5 Board Games for the Rainy Season
When you’re feeling lazy and you think that going out would take a lot of effort, especially now that it’s the start of the rainy season, wouldn’t you just want to stay home and play board games? There’s nothing more relaxing than an afternoon with friends or family bonding over a deck of cards and dices!
1. Codenames
This game is basically a friendship test with a pinoy henyo twist. You will be divided into two teams and you will be playing either as a spymaster or a spy agent for your team. The goal of the game is to beat the other team by identifying the codenames of the agents under your team first. You and your teammate/s should think alike to identify your agents who are using random codenames. However, you will have to guess the right words from your spymaster’s clues because you don’t know if the word you pick will either lead you to a co-agent or the assassin that will eventually end the game. Codenames is a simple game of wordplay and creativity. Sometimes, it can also test you and your partner’s telepathic skills that you’ll be surprised how uncanny you guys can think very much similarly!
2. Betrayal At House On The Hill
In this horror themed board game, mysteries will be solved, spirits will be awakened, and betrayals will be made. If your family or barkada are the type of people who thirst for suspense, then this game is perfect for you! This game is played in two phases. On the first phase of the game, players will explore and build their own version of a haunted house. Each of them will take turns until they triggered the haunt – which will be the start of phase 2. On this phase, the lucky traitor will be picked and the other players will have to work together to defeat the evil plans of the one who turned against them. Sounds fun, right? It gets more exciting when the traitor is granted the ability to convert the other players into a traitor like himself! The game is over when the good players or the traitor achieved their personal mission. Although this game can come as eerie and scary, it’s rather entertaining to play because you can witness your friend’s dramatic transformation as the leader of the dark side.
3. Forbidden Island
When you and your friends are not in the mood to fight each other, but instead you’d rather team up to play against the game itself, then choose Forbidden Island. Unlike the previous two, this is a cooperative game played by 4-6 members. The story is that you and your colleagues go out on a quest to hunt for treasures on a forbidden island. Now here’s the catch; not only that the island is alive, but the body of water surrounding it is slowly taking over the whole place. In order for you and your friends to win the game, you have to collect all the treasures and get out of the island before it sinks and swallows you into the depths of the ocean. Tip: you’re only way out is the helicopter; if you let that tile sink then it’s goodbye island and hello Atlantis for you.
4. Coup
If you’re the type of person who enjoys deception games like bluff, mafia or poker, then you’ll surely enjoy Coup. Here, you and your friends get to be a person of influence and power. Each character has a different ability, and as power-hungry millionaires, everyone’s goal is to kill each other in order to win the game. Your best weapon is not just the coins you’ll earn; the game will be at your advantage if you know how to put on a good poker face! In this game where bluffing comes in handy, sometimes telling the truth can also keep you alive. This game is too fun to be taken seriously! So while you’re at it, enjoy your time posing as a contessa, a captain, an ambassador, a duke or an assassin because you can only do that in Coup and get away with it.
5. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)
This is a great strategic game for friends and families who have good imagination. If you’ve watched Stranger Things then this game is not entirely new to you. In Dungeons and Dragons you have what they call a “party.” The party means you and your team. Then there’s also what they call a “campaign.” A campaign is the set of adventures that the party plays on. Unlike the board games mentioned above, D&D isn’t a game played in one sitting. Usually, it takes 4-5 hours to finish one adventure, and sometimes the players make a schedule to meet and continue the game. And that’s not even the whole campaign! What’s cool about this game is that everything that will happen in the course of your adventure depends on the Dungeon Master (DM). Because it’s a role playing, open-ended game, D&D will bring out the best of your imagination into play. However, your character’s strength, talents, skills and abilities lie on the fate of the dice. The higher the number, the more effective your character’s action will be. Monsters like the Demogorgon will keep on appearing as you get closer to your goal. You’ll also have to remind yourself of reality because this game could get you in too deep that you wouldn’t even notice the time. Yes, it’s that fun.
Conversations happen less and less now because with today’s technology, most people prefer interacting through their gadgets than in person. These board games bring back those conversations. You, your family members, and friends will have some real fun away from the internet through a simple get together like this. And with these games, you will be required to talk, argue, discuss and leave your devices out of it.
