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Best Party Game

2022
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Dice Tower Awards 2023 General Logo
In Ready Set Bet, you and your friends head to the races for a day of cheering, jeering, and betting on your favorite horses, whose fates hang on every roll of the dice.

Ready Set Bet is played over four rounds. Each round consists of a race followed by bet resolution. During each race, players freely place their bet tokens on the board while the race is going on. After each race, players win or lose money for each of their placed bet tokens, then receive a VIP Club Card to help them win more money in the following races. After four rounds, the player with the most money wins!

—description from the publisher

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Year Published: 2022
Designers: John D. Clair
Publishers: Alderac Entertainment Group
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Best Party Game Nominee 2022
Year Published: 2022
Designers: Steven Medway
Publishers: The Pandemonium Institute
Year Published: 2022
Designers: Maikel Cheney
Publishers: Funtails
Year Published: 2022
Designers: Nathan Thornton
Publishers: 25th Century Games
Year Published: 2022
Designers: Mary Flanagan
Publishers: Resonym
2021
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Best Party Game 2021
So Clover! is a cooperative word-association game. Play as a team to get the highest score. Get Keywords and secretly write their common features on your Clover board; these are your Clues. Then work together to try to figure out each player’s Keywords. At the end of the game, add up your score according to how many Keywords you found and write it in the Record of Legends. Try to beat your high score each game!

-description from the publisher

Year Published: 2021
Designers: François Romain
Publishers: Repos Production
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Best Party Game Nominees 2021
Year Published: 2021
Designers: Fridtjof Buvarp
Publishers: Chilifox Games
Year Published: 2021
Designers: Brian Leet
Publishers: R&R Games
Year Published: 2021
Designers: Phil Walker-Harding
Publishers: Big Potato
Year Published: 2021
Designers: Phil Walker-Harding
Publishers: Gamewright
2020
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Best Party Game 2014
What hue do you think of when we say “apple”? Hues and Cues is a vibrant game of colorful communication where players are challenged to make connections to colors with words. Using only one and two-word cues, players try to get others to guess a specific hue from the 480 colors on the game board. The closer the guesses are to the target, the more points you earn. Since everyone imagines colors differently, connecting colors and clues has never been this much fun!

Gather around with three to ten people to play a quick and simple game with a prism of possibilities! First, a “cue giver” hides a specific color they’ve chosen out of a deck of cards. There are 480 shades on the board in front of you! After getting one- and two-word cues, everyone places their marker on which color they think is being described. “Coffee.” Is it dark brown, as in freshly brewed? “Au lait.” With milk. That means I should pick a lighter shade!

Use examples from everyday life, from nature to pop culture, or materials and moods. Everyone around the table gets a turn to give cues and guess. The better your hints or guesses, the more points you earn. Play off others' experiences to narrow down what they have in mind!

—description from the publisher

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Year Published: 2020
Designers: Scott Brady
Publishers: The Op
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Year Published: 2020
Designers: Connor Reid
Publishers: Game Factory
Year Published: 2020
Designers: Kane Klenko
Publishers: The Op
Year Published: 2020
Designers: Gérald Cattiaux
Publishers: Le Scorpion Masqué
Year Published: 2020
Designers: Oleksandr Nevskiy
Publishers: Libellud
2019
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Wavelength is a social guessing game in which two teams compete to read each other's minds. Teams take turns rotating a dial to where they think a hidden bullseye is located on a spectrum. One of the players on your team — the Psychic — knows exactly where the bullseye is, and draws a card with a pair of binaries on it (such as: Job - Career, Rough - Smooth, Fantasy - Sci-Fi, Sad Song - Happy Song, etc). The Psychic must then provide a clue that is *conceptually* where the bullseye is located between those two binaries.

For example, if the card this round is HOT-COLD and the bullseye is slightly to the "cold" side of the centre, the Psychic needs to give a clue somewhere in that region. Perhaps "salad"?

