really kind of naughty. Yeah, we'll have to play. It's good. It's great game. Daniel (19:32.333) Okay, okay, okay, okay. Interesting, interesting. It sounds kind of like, have you ever played Love Letters? Yeah, it kind of sounds like Love Letters, but with bluffing. yeah, mean, it's also, you just sold two cards and it's a very small deck and certain cards can interact with, know, one card that you might have might interact in a powerful way with a card that someone else has. Kevin (19:45.386) I haven't. I've always heard about it. Mm-hmm. Daniel (20:01.866) But if you throw in bluffing as well, can, yeah, that sounds really fun. That sounds cool. Well, kind of related to that, think another quality that I really appreciate about party games is that party games really, I think, seem to shine in terms of creativity and novelty, or at least they can. The ones maybe that aren't super great are the ones that are not especially creative and novel. And we've all probably seen examples of that, where basically you're just repackaging an idea. Kevin (20:27.106) you Daniel (20:33.534) Sometimes party games really shine in that they're just built around some creative, silly idea. And, you know, there's no way you could work this novel, creative, silly idea into a giant Euro game, but you could put it into a little five to 10 minute party game and really have fun with it. Like some of the most creative and novel ideas for a games, to me at least, seems like come out of party games. You know, Kevin (20:52.418) Mm-hmm. Kevin (21:00.384) Hmm, interesting. Daniel (21:02.476) Like we're not, it doesn't appear later on in any of our lists, but like I think of Happy Salmon. Have you played Happy Salmon? Yeah. I mean, that's a very, you know, where you do a silly salmon handshake and everything. Like, I mean, that's just, it's very creative and yeah, yeah. It's, know, yeah, it's a very creative game and you couldn't do that for two hours. That sounds torturous actually for two hours, but for 10 minutes. Kevin (21:07.66) Yes, yes. Kevin (21:14.858) And you throw the cards down like that's really fun. Yeah. Thank you. Little kids love it. Yeah. Happy salmon is a cute one. Kevin (21:26.358) That's right, that's right. Daniel (21:31.948) It's just the perfect kind of setting for that kind of game. Yeah. So yeah, it seems like you can be more creative and have more novelty. Kevin (21:36.002) Hmm. Kevin (21:40.428) Yeah, and what's great too is you can house rule these games because they tend to have a simple rule set. You've got some great examples with one that will appear in our list and some really interesting house rules that I mean, you play it a lot, the same people, or you've played it a bunch. Why not try it this way or that way? So, and you can't do that with with the say a gloom haven that's complicated or a Gaia project. You can't house rule it very easily without breaking this complex. Daniel (21:44.118) Yeah. Daniel (21:51.052) Right. Daniel (21:59.563) Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. Kevin (22:10.476) House of Cards of Rules. Daniel (22:10.529) Right. That's a good point. Yeah, yeah. You know, the really complex big games, every rule has been thought out and balanced and tested and tried. And you're right. It's like if you house rule something, if you change a rule, it's like you're taking a you know, a little spark plug or piece out of a car engine. You know, all of a sudden it's not going to run anymore. But if the game basically just consists of two parts and you swap out one part or two in the other, you know, I mean, it's, it's, there's not everything it's just dependent on. Kevin (22:31.97) That's right. Daniel (22:43.124) You can, yeah, it seems like you really can't house rule, change rules more easily on the party games. I also like, appreciate how you said earlier in our opening remarks that, you know, of course, winning never truly matters in a cosmic sense for any game, but it especially doesn't matter with party games, right? Like it relieves the effort even more. Kevin (22:45.9) Mm-hmm. Kevin (23:09.942) Right. Daniel (23:11.948) We're going to come up with some examples where you don't even keep score. mean, we don't even keep score. It doesn't really matter who wins at all. And that's kind of that's refreshing just to not have that kind of pressure on it. Yeah. Kevin (23:12.556) Mm-hmm. Kevin (23:18.892) Mm-hmm. Kevin (23:22.891) It is. Yeah, that's awesome. Daniel (23:26.23) So, yeah. Have we covered most of the joy of party games? Okay, okay. Kevin (23:34.048) I think so. think so. You did comment at one point in the notes that I think this is true is that sometimes we get just too in the weeds with gaming and solo gaming and hobby board gaming and you kind of lose the plot of, you know, it's great that you've got the high score in this esoteric board game that no one else is playing in five counties. Like that's great. But you may have forgotten the joy of Daniel (23:45.793) Yeah. Daniel (24:00.086) Right, right, right. Kevin (24:03.98) kind of being silly and in a ministry of silly walks type moment of Monty Python. throwing in some party games, some light games reminds you that there's more to gaming than great strategies. Daniel (24:07.776) That's exactly right. Daniel (24:18.924) It's such a great, yeah, you're right, you're right. I don't know about you, I have been, I didn't mean to interrupt you, I'm sorry. I have been from time to time accused of kind of being a board game snob, sort of, if you know that sense of, oh, well, this isn't in the top 100 on boardgamegeek.com. I will not play such a Philistine game, but then, Kevin (24:21.634) sort of a corrective. Kevin (24:25.824) That's all. That's all. Kevin (24:38.594) Correct. Board Game Geek 6.5, I don't think so. Daniel (24:47.83) But then I'll be at an event or something and I'll say, okay, yes, I'll play it. And by golly, I end up having a really fun time. It's like, why was I being so, like you said, why was I being such a snob about it? Why was I being so uptight? This is genuinely fun. And isn't that why we play games? Yeah, yeah. Kevin (24:57.887) Mm-hmm. Kevin (25:02.166) Yeah. Kevin (25:11.52) Yeah, there's an element of control there. Like we want to control the game