What we‘re looking for:
- Easy to learn, hard to master
- small footprint
- It has to be great with both 2 or more players (up to 5)
- exciting (push your luck or take that or similar mechanisms, maybe bluffing? A coop small engine builder tycoon game heavier than Bohnanza maybe?)
What we already have and like, but are bad with 2p
- The Crew: Awesome, but sucks at 2p
- For Sale
- High Society
What we didn‘t enjoy:
- Sushi Go Party
- Cascadia (also too big)
- King if Toyko (awesome but a bit too big, we‘d prefer a game without dice)
- Love Letter
- Coup
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Have you tried Skull? You can get the official set or play with coasters. Bluffing and push your luck. I think you’d like it!
Strongly agree, Skull is super simple to teach and even to make a copy, and can have great group dynamics. I don’t think it works with 2, though, but it’s small enough that having it as an option is reasonable
Oh, I forgot about that, thank you!
These are all great fun with 2-5, and may fit your requirements:
Port Royal
Century: Spice Road
Camel Up
Incan Gold (AKA Diamant)
Have you tried Regicide? I love it because the footprint is literally a poker set and your smartphone. It’s also kinda hard, and really gripping by the end.
I disn‘t think of this one! I should finally check it out at BGA.
Three Cheers For Master. Struggles a little with the small footprint aspect, board states can get pretty large, but it is small and portable, quick to play, and a LOT of fun.
I often refer to it as the good version of Munchkin, in that its very funny, and features a lot of direct attack mechanics. The key difference is that every attack relies on exploiting a weakness in the opponent’s board state. Instead of just feeling like you got fucked, you’re always left thinking “Shit, I should have seen that coming. I’ll do better next time.”
Also, the card art and flavour text are some of the best I’ve ever seen.
You might want to look at some laminated games with erasable pens. We really like Welcome To, and recently discovered Aquamarine as a 4 dollar game.
5 minute dungeon is a quicktime game that is coop, but was hard to get in Europe.
Picomino (regenwormen in Dutch) is a dice push your luck game that has a small footprint. I know you said no dice but still wanted to give the tip :p
Lastly you have walletgames such as Sprawlopolis (coop) which might be worth looking at, they are meant to be small.
Roll & Writes: We didn‘t enjoy Cartographer, it didn‘t feel exciting for us. Ganz schoen clever was another suggestion, but we‘d prefer no dice.
5 Minute Dungeon is awesome, but I played it so many times with my kids that I can‘t stand it anymore. But great suggestion! I‘ll have a look into your other suggestions.
- Hanabi co-op deduction, the deluxe edition that uses blocks rather than cards might work even better in a pub.
- Point Salad simple but fun drafting game that works well at all player counts (2-6)
- Coloretto or Port Royal for the push-your-luck. Zombie Dice and Martian Dice are fun too if you want a light option with lots of dice chucking
- Fantasy Realms rummy-like hand-crafting but with much more interesting scoring possibilities
- Liar’s Dice or Spicy for bluffing
- Super Mega Lucky Box bingo but good!
Have you tried Fluxx? Not sure it’s a game you can ‘Master’, but it does have some fun moments, and moments when you know a decision you make can totally change the game.
Never played the original but Star Fluxx is FANTASTIC. It’s been my groups go to bar game for a while
Coloretto is one of my favorite simple games, and has a good 2-player variant
On the lighter side i would suggest king of the dice as a yahtzee+ game, or port royal. A little mire involved and a great game is rajas of the ganges - the dice charmers (roll & write with good decisions)
