Today I was teaching a bunch of 4th and 5th graders how to play Yahtzee. I used to play with my grandfather every night. You don’t have to pay that much attention so talking is possible. When one of the kids got a Yahtzee, there was great excitement!
We also like Uno and Uno Attack.
Seconding Scattegories, Bananagrams, Yahtzee, and Uno, and throwing Pictionary into the perennial favorites pile. If you have an old version of Trivial Pursuit in the back of a closet that can be fun.
We found 7 Wonders had a bit too steep of a learning curve unless you have an experienced player playing. We love Ticket to Ride (European version), but again you want at least one player who isn’t on their first time.
“Mexican Train” dominos works well for a variable # of people and is easy to pick up.
Yaniv is a fast-paced card game for a variable # of players (rules easily found online- there is also a free app on which you can play solo / against the internet / with a group of friends-family, which is a good way to learn or practice)>
Cover Your Assets is fun and hasn’t been mentioned.
If you like arguing absurd points, we like Superfight. You basically build ridiculous “fighters” by picking a character and attributes and then argue who would win in a fight. I once argued for Barney who could fly and shoot acid from his eyes 
They have expansion packs for sci-fi, history, 80s, superhero, fantasy and many more, so you can customize it to your family.
https://www.amazon.com/Superfight-SKY-432-500-Card-Core/dp/B00E5QL2AC
We just learned how to play Dicecapades, which was pretty fun and a good not-at-a-table game. Also fans of Carcassone, Sushi Go Party, Azul, The Last Word and don’t leave out plain old card games like crazy eights. Machi Koru is also simple and fairly fast.
Any card game other than solitaire.
I think when picking board games you have to know your audience. All board games are not created equal!
Do you want something light and interactive like a Pictionary game?
Do you want a team approach?
Do you want strategy and competition?
Deep and thought provoking or is light and laugh producing more your style?
What do you think @Hoggirl ???
We love Telestrations. Everyone gets a little white board and everyone has to draw a picture of the same word and pass around guessing what it is. It’s absolutely hysterical especially if there are some people who are not that great at drawing. It’s a huge hit, always with people of various ages. Highly recommend!
I would absolutely detest any game that involved drawing. I’m way too artistically challenged and drawing games only emphasize that.
I also detest pure luck games like Exploding Kittens. To me, once someone is past Candyland, games should have some strategy involved. For me a mix of strategy and luck is best so pretty much anyone has a chance to win, but using some skill vs a lottery.
Know your audience.
The original 7 Wonders might be too difficult to learn as a PP pointed out. 7 Wonders Architects is also super fun and easier - plus, I think, a little quicker of a game.
If you have a game store near you, the owner is likely to be super helpful with advice and you can possibly test a game first to see what you think. Our local one is awesome. We’ve gotten a fair number of good leads from him. The others come from our kids (20+ old “kids”). It costs us more, but we always buy from local stores (ours or one of our kid’s) to support their expertise and willingness to help.
I’ve played superfight and enjoyed it, but personally recommed FunEmployed for a game of that nature. In FunEmployed, one person is the hiring manager and the others are each given 3 cards with attributes (different for each person) such as has hiccups; is a convicted felon; can disappear and then each person has to convince the hiring manager why they would be the best applicant for the job (dentist, taxi driver, ballerina, butler, etc) using those attributes. It can get very funny and creative. Warning: there are a handful of attributes that might not be great for younger kids or people with whom you aren’t super comfortable. Might be good to pre-screen the cards to remove them, if that’s your situation. I wouldn’t let that deter you from this game, though. It’s my favorite among that genre.
Just making a general comment that I love games, but couldn’t understand Sushi Go, even though it came recommended. I see it recommended here a couple of times. I would truly appreciate a post about how it works and why you recommend it. I just drew a blank with that one.
Another option: a fun jigsaw puzzle that everyone could enjoy. For this type of gathering, we like puzzles that have many discrete parts – like one with tons of book titles, or different types of animals, so that everyone can work on “their part” without everyone stepping on each other’s toes (or getting stuck doing tons of sky, for instance. (Can you guys tell we do a lot of jigsaw puzzles?!?)
It’s easy to talk while doing a puzzle, but also gives some structure to the evening.
Sushi Go Party is the only version I’ve played and I’ve heard it’s far better than Sushi Go.
There are 8 types of cards one can collect. 7 of the 8 are selected for the game by players’ favorites or random. Each card is worth points. You all start with a hand of 7 cards for 5 players. The starting number changes based upon numbers of players.
Each player picks what they think is the most valuable card for them, then passes their hand to the next player. This happens 7 times until all cards are picked (last one is a given). Then one counts points. Three rounds. The person with the most points at the end wins.
Pending which cards are chosen to use, points can be subtracted or just added. Strategy involves picking the best for yourself while also making sure your competitors don’t get better for themselves (different people opt for different options). Luck is which cards are in your hand, esp for the first and second picks.
https://www.amazon.com/Sushi-Go-Party-Card-Game/dp/B01CETNKE2
DH doesn’t doesn’t like to play games and prefers conversation. I, on the other hand, like both. I recently played Who In the Room? and knew that it was a game that my husband would be willing to play. It is non-competitive and a conversation starter where you learn new things about people. It is easy to skip over questions of questionable taste for those playing.
Another card game that I like is The Game, which can be played with 1-5 players. It is a cooperative game where you all work together to beat The Game.
Thank you!!
The fun thing about Drawful is that being able to draw really does not end up being an advantage. First no one can draw on their cellphone, and second the prompts are so ridiculous it all ends up being hilarious. I’m by far the best artist in my family, but I lose regularly to my more clever kids and nephew.
Sushi Go Party and Sushi Go are different. You can count cards in Sushi Go, but in Sushi Go Party you never know how many cards are hidden. Some of the added cards are also a lot of fun.
I still detest all drawing games and would sit it out rather than playing. It’s definitely important to know your audience.
Thanks for the info on Sushi Go vs Sushi Go Party. All I knew before was my son said the party version is the one to get. It’s the only one I’ve played.
A game like Loaded Questions or The Game of Things works well with all ages (we play with a group from 20 to 70-something). Loaded Questions, despite the title, is a “clean” game and The Game of Things can be clean or naughty, depending on who’s playing it. Both games are fun and easy and a good way to get to know things about others that you might not have known before.
We love Unstable Unicorns at our house with a 45 year spread in ages. There is strategy involved, not pure luck. There is no drawing involved. We played it every night for a week over Thanksgiving.
The JackBox games can be fun, but get a little boring after a while.
I’ve had Pandemic for a few years. Any time we played, we lost and the world was overtaken by the virus. It’s been sitting in the closet mocking me for the past 22 months. I would not recommend it in covid times.