that's played and the situation and things and that's okay. And you may love solo gaming, but it's fun to throw a little chaos into the mix and be like, sure, let's try that. Daniel (25:27.722) Yeah, yeah, that's right. Kevin (25:29.602) And these games you can't typically play solo. There is no solo mode. So you get a nice mix of that. You want to have some light games. Some groups use these as filler games between the harder games, which is, in my mind, asking a lot. Like in general, if I'm tired from gaming, it's hard to play a light game even. I really need to do something else. But if you play a session, if you're at a board game convention or over a weekend, you play a big game that's challenging and difficult. and then you take a break with a party game or two and then you go back to something more difficult. And some people do that. We'll fill our games. Yeah. Daniel (26:03.979) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That can be a good use for them too. A good opportunity for them. Kevin (26:10.944) Mm-hmm. Yes, but you'll recall when we've been a geek way. I'm usually like I'm just gonna go sit on the porch Daniel (26:18.025) I celebrate that. Yeah. Kevin (26:19.35) this. Well, it's called exhaustion. It's my old friend. Daniel (26:22.827) Hello exhaustion. I know you're there. Kevin (26:26.038) Doom, despair and agony on me. Remember that deep dark depression excessive. Yes, he ha if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all, which is just the best. The most overly dramatic best line ever. The only luck I have is bad luck. Where are you tonight? Why did you leave me here all alone? It's like two peak two guys complaining that they're. Daniel (26:31.572) Is that from Hee Haw? Daniel (26:36.843) You Daniel (26:44.529) Where, where are you tonight? Why have you leave me here all alone? I searched the- Kevin (26:55.456) significant others have left them alone. And then they say how bad their lives are. It's so funny. Yeah, that's a great bit. Daniel (26:58.907) You know, that's right, that's right. Also, I think we have dated ourselves. Our younger listeners are maybe wondering. Kevin (27:05.408) Yes, yes. And I accepted that date request. I went out. I was, yes, I'm okay with this. Yes, I've dated myself. I'm like, you know, thank you. Daniel (27:11.915) with yourself? Yeah, you know, I love that about you. I remember that you called me afterwards to tell me how it went. And you said at first it felt awkward. That's right. That's right. And then, and then you expected you to pay too, right? Which was just, it's just really rude. was. Kevin (27:19.33) Couldn't believe how much I ate. That was expensive. Kevin (27:28.258) I had a, God, I'm never going out with that guy again. Daniel (27:36.971) Yeah, no, that's great. I hadn't thought about that song in a long time. Yeah, yeah. Kevin (27:39.145) Anywho. Kevin (27:44.386) Occasionally for some reason it just pops in my head. guess it's. Some of DNA at this point, yes, yes, so let's do some top Leas honorable lynching Daniel Hilty. You have been chosen. Daniel (27:50.986) Yeah, yeah. Well, let's do a top five party games. Yes. All right. Our top five party games and the honorable mentions before we get into the actual top five. My first honorable mention is Drupalter. I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that right. Drop altar, Drupalter. But this, have you heard of this game or? Kevin (28:02.582) Yes. Kevin (28:20.234) No, I don't know this one. Daniel (28:20.811) And this is a game that's put out by Oink Games, which is this Japanese small box game. And I I say, you we talk about high player count. This isn't super high player count. I forget what the maximum is, but it's not like 12. It's probably more than it would like seven or something like that. But six or seven. it's it's it's so fun. Picture it. If you will, picture it. We are small children. Kevin (28:24.691) yeah. Daniel (28:50.421) trying to go to sleep at night in our respective rooms, but were terrified of the monsters under the bed, which is where the monsters live. And so we have to, that's right. So we have to drop the right kind of charms off of our bed to scare away the monsters. What this means is everybody has a handful of identical charms around the table. Kevin (29:03.266) they'll do. Daniel (29:18.059) And these are things like, I forget exactly, like crystal and a plastic cracker, a plastic ruby, things like that that you just gotta hold in your hand. I think there's a coin maybe, a ring. And they're all just made out of cheap plastic that come in this game. And then someone turns over the top of the deck, which shows what kind of charms will scare away Kevin (29:38.978) Mm-hmm. Daniel (29:47.146) this particular monster that's coming up from under the bed. And what you have to do is turn your closed hand upside down for our YouTube viewers, I'm illustrating here. You have to turn your closed hand upside down and you have to drop only the necessary charms that will scare away that monster. Yeah, yeah. But obviously it's a dexterity game, but it's very, very often other... Kevin (29:49.09) Hmm. Kevin (30:08.162) cute. Daniel (30:16.201) of the charms will fall out of your hand as well. And if they do, then you have to pick them all back up and you have to start all over again. The first person to correctly drop just the right charms gets to quickly grab that monster card that is giving you the charms for the round and put it front of them. That's a point. That's a point. But this gets even better. Yes. Then to show that you have won one point, you get to take one little tiny bell, just a tiny little bell out of this bowl of bells. Kevin (30:26.028) Hmm. Kevin (30:33.196) That's cute. Daniel (30:44.299) and you put the bell in your hand now with your other charms and you shake it so you can hear the bell. It sounds like just like that, just like that. And and and it sounds like a public enemy song. Do you know the song that were Flava Flav Flava Flav goes just like that. Anyway, that's what it is. Yeah, I love how play saves the world. How we go from. Drupal to public enemy, but we're going to go back here in a second. That was. Kevin (30:52.13) just like that. Kevin (30:59.618) Drop out or drop