I am wondering if anyone has suggestions that will fit my needs.
At work me and some work pals play a quick game or two of rummikub. This has been the reigning king of lunch for a while for a few reasons: it’s quick, easy to learn if someone wants to join in, suits varying amounts of players, there’s no scoring or need to write anything down, random enough that most people get a win every now and then, VERY quick set up, just grab tiles and go.
I like it but also like variety and am wondering if anyone has some suggestions that match some or all of these criteria. Just a quick replayable game that we can enjoy on our break and anyone can join in easily. I tried Azul but even that was a bit too much for most even though it’s the slightest bump up in terms of setup and scoring.
Thanks for any suggestions!
Edit: So many excellent suggestions to try, thanks everyone!
the card game “set”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(card_game)
Games I might class similar to rummikub are Upwords and Quiddler (although both are word forming games)
King Domino is a tile laying game that makes me think of Rummikub. The tiles use landscape regions to score that you select each round and try to lay out in a grid to form a “kingdom”. Each tile connects with other tiles to make regions that score for size.
I haven’t seen Skull mentioned yet.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/92415/skull
Plays well at a variety of player counts. Easy to teach. The game has a nice tension to it.
There is the problem of players being eliminated. Some people just really hate that. I’ve found that the game is short enough and interesting enough that it never feels bad to be eliminated, but your crew might not agree.
I’ve had a lot of success with Mantis. Very easy to learn and just watching a few turns is enough for someone to understand how to play. It’s cutthroat enough that keeps players engaged, and a good balance of skill and luck so that anyone can win. Rounds only last about 5-10 minutes depending on how fast turns are taken. The components is just a deck of cards, but does need some table space to spread different cards out so everyone can see