After the Psychic gives their clue, their team discusses where they think the bullseye is located and turns the dial to that location on that spectrum. The closer to the center of the bullseye the team guess, the more points they score!

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Year Published: 2019
Designers: Alex Hague
Publishers: Palm Court
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Year Published: 2019
Designers: Nicolas Bourgoin
Publishers: Blue Orange (EU)
Year Published: 2019
Designers: Ondra Skoupý
Publishers: Czech Games Edition
Year Published: 2019
Designers: Danielle Deley
Publishers: Greater Than Games, LLC
Year Published: 2019
Designers: Alex Cutler
Publishers: Brain Games
Year Published: 2019
Designers: Alex Hague
Publishers: Palm Court
2018
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Just One is a cooperative party game in which you play together to discover as many mystery words as possible. Find the best clue to help your teammate. Be unique, as all identical clues will be cancelled!

A complete game is played over 13 cards. The goal is to get a score as close to 13 as possible. In case of a right answer, the players score 1 point. In case of wrong answer, they lose the current card as well as the top card of the deck. Thus losing 2 points. In case of lack of answer, the players only lose the current card, and therefore only 1 point.

You have the choice – make the difference!

Small Historical Point:

Originally, Just One was called We Are The Word and was published by Fun Consortium.

Repos Production bought the rights in early 2018 and adapted the game. The Sombrero-wearing Belgians decided to improve the quality of the components, add 50 new words, and change the name of the game. Following this new edition, the game went from having only a French edition to having a world-wide edition.

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Year Published: 2018
Designers: Ludovic Roudy
Publishers: Repos Production
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Year Published: 2018
Designers: Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance
Publishers: Le Scorpion Masqué
Year Published: 2018
Designers: Bernhard Lach
Publishers: KOSMOS
Year Published: 2018
Designers: Wolfgang Warsch
Publishers: Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag
Year Published: 2018
Designers: Jan Březina
Publishers: Czech Games Edition
2017
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Description from the publisher:

After being stripped of all their possessions, a mage, a warrior, an elf, and a dwarf are forced to go rob the local Magic Maze shopping mall for all the equipment necessary for their next adventure. They agree to map out the labyrinth in its entirety first, then find each individual’s favorite store, and then locate the exit. In order to evade the surveillance of the guards who eyed their arrival suspiciously, all four will pull off their heists simultaneously, then dash to the exit. That's the plan anyway…but can they pull it off?

Magic Maze is a real-time, cooperative game. Each player can control any hero in order to make that hero perform a very specific action, to which the other players do not have access: Move north, explore a new area, ride an escalator… All this requires rigorous cooperation between the players in order to succeed at moving the heroes prudently. However, you are allowed to communicate only for short periods during the game; the rest of the time, you must play without giving any visual or audio cues to each other. If all of the heroes succeed in leaving the shopping mall in the limited time allotted for the game, each having stolen a very specific item, then everyone wins together.

At the start of the game, you have only three minutes in which to take actions. Hourglass spaces you encounter along the way give you more time. If the sand timer ever completely runs out, all players lose the game: Your loitering has aroused suspicion, and the mall security guards nab you!

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Year Published: 2017
Designers: Kasper Lapp
Publishers: Sit Down!
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Year Published: 2017
Designers: Kasper Lapp
Publishers: Sit Down!
Year Published: 2017
Designers: Scott Frisco
Publishers: HABA
Year Published: 2017
Designers: Ted Alspach
Publishers: Bézier Games
Year Published: 2016
Designers: Inka Brand
Publishers: Brädspel.se
Year Published: 2017
Designers: Cédric Millet
Publishers: Matagot
2016
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At the bottom of the ocean, no one will hear you scream!

In Captain Sonar, you and your teammates control a state-of-the-art submarine and are trying to locate an enemy submarine in order to blow it out of the water before they can do the same to you. Every role is important, and the confrontation is merciless. Be organized and communicate because a captain is nothing without his crew: the Chief Mate, the Radio Operator, and the Engineer.