out or do do do. Just like that. Daniel (31:14.067) Where else can you get that? That's what I'm asking. Kevin (31:16.17) Is it ADHD or is it genius? knows? Daniel (31:20.13) It's nothing good. I have no reason to brag on it at all. I'm sorry. I apologize to our listeners and our viewers. Anyway, so now you've got a, that's right, now you've got a bell in your hand, a very tiny bell, in addition to your charms. Kevin (31:29.654) I apologize for participating. Kevin (31:36.354) So it prevents some dexterous person from crushing everyone. Daniel (31:41.077) That's right. And if you accidentally drop the bell, what's a point, you lose that point and it goes back. So yeah, it's a super fun game. Dripholter is my first honorable mention. I've talked enough. Kevin (31:46.394) Fun. I got to get this. I love it. It sounds great. I don't know. That's great. Another honorable mention we've got I've got is don't get got which is real simple but clever. It's a mission game. So you want to play it over period of time because the missions are real quirky. You want to get someone to put their driver's license in a cup or something like that. And it's something that they're not normally going to do. So you're to have to come up with some sort of Daniel (32:00.543) love. Daniel (32:10.367) Yeah, yeah. Kevin (32:16.145) Scheme to get them to do it where you're tell a story or create a scenario of why you need them to do that And it needs to be over a period of time because if it's within like an hour, they're gonna know what you're doing But if it's by that night Then they may have kind of forgotten about the game or things have happened and so you introduce a way to try to get them to do what you want and if they do it then you get to flip that mission over and if you get all five you win So it's a really clever bit. Everyone has different missions and there's, I don't know, scores and scores of them, so you're not gonna remember. And you're real cute, real fun, so don't get got. Daniel (32:42.975) Such a clever game. Daniel (32:52.939) It's a real kind of metagame. like a game that goes on in the background of normal life, like as you go about for hours. Yeah, like you said, if you think that you're playing it, the game is probably not going to advance. yeah, but if you think, because if you... Kevin (32:59.424) Yes. Kevin (33:10.058) Right. And there's a moment if you played it where you do something, then the person smiles at you and you just realize you just got got. You're like, I can't believe now I'm putting my license in this cup because clearly that was a shtick for this game that I forgot about. So yes, the game depends on you forgetting what's going on. But it's really clever. Yeah, don't get got. That's right. Daniel (33:19.327) That's right, that's right. Daniel (33:31.603) Right. Yeah, that's a great. Daniel (33:37.824) Great honorable mention. I think the last honorable mention is Wits and Wagers, a very popular party game that think you can find in a lot of stores. It is sort of a trivia game. Well, it is a trivia game, but not in your classic sense. And all of the answers are numbers, like how many people live in the state of Wyoming? Kevin (33:45.943) Mm-hmm. Daniel (34:04.911) or how many episodes were there of Seinfeld or something like that. Things that most people don't know. And so you're trying to, you write down a guess and you put your guess in this common pool and they're arranged in numerical order. And you don't win by knowing the answers, you win by betting on the person that you think knows the answers. And so that's kind of what's clever. You bet this fake money on the person that you think. Kevin (34:28.695) Hmm. Daniel (34:34.859) has the right answer, even if you don't think you do. And so that's a nice kind of leveling mechanism of the game that, you if you feel like, oh, I'm not good at trivia, that's okay. It doesn't matter. The point is, who do you think are on this table that's good at trivia and bet on that person? Yeah, yeah. So it's a great game. Great. Kevin (34:50.092) That's clever. Yeah, yeah. Let me mention one more honorable mention, which is the use of mention twice, which was my Don't Get Caught mission. Yay. And the one I'm going to throw in here should have been on this list because sometimes my brain doesn't work good. And think of it. And that is Secret Hitler. Secret Hitler is so good. In fact, it should be in the top five. Let's be honest. But have you played it? Yeah, I didn't think you had. Yeah, it's so great. Daniel (35:01.771) Uhhh, you won! Daniel (35:12.267) you love that. You've talked about that game. Daniel (35:18.291) No, I haven't. I've heard you talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. Kevin (35:21.906) Don't let the theme be off-putting. It's not an endorsement of anything. It could be something else It's just the idea that there is a Chancellor there within the German government and their liberals and their fascists and the fascists of the bad team But you don't know who's a fascist and liberals are the you know, the mainstream politicians You get to change who's Chancellor but one of the people's actually Hitler and Chancellor wants to get Hitler elected as prime They want them to become chancellor. And I'm forgetting the rules exactly. But something like that. The chancellor's trying to get Hitler to get into a certain position. you don't know who's doing what, but you're trying to pass legislation. And you're not sure if it's going to be fascist or liberal. And it's just great. we had, I think you can play Eleven. We did it once. And it was just, we were just dying laughing. It was just so much fun. Daniel (36:17.448) great. Kevin (36:17.856) because you don't know who's lying until you figure it out. And then it's just so funny that somebody was working against the crew the whole time. So Secret Hitler is really, it's a nice game. It's a weird rectangle box and it's got some cool chunky bits and it's just a real satisfying game, Secret Daniel (36:38.326) Have you played Clue Conspiracy? We played that once at my group. I think it's basically like, I may be wrong because I haven't played Secret Hitler, but my impression was that it's basically like a Clue themed. Kevin (36:40.993) No. Kevin (36:58.718) Hmm. Daniel (36:59.294) version of Secret Hitler, kind of like if Secret Hitler were kind of reimagined in the clue universe. I may be wrong on that, but you might like that. don't know. But yeah, that's cool. Thanks for... And I may be wrong, but that's great. Thanks for adding that. Kevin (37:17.602) Inspiracy. Yeah. Daniel (37:20.51) All right, well, our top five, we get to the number five party game. Kevin, what is, you want to go first? Kevin (37:30.75) I want to go first. I was just looking at Clue Conspiracy briefly. So yes, number five is for me is Flip Seven. And this is a great little game. You're trying to collect numbers without any repeats, because if you have a repeat, then on that round you're out. And you want to get those cards to add up. Daniel (37:32.682) All right. Daniel (37:37.296) yes, I should have provided filler, I'm sorry. Daniel (37:42.762) Flip seven. Kevin (37:56.854) to a high points and you keep going till 200 points. can play with as many people as you want. And you know, after you played a while, it can get a little of a one trick pony like you probably don't. But it's still a lot of fun. It's very, very simple. And it's it's a bit of do you take another card? So there's a bit of a push your luck. And there are some other cards that give you superpowers that are fun, too. And that does have a little bit of that explosive luck bit of seeing if someone can get the card. Daniel (38:07.305) Yeah. Kevin (38:26.4) You know that really pushes them over the edge or if they're going to bust. So there's that primal like what will happen next moment in it. That's really fun. Yeah flip 7. And it's like 8 bucks. It's it's the best 8 bucks. You'll spend so small deck of cards. Daniel (38:30.292) Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I think it's in a lot of stores. Like you can probably get some mass market stores and yeah, online. Yeah. Yeah. One of the things that really surprised me, surprised me about Flip 7 is, mean, literally, I mean, not, not literally, but, but like any number of people could play that game. I mean, like I used to think there was some upper player count, but there isn't. I you could, you just basically keep, you could do 15, 20 people around a table. You know, I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kevin (38:46.528) or online. Yeah. Kevin (38:59.458) Mm-hmm. Kevin (39:06.998) You just shuffle more often. Yeah, it's a big deck of cards. Really clever. Yep. Daniel (39:09.896) Yeah, it's a deep game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool, thanks. Well, my number five is an older card game, Saboteur. Saboteur. So Saboteur is a game where you are basically all working together. I think you go up to like 12 people on your turn. You just play a card. So super simple. And you are playing a card to collectively Kevin (39:17.858) I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Daniel (39:39.723) dig out this network of tunnels in the middle of the table where you're trying to get to some jewels, some jewels that are hidden in a mine underground. And so you're trying to connect these tunnels to the jewels that are out there, that are basically represented by cards with jewels on them. But one person is a saboteur. Saboteur. And... Kevin (40:02.21) Have a tour. Daniel (40:09.626) they are trying to get you, get the team not to reach the jewels before the deck runs out. And that's kind of where some of the, where a lot of the tension comes from. And so at the end of the game, the team wins if they get to the jewels before the deck runs out and the saboteur wins if the deck of cards runs out before they get to the jewels. Saboteur, it's pretty fun. Saboteur! Kevin (40:32.246) Hmm. Saboteur. That's cool. I don't know that one. Saboteur. The French translation is yet to be made yet because they don't know what to call it. Daniel (40:37.662) That was also one of my missions. Daniel (40:42.888) It's just right. Kevin (40:44.204) doesn't translate very well. Saboteur. To French. Daniel (40:47.526) It's just in English we just say saboteur over two, right? Yeah, that was the joke. Kevin (40:50.626) Yeah, that was the joke. wasn't a good joke. was the joke. What is taco in Spanish? Yeah, it wasn't a very good joke. Number four is no, it's terrible joke. I'm going to walk the walk the shiny plank after we stop recording. So number four, code names. This one is a classic. You can get it anywhere. I mean, I think they have it at Walmart and places. It's a great game. It is a little harder in that. Daniel (40:56.458) I'm sorry. Daniel (41:00.456) No, was good joke. Kevin (41:20.214) I've found with especially folks that are more senior age, sometimes they're just like, they can't quite get their head around it. But you have two teams and you're competing to get them to pick a word out of a grid of words using one word. And if they can pick those and they're the ones you want, you're going to get points. But if they pick the wrong ones, that can lead to catastrophe. Is that fair? So. Daniel (41:47.86) Yep, maybe even, yep, that's right. Kevin (41:50.786) Yeah, and you're really hoping they'll pick multiple good cards. So you're trying to think of one word that will clue them to multiple cards. So, and they're all random. It could be lantern, tree. So if it was lantern and tree, you might pick the word green if you wanted them to get those two cards. Because you would have green lantern and trees are green. But you forget that frogs on there and frog is bad. And so then they pick frog. You're like, oh no. So it's kind of that. Yeah, yeah. Daniel (42:06.058) Mm-hmm. Daniel (42:16.41) you lose the game. That's right, yeah. That's the genius of the game, trying to figure out how you can hold with one word that gives like multiple, that can turn over multiple cards. Yeah, yeah. That's a great game. Kevin (42:24.49) Mm-hmm. without unlocking another card that you weren't intending them to see. yeah, it's kind of a, yeah. So that's a much loved game and can be a lot of fun. Codenames, designed by the great, in English we say Vlada Chevatel and that is nothing like how it is said in the original Czech, but you know, sorry. That's the problem of Latin based letters that everybody says them differently, but yes. Daniel (42:32.402) Right, right, right. Daniel (42:41.012) Codenames. Kevin (42:57.216) Same guy that did Mage Knight and Through the Ages did Codenames and Galaxy Trucker. So that guy's probably the most dungeon pets, probably the most surprising board game designer of all time in that I don't know anyone else who's designed such very different games. Daniel (43:04.318) Yeah. Dungeon pets. Daniel (43:15.88) really has a wide range of very popular games. