I'm a digital nomad. I'd like something a bit more exciting than simple card or dice games, but space is at a bit of a premium. Any recommendations for games that have a lot of depth (and thus can be played over and over), are very quick to pick up the basics (so we can teach others), and are physically tiny (or can be)?
An iPad. Seriously, most board and card games either have or are in the process of getting an app nowadays. You can load that sucker up with hundreds of deep complex games with good A.I. and play them to your heart's content.
Also, a lot of games have a lot of empty space in their box. I've been able to fit 6 games in the space of a Targi box, for example (great 2 player game that's deep but small, btw). I think I managed to put Targi, Tides of Time, Lost Cities, a Smash Up expansion (playable at 2 players), and a couple others in there.
I'd also recommend a 6 Nimmmt! or a Rage deck (has 6 suits numbered 0-15, suitable for a lot of modern card games). There are a whole bunch of games you can play with those decks and they take up no space at all. Also 6 Nimmmt! is a blast with 6+ players, in my opinion.
Also I'm a game designer, and I find myself bringing out a Rage deck pretty often to prototype new ideas. It's very versatile. Just did it again for a new idea yesterday.
Some smaller footprint but deeper games I'd recommend are Arboretum, Akrotiri, Kahuna, Targi, Bohnanza, Noir: Killer vs Assassin, Tichu (can be played with standard playing cards and 4 marked up jokers, or with the aforementioned Rage deck.. super deep partner game), Biblios, Armadora, 12 Days, R-Eco, Condottiere, For Sale (playable with 6 Nimmmt! and some tokens), The Game (playable with 6 Nimmmt! deck).
Just chiming in to second the praise of Tichu: the rules just feel so well designed with their careful blend of systematic regularity (everything adding up to easy 100s, no asymmetry between the for colors) and convention (most new players already know the combinations from poker) that is balanced by just the right amount of occasional chaos (when too man hands align into "bombs") and arbitrary detail (the bird and the dog, two of those specially marked jokers) to spice things up. Everything seems to have a purpose, whereas the arbitrary elements of evolved rulesets of traditional card games often seem somewhat random to me.
This is really anecdotal, and I don't have a ton of experience with iPad versions of board games, but I've tried several on Android and it feels like all of them are just slightly rough around the edges. It's really hard to put my finger on it but something about them is just slightly unsatisfying to use. Maybe it's the performance or lack of snappy animations or sounds. Hearthstone is one that feels pretty good to play.
In my experience, this is one of the areas where iOS has a real advantage over Android -- the iOS games are frequently better polished and put together. (That's been true every time I've looked -- which I've done multiple times, but not constantly, so maybe things have/will shift; I dunno.)
If you like Splendor, I can't help but recommend Finca. It has a similar method of acquiring victory points, but the wheel mechanism for gaining $CURRENCY adds just a little more depth.
Side note: I'm processing BoardGameGeek.com data, and one of the goals I've set is around finding a game similar to these two. My best candidate at the moment is "Potion Explosion".
Looks good. I have a list of human recommendations that are contrasted to the analysis. Right now, human recommendations are winning by a landslide, and I suspect your entry will only help that.
I'm mostly in the same boat traveling a lot for work. On my last trip, me and several coworkers/co-travelers started playing a lot of chess together and are continuing to have a blast.
I've been wanting to try to get into it for a while and I finally just did it. Don't read a bunch of stuff and psych yourself out. Just play and realize you're going to lose. A lot. You're _supposed_ to lose since somebody has to and there is no luck. Just learn from your mistakes.
It is a perfect travel game, though. It has essentially infinite depth, very easy to learn the few rules, and there are countless sizes and prices. It also adapts exceptionally well to digital and asynchronous versions.
For example, our group has been sending moves back and forth with chess.com's site and app. It's like communicating without having to think of things to say. I feel like I know these people better just by playing against them.
EDIT: also, it's simple enough that you could easily create a makeshift set if you don't have one available.
EDIT2: I've also had some luck adapting some games to work with playing cards and other simple pieces. A lot of games come with little thematic goodies that aren't really necessary in order to play. You should still consider buying the game if you like it to support the creator, though.
Can't say I've played it. I plan to learn some one day, but I live in the US. A lot of people here at least know how to play chess. I think many have never even heard of Go.
Everything you can play on a chessboard[1]; you can buy cheap, lightweight plastic/rubber travel boards all around the world for about $1. Or you use a sheet of paper, draw your own board and play with crown corks. Or in sand with coconuts.