All the members of a team sit on one side of the table, and they each take a particular role on the submarine, with the division of labor for these roles being dependent on the number of players in the game: One player might be the captain, who is responsible for moving the submarine and announcing some details of this movement; another player is manning the sonar in order to listen to the opposing captain's orders and try to decipher where that sub might be in the water; a third player might be working in the munitions room to prepare torpedoes, mines and other devices that will allow for combat.

Captain Sonar can be played in two modes: turn-by-turn or simultaneous. In the latter set-up, all the members of a team take their actions simultaneously while trying to track what the opponents are doing, too. When a captain is ready to launch an attack, the action pauses for a moment to see whether a hit has been recorded — then play resumes with the target having snuck away while the attacker paused or with bits of metal now scattered across the ocean floor.

Multiple maps are included with varying levels of difficulty.

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Year Published: 2016
Designers: Roberto Fraga
Publishers: Matagot
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Year Published: 2016
Designers: Mike Boxleiter
Publishers: Goat Wolf & Cabbage
Year Published: 2016
Designers: Jay Cormier
Publishers: Hobby Japan
Year Published: 2016
Designers: Vlaada Chvátil
Publishers: Czech Games Edition
Year Published: 2016
Designers: Ken Gruhl
Publishers: North Star Games
2015
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Codenames is an easy party game to solve puzzles.
The game is divided into red and blue, each side has a team leader, the team leader's goal is to lead their team to the final victory.
At the beginning of the game, there will be 25 cards on the table with different words. Each card has a corresponding position, representing different colors.
Only the team leader can see the color of the card. The team leader should prompt according to the words, let his team members find out the cards of their corresponding colors, and find out all the cards of their own colors to win.

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Year Published: 2015
Designers: Vlaada Chvátil
Publishers: Czech Games Edition
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Year Published: 2013
Designers: Alan Gerding
Publishers: Tuesday Knight Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Tobey Ho
Publishers: Jolly Thinkers
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Philippe des Pallières
Publishers: Lui-même
Year Published: 2015
Designers: Oleksandr Nevskiy
Publishers: Libellud
2014
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Spyfall is a party game unlike any other, one in which you get to be a spy and try to understand what's going on around you. It's really simple!

Spyfall is played over several rounds, and at the start of each round all players receive cards showing the same location — a casino, a traveling circus, a pirate ship, or even a space station — except that one player receives a card that says "Spy" instead of the location. Players then start asking each other questions — "Why are you dressed so strangely?" or "When was the last time we got a payday?" or anything else you can come up with — trying to guess who among them is the spy. The spy doesn't know where he is, so he has to listen carefully. When it's his time to answer, he'd better create a good story!

At any time during a round, one player may accuse another of being a spy. If all other players agree with the accusation, the round ends and the accused player has to reveal his identity. If the spy is uncovered, all other players score points. However, the spy can himself end a round by announcing that he understands what the secret location is; if his guess is correct, only the spy scores points.

After a few rounds of guessing, suspicion and bluffing, the game ends and whoever has scored the most points is victorious!

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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Alexandr Ushan
Publishers: Hobby World
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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Sam Liberty
Publishers: Game Salute
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Brian Henk
Publishers: Overworld Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Sébastien Decad
Publishers: Brain Games
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Ludovic Maublanc
Publishers: Repos Production
Year Published: 2014
Designers: Alexandr Ushan
Publishers: Hobby World
2009
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Each player gets a cup with five poker dice and eight dollars. Each turn, a player will put together a poker hand and depending on the roll, take control of various key places in Dice Town that will allow him to perform the corresponding action of the location.

In a turn, all players shake their cup and take out all but one die, which is kept apart from the others. They repeat the process with the remaining dice until all five dice are on the table. Players may want to keep more than one die; they pay one dollar for each additional die.

Now the locations are checked...

Nines: In the gold mine, the player with the most 9's may take one nugget from the mine for each nine he has thrown.