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, really, really great designer. Yep, yep, yep. Kevin (43:17.474) know, party game, high strategy, popular games through the ages, like number 12 of all time. And it's a fantastic civilization building game. So high strategy. Yeah. Amazing guy who hasn't done anything in like 10 years. I think he's just like, you know, I'm going to watch the birds. Yeah, he does. I don't think he does anything. It's like I have, I have finished my oeuvre. Which is another word that doesn't translate into French. Oeuvre. Daniel (43:32.03) Really? I didn't know that. Daniel (43:36.714) Well, good for him. Daniel (43:40.484) you Daniel (43:45.092) Speaking of words that you can't and that you're having trouble thinking of, my number four is Anomia, which apparently means like the feeling of not being able to come up with a word. This... You haven't played Anomia, Kevin. This game is... No, I know others that play this. This is... Kevin (43:49.09) Daniel. Kevin (43:56.33) Anomia. Kevin (44:08.446) No, no one's played it but you, think, but go ahead. Go ahead, caller. Daniel (44:14.686) This is hands down one of the favorite games of our son and daughter. It is so simple, but so frustrating. It's a deck of cards and on the deck of cards, there is a list, there's a category like famous British authors or South American countries or summer holidays or things like that. And also on each card is a unique, not a unique, there's a symbol like a diamond or a square or a circle. On your turn, you just draw a card and put it in front of you. And so it'll have a symbol and some category again, like movie villains. Then the next person around the table will draw a card. It will also have a unique category and a symbol. You keep going around until someone's symbol on their card matches somebody else's symbol on their card. Like I have a circle and somebody else turns up a card and they have a circle. Then suddenly there's a face-off that's triggered and those two people who both share a circle symbol, they have to as quickly as possible Kevin (45:28.674) Mmm. Daniel (45:37.96) give an example of something in the category of the card that the other person has. Yeah, so like, let's say I have circle famous villains and they go on the table and someone suddenly turns up a circle and, you know, fast food restaurants. I would have to quickly say, McDonald's before they say Lex Luthor, right? Or something like that. Kevin (46:06.786) Mm. Daniel (46:08.009) And in that moment of trying to think of it as fast as possible, you just, can't come up with the words. It's, there's a lot of laughter and it's very fast pace. If you don't like fast pace games, it's, it's probably not a great game, but then whoever gets it, whoever says the answer first gets to claim that card as a point. And the person with the most points wins at the end of the round. It's a lot of fun. Anomia. Anomia. Kevin (46:27.703) Hmm. Kevin (46:32.052) Anomia or anemia Number three just one just one is a great simple game Everyone should own it to be honest and it's real it's it's yet again one of these games where you're giving clues and people are trying to guess something and what's unique about it is That their clue. Well, you don't know what your word is and they must give you clues and they must be unique so if if mine is Daniel (46:36.113) Number three. Kevin (47:01.62) If my clue is Hulk. And I don't know what it is, and I'm playing with four people and it's co-op, so we're trying to all beat get as many right as possible, so we're all working together. But if two people put green, then they cancel out, so just made it harder for me. So it's really interesting to come up with something that will give them a clue, and then sometimes you can out think each other because you all constantly very difficult and no one thought no one want to do the easy one because they thought it wouldn't work like they get canceled. Daniel (47:18.227) Right, right. Daniel (47:29.033) Right. So no one puts green. Yeah. Yeah. For Hulk. Yeah. Kevin (47:31.074) So that can be kind of Yes, no one puts green and then they're like, well, why didn't you put green? You're like, we didn't want to. So it just keeps rotating around just one. It's, it's real simple. You can play with a pretty large group. In fact, speaking of house rules, Daniel is even house ruled this to work over zoom with dozens of people. Correct. So, and if you want to know how he did that, we would demand one cryptocurrency. Daniel (47:36.265) That's right, that's right. Daniel (47:45.437) Cool. Daniel (47:51.773) That is true. That is true. Yep. We did it over Zoom. It was a lot of fun. Daniel (48:01.042) you Kevin (48:01.066) sent to this wallet 5643E-32-59 and we will tell you it's real difficult you'll never figure it out on your own that's number three just one Daniel (48:12.739) That's right, that's right, that's right. This is a game we use at our theology of play workshops and as a result just got to play this game with a lot of people. I was looking at my statistics, Kevin, I've now been able, I've played just one with over 100 people just over the years. It's it's so, I'd have to look that up, but it's 30 times maybe something like that. Yeah, yeah. It's a great, that's a great one. Thank you. Kevin (48:32.054) How many times? Right. Eight trillion something, yeah. Daniel (48:41.851) My number three is Six Nymphed. Six Nymphed, which in English, in America, it's often sold as Take Five, but it's the same game as it used to be called by its German name, even the English version. Six Nymphed, which literally means Take Six. It is. Kevin (48:46.024) Noot. Noot. Kevin (49:00.609) Looped. Kevin (49:05.302) Because there's something with thumbs, they only do five. isn't this, this