And you'll find people to play with even when you don't speak a common language; I have very fond memories of playing all of the staff of a bar in Copacabana, Bolivia, until sunrise (just knowing the little Spanish(es) I had picked up in the 6 months before) :)
Also, Dominoes, though a good set is rather on the heavy side.
it is a complex game with a very simple ruleset (i.e. one-operation per turn, every turn is the same)
There is an ipad version which is better than the physical one (easier to learn since it only allows legal moves, automatically keeps score, automatically shuffles) Plus no clean-up.
If you don't have internet and are alone, you can play against an AI and still have a good time. If you have internet you can play 1v1 with ranked matchmaking opponents and continue to get better.
If you want to play in a group, you can play a local game passing around the ipad. I've played this way with a group of people who had never played the game before, everyone finished knowing not only the gameplay rules but with inferred nuances about strategy.
In addition to many of the games listed here, also consider:
* Deep Sea Adventure — A tiny push-your-luck game that blends theme and mechanics perfectly, is easy to explain, and is a ton of fun without being too thinky. It also scales perfectly from 2 to 6 people. Expensive if you're just counting components, but the value of the game and the fun it brings makes it worthwhile.
* Celestia — Also push-your-luck style, but with a bit more production (and, oddly, cheaper than Deep Sea Adventure).
* Patchwork — A great little two-player game where you're making a quilt. That sounds silly, but it's like Tetris that's powering a small economical engine. Really fun.
* For Sale — Good for 3-6 players, a really simple little card game where you get properties in the first round and auction them off in the second. Plays in 15 minutes, fits in a small box. (I think they even make a travel version.)
* Santorini — the retail version is a big production, but if you get it, you could easily make a smaller version of it. Takes 30 seconds to learn and is hard to really master. Comes with a ton of God power cards that make a bunch of replayability.
* Smash Up — the base set comes with 8 factions. Each player takes two factions (of their choice, at random, etc.) and smashed them into a deck. You then compete against others to topple bases and score points. A lot of fun with the right crowd. I think they've released about 50 factions total so far, with 8 new ones released each year currently. All totally optional.
* Star Realms — great little two-player deck builder. It's space themed, if you want another theme, they have other versions that work similarly. It's just one deck of cards, plus expansions if you like it.
* Dixit — I love Dixit. I've never played it with anyone that didn't have fun. The box really spreads things out, and is mostly holding the scoring track, but you could replace that with something smaller easily. A deck of amazing art cards, a couple of voting tokens, and a way to keep score. Could fit into a sandwich bag if you create a smaller scoring system.
It's best played with a set of Icehouse pieces, which pack pretty small and can be used for a whole bunch of other games too. You don't need Icehouse pieces, though, you can also play Zendo with coins, matchsticks, etc.
Do you require your Lego structures to be fully connected? Seems like that limits the possibilities a bit, but it would mean you can safely pick them up and move them around, which is always fiddly in normal Zendo.
Makes sense. The one meta-rule I always emphasize when introducing people to Zendo is "make the rule really simple, it'll be much harder to guess than you expect."
As an alternative to the Dominion base game, you can also use the Dominion: Intrigue expansion as a standalone (or as a base for the other expansions). It provides a substantially different 'flavor', although the rules are the same.
A full collection of Dominion and all promos and expansions is thousands of cards plus special tiles and metal tokens, and even the base game alone is very cumbersome as a loose "stack of cards".
I have no idea how easy it is to pick up our "national" card game in Switzerland. It is called Jass and you can use a conventional card set and use 6 to Ass of each color.
Most common play form is the Schieber where you play a 2 vs 2.
To reduce the "luck component" I'd recommend dropping the melds and the factor for the different trump.
"No Merci" / "No Mercy" / "Gershanks" is a fantastic game that's little more than a deck of cards.
"Paperback" is about the size of a small speaker, and is sort of but not really Scrabble as a deck builder.
"Captain Sonar" is regular size and utterly fantastic, but for best experience you really want 8 players; every player down is noticeable. It's cooperative / competitive and real-time.
For physical games: Citadels, Hanabi, Love Letter (pick about any flavor), Star Realms, Sushi Go! or Sushi Go Party!, Jaipur, Werewords, One Night Ultimate Werewolf/Alien/Vampire
Digital games (mobile or computer): Ticket to Ride, Star Realms, Jaipur, Splendor (I'd recommend the physical game but it is a bit too much air in the box to buy physically for a nomad), Patchwork.
My wife and I really enjoy Pandemic and quite often play a quick game using the iPad version during meals.(The physical version is not particularly compact)