Tens: In the bank, the player with the most 10's may rob the bank and take all bills there - each two bills represent one victory point at game end.

Jacks: The player who has the most J's goes to the general store and draws as many cards as he had thrown J's, keeping one. These cards may give from one to eight points, or entitle a player to perform the saloon or general store action twice in a row, place a die with a result of a player's choice under the cup without rolling, or steal 4 dollars from another player. There are many more cards of this kind that spice up the game.

Queens: The player with the most Q's in his roll wins the favor of the girls, and takes advantage of their charm to steal from an opponent. He may take as many cards from his opponent as he has thrown Q's, keeping one and giving back the others.

Kings: The player with the most K's becomes the new sheriff; he decides who wins in any ties, but the sheriff can be influenced with nuggets, cards, or money.

Aces/Poker hand: In the town hall, the player with the best poker hand gets a property claim worth from one to five victory points. Having aces in the best poker hand permits taking additional cards.

Finally, if a player did not win anything during a turn, he might visit Doc Badluck where he can choose any one of the following:
- equip oneself with barbed wire - the player has two property claims that cannot be stolen;
- draw the first card from the general store pile;
- all other players must give the player two dollars;
- an ace will bring a nugget from every other player.

The game ends when there are no more gold nuggets in the mine or when all property claims have been issued. Players count their points: 1 for each nugget, 1 for every two dollars, 5 for whomever is currently sheriff, and each general store and property card for its value.

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Year Published: 2009
Designers: Bruno Cathala
Publishers: Matagot
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Year Published: 2009
Designers: Chris Handy (I)
Publishers: Z-Man Games
Year Published: 2009
Designers: Jack Degnan
Publishers: Out of the Box Publishing
Year Published: 2009
Designers: Andrew Looney
Publishers: Looney Labs
Year Published: 2009
Designers: Walter Obert
Publishers: Heidelberger Spieleverlag
2010
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Wits & Wagers Family is the family version of the most award winning party game in history.
This edition is more simple, has less down time, and is more portable than the original Wits & Wagers. It also removes the "gambling" element and has questions that are appropriate for kids and the whole family. Most importantly, Wits & Wagers Family makes use of the beloved Meeple playing piece!

How to Play
1) A question is asked.
2) Everyone writes down a guess.
3) The guesses are placed face-up on the table and ordered smallest to largest.
4) Place your Meeples on the guess that you think is closest to the right answer.

Feeling confident? Place a Meeple on your guess.
Think your kids knows better? Place your Meeples on their guess.
Have no idea? Bet on any guess and hope you get lucky!

Scoring
You can score up to 4 points on each question:
1 point for correctly placing the Small Meeple
2 points for correctly placing the Large Meeple
1 point if your guess is closest

The first player to 15 points wins.

Contents
125 Question Cards (150 in first edition)
5 Dry Erase Boards
5 Dry Erase Pens
1 Permanent Answer Board (with a "1")
5 Large Meeples (worth 2 points)
5 Small Meeples (worth 1 point)
1 Dry Erase Score Board
1 Full-color Rules

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Year Published: 2010
Designers: Dominic Crapuchettes
Publishers: Egmont Polska
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Year Published: 2010
Designers: Gil Hova
Publishers: Z-Man Games
Year Published: 2009
Designers: Don Eskridge
Publishers: Indie Boards & Cards
Year Published: 2009
Designers: (Uncredited)
Publishers: Användbart Litet Företag
Year Published: 2010
Designers: Steve Jackson (I)
Publishers: Steve Jackson Games
2011
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Best Party Game Winner of 2011
Dixit Odyssey is both a standalone game and an expansion (Dixit: Odyssey (expansion)) for Jean-Louis Roubira's Dixit, which won Germany's Spiel des Jahres award in 2010.