is two or something in German. Daniel (49:08.125) That's what it's interesting. It's because when a row reaches six cards or when you would play the sixth card, card number six in a row, you have to take all the row. So in German, it's basically saying, are you playing card six? Take the row six. Take it. Whereas in English it's saying take all five anyway, but it's the same game. This is again, a card game. deck of cards with I think the numbers two or one through 104. And you are, everyone picks a card out, lays it down in front of them, face down simultaneously. You all turn them up simultaneously. You put them in order in four rows on the table from lowest to highest. If at any point the card you're about to play triggers a row to have six or more cards, you have to take all of that row. as a penalty. You don't want points, you don't want cards. And at the end of the game, the person with the fewest points wins. It sounds really simple, but again, it's just a game that people, everybody seems to love. And I've just also played with many, many, many, many people, dozens and dozens of people this game. Six Nymph does a lot of fun and always seems to be hit. It can go up to 10 people. Kevin (50:12.322) Points bad. Daniel (50:37.817) And it plays, you know, one round plays in two minutes, but you can play the whole game in maybe 20 minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kevin (50:37.884) cool. Kevin (50:47.71) it love it number two people don't often think of as a party game but they're cowards and that's Twilight Imperium Daniel (50:55.108) hahahaha Kevin (50:59.958) It's not a party till someone is a space line. No, I'm kidding. Number two is tell us trations again. It's this available in Walmart and everywhere. What a great little game. Very simple and and you're getting a word and you're going to draw that we keep it secret. You're to draw that word and pass it down. Someone else is going to look at your drawing and try to guess what the word is and then they will pass it down. You're doing all this simultaneously till it comes back to you and you just see if. They were able to maintain the right word through all the drawings. And of course, the presumption is most people can't draw worth crap. And therefore, it becomes pretty hilarious. Or my kids just get real non-sequitur bizarre. And so they just come up with very strange things and just die laughing. And it's not even related to anything. Like the smell of paint with Cheerios. It just becomes a... Daniel (51:43.113) You Daniel (51:50.045) Yep, Yes. Like they'll list that as a category. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Kevin (51:55.286) weird moment of absurdity. It's like da-da-ism in a game. But if you really want to play it, yeah, you're trying to see if they can pass the phone or telephone game passing this and figure out. And you have to draw and there's a timer. So it's a great little game. My only complaint is things tend to break in it, like the plastic where the box goes in. And I wish there was a little sturdier. And even the little, I don't know, the pins run out. Like it's kind of a, but it's not an expensive game. Tele-strations. Daniel (52:10.845) Yeah. Daniel (52:22.407) No, that's true. That's true. That's a great one. Yes, I think for our set, I've had to order packs of new pins because yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. You have to clean them out. Yeah, it's a little fiddly in that area. That's the game you mentioned earlier that, yeah, as you said, with your family, we house rule this game a lot. Kevin (52:31.254) And you have to clean the boards, it's dry erase. Ahem. Kevin (52:41.036) But yours is more of a real rule. Ours are just my kids being jerks. But there's funny and I'm proud of my little jerks. But anyway, it's just being stupid. But you have a real rule, which is no category, right? You just. Daniel (52:44.144) Yeah Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. Well, or yeah, or you make up your own category, you get it from a card, or you have to draw it with your non-dominant hand, or you have to draw it blindfolded, or something like that. Kevin (53:03.298) think I was playing with your family that one time and the word was capitalism. I'm like, what? I just took off all my clothes and ran down the street screaming and it's Missouri, so was like negative 5 million degrees. It was so worth it. I felt so much better when I got in the cold. I'm like, how could you draw capitalism? It's a concept. Daniel (53:08.297) You Daniel (53:11.931) Hahaha Daniel (53:17.917) I remember that. That was awful. You felt so good. Good, good. Daniel (53:29.149) Yeah, yeah, abstract concepts is a favorite category in our family. That's right. That's, yeah. Yeah. On we. Kevin (53:31.65) It's so... Yeah, Elijah drawn Wall Street or something like, wow, that's really good. I see the bull and everything. Yeah, number two, telestration. What about you? Daniel (53:42.301) Yeah, that's great. My number two is a dice game called Strike. And I think you have to say it goes an exclamation point. I think it was an exclamation point after six nymphed too. Strike. This game is kind of loved and hated, but I really like it. It's basically... Kevin (53:59.265) Bye! Daniel (54:08.808) You have dice and there's like this the box is part of the box is the board game It has like a little arena plastic arena built into the into the box with a foam mat at the bottom You have to throw your dice into the arena If you ever get duplicates, then you get to claim all those duplicates and they add add add to the dice in your hand You throw your dice one at a time However, if there are no duplicates then you've lost that dice, but you can decide to go again. So you can push your luck or not. The person with the last with any dice remaining is the winner at the end of the game. So eventually you're going to be losing. And what's great is if it ever gets to you and the stadium is empty, if there's no dice left, when it gets to be your turn, then the rule is you have to throw in all of your dice at once. And there's a high probability that you're going to lose a lot of dice when you do that. So yeah, it's it's a Kevin (54:41.909) Mmm. Kevin (55:00.78) that sounds