What’s the best family game for teens?

[DoverWight]

We’re just us this Christmas so I am
look for a fun game for ages 13-19 to join in with. What are your recommendations? Thanks

How many of you are there? How long do you want the game to last
Herd Mentality is fun, fast paced and quick but can be played repeatedly. It’s a also a very simple concept so is picked up in seconds
Catan and Ticket to Ride are both good but it does require everyone to understand the rules and to engage with it

For how many people? Plus old folk or parents and teens?
And are you looking for fast card games, or longer strategy board games? If the latter do you want collaborative or do you want to win?

Some excellent games:
Catan (lots of versions plus extensions, all great)
Ticket to ride (easy board game)
Pandemic (harder but collaborative)
Wingspan and variations (beautiful)
Seven wonders

<possibly overinvested>

Herd mentality also great, codenames has a similar large group/social aspect.

5 people not elderly but didn’t want too rude as the youngest is only 13. I think shorter games rather than an epic one.

The board games I listed are maybe 1 to 1.5 hrs per game. Bit of strategy and keep everyone involved until the end. Not like older games when it's last person standing.

Fast games are more like codenames, herd mentality, exploding kittens, pickomino. All good.

The age thing is more older people, who ime can find faster games difficult. Cards against humanities is a very different thing

There’s a family version of cards against humanity which is less rude than the original, my teens love it.

Ransom Notes

shut the box is super short and really addictive - simple for anyone to understand.
carcassone is supposed to be excellent - weve just bought it and are playing it this weekend.
cluedo always goes down well in our house as well as Scotland Yard - Scotland Yard is particularly fun as one person has to try and allude everyone else who has to work together to catch them.

if you stuggle to get them together for a 'board' game i think netflix has a lot of the jackbox games on there. Jackbox on PS or XBox is absolutely hilarious. you use your phone as a controller and there are a few games in a pack. it can get really heated one minute and other moments you are screaming with laughter.

these are our traditons - hopefuly carcassone will be a new one we can incorporate.

other ideas that we do is we go to b and m (or a bargain store) and get stupid party games like pass the sprout, throw inflatable hoops over an inflatable antler set. we also sometimes buy cheap toilet rolls/wrapping paper and do a race to see which kid can wrap an adult completely in toilet roll/wrapping paper ... we tend to do this at halloween but weve done it at xmas too if theyve asked and called it xmas wrapping. (paper gets recycled into the animals bedding so no waste).

good luck and enjoy - love a family christmas.

For teens, I’d go with games that are easy for the whole family to understand but still offer enough variety to keep older kids interested. Free Fire can work well if everyone enjoys competitive multiplayer, especially when playing together rather than focusing only on ranked matches. If your teens like checking out upcoming game changes, I’ve also found it interesting to follow the testing side of Free Fire, where new characters, weapons, and modes are explored before release. Clicks Here!

For teens, I’d go with games that are easy for the whole family to understand but still offer enough variety to keep older kids interested. Free Fire can work well if everyone enjoys competitive multiplayer, especially when playing together rather than focusing only on ranked matches. If your teens like checking out upcoming game changes here https://theffbeta.com/, I’ve also found it interesting to follow the testing side of Free Fire, where new characters, weapons, and modes are explored before release.

Herd Mentality is a great game, but wouldn’t work very well with only 5 players. Ticket to Ride and Catan get very crowded with 5 players, Carcassone with a few extension is good for that number.

Herd mentality
Crack List
Telestrations
Sky Jo
Chameleon
13 Beavers

Knock out Whist. Just need a pack of cards.