Game play in Dixit Odyssey matches that of Dixit: Each turn one player is the storyteller. This player secretly chooses one card in his hand, then gives a word or sentence to describe this card—but not too obviously. Each other player chooses a card in hand that matches this word/sentence and gives it to the storyteller. The storyteller then lays out the cards, and all other players vote on which card belongs to the storyteller. If no one or everyone guesses the storyteller's card, the storyteller receives no points and all players receive two; otherwise the storyteller and the correct guesser(s) each receive three points. Players score one point for each vote their image receives. Players refill their hands, and the next player becomes the storyteller. When the deck runs out, the player with the most points wins.

Dixit Odyssey contains 84 new cards, each with a unique image drawn by Pierô and colored by Marie Cardouat, artist of Dixit and Dixit 2. The stand alone version also includes a folding game board, 6 new rabbit scoring tokens (12 total), and a box large enough to hold all the Dixit cards released to date. The stand alone version of Dixit Odyssey includes enough components for up to twelve players and also has variant rules for team play and for new ways to play with the cards.

Expansion versus standalone versions of the game.

Standalone version is in a square box (released in 2011 but may still be available).
Expansion version is in a rectangular box (available from 2013 onwards): Dixit: Odyssey (expansion)


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Year Published: 2011
Designers: Jean-Louis Roubira
Publishers: Libellud
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Best Party Game Nominee of 2011
Year Published: 2011
Designers: Brian Weinstock
Publishers: North Star Games
Year Published: 2011
Designers: Jay Cormier
Publishers: Tasty Minstrel Games
Year Published: 2011
Designers: Matthew Nuccio
Publishers: Out of the Box Publishing
Year Published: 2011
Designers: Scott Porter
Publishers: Eagle-Gryphon Games
Year Published: 2011
Designers: Brian Weinstock
Publishers: North Star Games
2012
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All of the eligible young men (and many of the not-so-young) seek to woo the princess of Tempest. Unfortunately, she has locked herself in the palace, and you must rely on others to take your romantic letters to her. Will yours reach her first?

Love Letter is a game of risk, deduction, and luck for 2–4 players. Your goal is to get your love letter into Princess Annette's hands while deflecting the letters from competing suitors. From a deck with only sixteen cards, each player starts with only one card in hand; one card is removed from play. On a turn, you draw one card, and play one card, trying to expose others and knock them from the game. Powerful cards lead to early gains, but make you a target. Rely on weaker cards for too long, however, and your letter may be tossed in the fire!

Number 4 in the Tempest: Shared World Game Series

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Year Published: 2012
Designers: Seiji Kanai
Publishers: Alderac Entertainment Group
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Best Party Game of 2012
Year Published: 2012
Designers: Dominic Crapuchettes
Publishers: North Star Games
Year Published: 2012
Designers: Rüdiger Dorn
Publishers: alea
Year Published: 2012
Designers: Stephen Glenn
Publishers: Asterion Press
Year Published: 2012
Designers: Rikki Tahta
Publishers: Indie Boards & Cards
Year Published: 2012
Designers: Dominic Crapuchettes
Publishers: North Star Games
2013
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Best Party Game of 2013
No moderator, no elimination, ten-minute games.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a fast game for 3-10 players in which everyone gets a role: One of the dastardly Werewolves, the tricky Troublemaker, the helpful Seer, or one of a dozen different characters, each with a special ability. In the course of a single morning, your village will decide who is a werewolf...because all it takes is lynching one werewolf to win!

Because One Night Ultimate Werewolf is so fast, fun, and engaging, you'll want to play it again and again, and no two games are ever the same.

This game can be combined with One Night Ultimate Werewolf Daybreak.

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Year Published: 2014
Designers: Ted Alspach
Publishers: Bézier Games
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Best Party Game Nominee of 2013
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Antoine Bauza
Publishers: Repos Production
Year Published: 2012
Designers: (Uncredited)
Publishers: Bizak
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Michael Palm
Publishers: dV Giochi
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Scott Nicholson
Publishers: Stronghold Games