fun. Kevin (55:06.062) That's your shoot the moon option. That's Love it. I don't know that one. Daniel (55:07.976) Strike is a lot of fun. people, just always seem to love it. So, Strike's my number two. Kevin (55:17.61) Number one, this is a high cost, high reward game. It's a pricey game and it takes a bit of planning because whoever is running it is going to need to know how many people are coming because they're going to have to select roles. But this is a game that is just it's just the best and you will never get tired of it. And it's a game where you get to almost play a role. It's assigned to you and you get to lie and you manipulate and watch and there's a game master Watching it unfold and trying to keep the game going as long as possible Because that is the most fun where it's it's a nail biter of what's gonna happen And that is of course blood on the clock tower. It's it's a longer game You're looking at an hour and a half probably and some people that have never done something like it will be very baffled the first time they're playing it Daniel (56:02.472) you Kevin (56:12.258) And it's real easy to mess up because there are some specific rules and somebody may say something they're not supposed to or the Dungeon Master can mess up because everyone has everyone has a superpower and they trigger and it's easy to mess to kind of. You're going to make some mistakes if you've ever run it, and it's not as much fun for the Dungeon Master Game Master person. It's more fun to play it, but but yeah, blow in the clock towers. Oh, there's no other game like it. It. You've got to play it before you pass off this mortal coil. Such a good game. Daniel (56:46.864) love hearing you talk about it. Let's please play it sometime. You love it so much. It just sounds, makes me want to play it. Kevin (56:50.818) It's so good. You'll love it. You'll love it. It's just great. There's no way you don't. It's just got everything. It's just everything. And you know it's good because whenever you play it, for 20 minutes afterwards, when people are getting up and getting snacks, they're still talking about it. They will still be like, I can't believe that they're just still analyzing it. it's just because there's so many great curves and twists to this. Daniel (56:56.84) It sounds great. Daniel (57:06.342) Yeah, yeah. Daniel (57:11.218) Yeah, yeah. Kevin (57:15.414) very silly game of basically there's a good team and a bad team, but the bad team, anyone can lie. It's the bad team is going to lie and they're trying to mess with each other's powers. And even on the good team, you might want to lie to prevent something bad from happening. yeah. and every night you go to sleep is based on that old mafia game that we used to play. And, and so you put your heads down and then there's one major bad guy, the demon, and they can kill one person every night. there's a built in timer. Daniel (57:35.461) Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kevin (57:45.366) you know, eventually they're going to kill everyone and then there's some minions that are helping the demon and yeah, it's just nutty. And one of the characters is the virgin and if they ever, so, cause the good people can pick one person to be assassinated, but then they have to vote on them, which is genius. So we're like, we think Daniel is the demon. We go around and vote and Daniel may be the demon. We don't know. And Daniel gives why and everything. And the vote may fail. Daniel (57:52.232) Wow. Daniel (58:01.608) Okay, okay. Kevin (58:11.798) But there's one role that's the virgin and if we ever execute the virgin, we lose immediately. So your first play would be to claim that you're the virgin. Right. And then we have a dilemma unless you forgot that the virgins already in play. Now there's two virgins. So one of you is lying. Right. And it just becomes this like, it's like a soap opera. It's so good. So good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's an assassin guy. They can kill one person immediately. No questions asked. It's just crazy powers. Daniel (58:16.176) Wow. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Daniel (58:28.114) Wow. Daniel (58:32.732) That sounds great. I would love to play this with you sometime if you don't mind it. Yeah. Kevin (58:43.602) And we've only ever played the first scenario. There's two more with more characters. They even get more complicated. Yeah, they spent years, years and years developing and testing these characters. Yeah, it's great. It's great. Daniel (58:46.758) Really? Daniel (58:55.666) Hmm. It sounds like they're what I mean, a whole slew of characters that you could choose from. It sounds like really can get assigned. Kevin (59:03.276) Yeah, in the very base game there's and you won't have everyone in play, but yeah, there's plenty to mess with even in the base game, but it is a good $150 game. It's a pricey game, but what you're paying for is they've designed it where the box clips together. So you hold that and the game master is taking the tokens of who you are and putting it in a seating chart so they can remember and there are these nice tokens with felt so they'll stick on the felted interior of the box. Daniel (59:09.48) That's great. That's great. Daniel (59:26.896) Okay, okay. Daniel (59:32.864) wow, that's so nice. Kevin (59:33.684) And so it's really designed quite well. So what you're paying for is a very nice setup because the Game Master, otherwise you would forget that Daniel is the Slayer or the Virgin, especially because there's some powers that come in where you're drunk and you think you're one character, but you're wrong. But your powers keep, you think they're working, but they're not. And so it gets really, really out there. Daniel (59:43.975) Right, right. Daniel (59:50.307) Okay, okay. Daniel (59:58.249) I want to try that. I'm going to try that. Good choice. Good choice. Thank you. Thank you. Well, my number one is also very pricey. And this is going to be an odd choice. It's very much kind of a one trick pony, this game, but I have lot of fond memories of it. Kevin (59:59.68) Yeah, yeah, we'll have to play it sometime. Yeah. Blood of the Kroc Tower. Daniel (01:00:24.36) grew up with this game at my house and have introduced it to others since then and that is the English traditional pub game known as Skittles. Skittles is a wooden game. It's made of wood. Again, this is not a board game necessarily. It's a tabletop game. It is pricey. have to buy a set. But it's basically a picture, a wooden box that's maybe three or four feet long by maybe two feet wide or something. Yeah, maybe two by four, two foot by four foot, maybe something like that. And inside of it, it's almost like a hamster house. Like inside of it, it's divided up into all sorts of different rooms. And there are doorways from each room. And in the very beginning room, there is a hole by which you can insert a top, a wooden top. You wrap your string around the top. You pull the string back super fast. This top starts to spin and move and hop around. And in all of the rooms, there are little miniature bowling pins. And the further the bowling pin is, the room is, the bowling pin is in from the starting room where the top is, the higher the points. And so you're trying to, you're just hoping it's all luck, but you're just hoping that your top will go from room to room and make its way through this kind of little tiny wooden house to a back room where it can knock down the 100 point bowling pin. And it's, know it sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? But because it's just a top, it's just a top that's just spinning and the top is flat on the bottom. Kevin (01:02:00.598) Really? Kevin (01:02:05.698) feel like you're making this up. This is a real thing. And what makes it move because you see the string makes it. What did you say makes it move? How do you get it to spin? Do you twist it yourself? Daniel (01:02:20.399) Yeah, it's hard to describe. It's basically the top looks like a T, like the letter T, but it's all round. in the room, no, you put string around it. Yeah, and in the first room, there's a hole in the side of the box where the string can go through and you kind of slide it through a slot down to the hole. It's hard to describe. Kevin (01:02:31.554) So you flick it. It is the string, okay. Daniel (01:02:46.385) But basically, it's a way that allows you to pull the string really fast outside the box that gets your top spinning inside the box. And it jumps around and it dances from room to room to room. And it's loud and raucous. And any number of people can play it because anybody can just wind up atop and then get in line to play the next thing. It's total luck. Your top will be spinning for maybe a minute and then it'll wipe out. Kevin (01:03:13.28) Really? Daniel (01:03:13.561) And everybody's around the table like, no, it's going to knock down the pin. no, it's not going to pack down because the top is like, like, it has almost like a lot might have its own. Yeah, yeah. And the top will go back and forth. It's just a great, it's a great, it's a one trick pony. it's maybe three inches tall or so, true three inches tall. Yeah, so yeah, yeah. And. Kevin (01:03:21.728) It's like a slot machine. It's really all luck. You just press a button and you're just watching. How big is the top? Kevin (01:03:35.188) Okay, so it's pretty big. 15 centimeters. Daniel (01:03:42.416) Again, it's not cheap. I think you can find some places online to buy it. think Berea College in Kentucky makes some. But again, it's a one trick pony. In about 20 minutes, you're going to get bored of it. But it's a really fun game for those 20 minutes and everybody has a great time. Sorry. Actually, we own two. Yes. Kevin (01:03:49.792) Okay. Kevin (01:03:54.038) That is awesome. Kevin (01:04:01.25) So you own it. Do you own one? Do you own one? Daniel (01:04:09.84) My dad made one from a kit and he loved it so much that he bought another one to give to us. And then when my parents passed away, we inherited theirs. So I've got two Skittleboard sets. Yeah. Yeah. Kevin (01:04:13.378) wow. Kevin (01:04:18.402) Aww. Kevin (01:04:22.71) That is crazy. never I've seen the pub games. It's usually the little ring on a string that you try to flick to get on a hook, but I've never seen skittles. That is awesome. Daniel (01:04:30.47) Yeah, yeah, yep, yep. Yeah, yeah, if you wanna look up English pub game Skittles, you get a little sense for it. Kevin (01:04:37.728) And I guess if you can't thread the string on the top or through the slot, you know you have to stop drinking. Like that's the genius of the game is you know if you're too drunk to spin a top, you need to have a cup of coffee. That's when you pay on the table. Yes, yes. That's great. Skittles. That's a surprise one. Huh. Daniel (01:04:45.884) I guess that's right, it's time to go home. That's right. That's when you try to pin the tail on the donkey. That's right. That's right. That's right. You move on. You move on to then. Yeah. Daniel (01:05:01.315) Well, it either that or televistrations and everyone who's listened to podcast has me praise televistrations forever. So I thought I'd do something different. So there you go. Listeners, there are, those are 13, 14 different party games. We hope you heard something in there that you liked, but what did we miss? What other party games do you like? Please let us know. You can leave a comment below or can email us as well. Kevin, do you want to share any of that or I can. Kevin (01:05:10.508) That's awesome. That's crazy. Skittles Pop Game. Kevin (01:05:36.406) Yeah, we're at info game info at place saves the world.org. Daniel (01:05:42.428) dot com dot org dot org. was getting it. Dot dot org dot org info place has the world dot org. You're right. You're right. Kevin (01:05:46.05) Dot your mom. I don't know. We've been around for a bit. We've tried different ones, so it's this. Yeah, we get a little confused. It sometimes info at playsavestheworld.org. Yes, contact us or holler at us at Instagram's or somewhere else like that or YouTube and we'd love to hear your thoughts or make a comment below in YouTube and yeah. Daniel (01:05:53.308) Yeah. Daniel (01:06:12.466) Great. Thanks so much for spending time with us listeners and viewers. really appreciate it. We hope you have a fantastic day. And Kevin, thank you. It's always a joy to hang out with you. Kevin (01:06:22.934) Mayor Seabrook, yes sir. Same here. Okay, all the best. Bye bye.