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The other day, we had a stressed out guy drop by the store. He said he is very used to playing all kinds of strategy games, but he was looking for a game suited for his parents who are both over 70 and his daughter who is 12. They were going to stay two days on a mountain.
He said the elderly don't play games at all so it must be something they can get behind, and his daughter doesn't know any games apart from party games like Just One. But no questionnaire games.
The first thing I think of is Tiger & Dragon, which imo is probably one of the best games that you can play repeatedly over and over again without getting tired of it. A partnership game, too, making it more fun for the four of them. He did not at all like my explanation for it. Then I recommended Akropolis, and he said the box is too big he needs something small that fit in the bag. Followed by telling me that he heard 6 Nimmit! would be a good game to bring.
I told him 6 Nimmit! is a fine game that is still around because it's good, but I think it's starting to show its age and I personally feel there are smoother modern games to choose from.
I went through a bunch more games (all which I think would serve them great, none of which were interesting to him) and in the end he bought Love Letter and A Fake Artist Goes to New York.
Don't get me wrong though, those two games are great for what they are, But…
This got me thinking.
A lot of people new to the hobby come asking for recommendations, and I basically use a recommendation formula I came up with that let me sell sooooo many Splendor lol, but it's all about gateway games. Therein the problem.
There is a ton of people who have only really played Monopoly and Risk, hated it, and now only play card or dice games.
Nothing wrong with that, but after you've sold like 3000 copies of Sequence, Mexican Train, Yahtzee and Dot Card, you start to wonder, maybe there is a real game out there you could sell them…
Granted, that game is usually Skyjo (and to some extent, Flip 7). But I wanted to put together a list of mechanically distinct games that could all fit these buyers,
Here is the current list (WIP):
Tier 1: Super simple mechanically but still a decent chunk of fun.
- - Skyjo (tableu management)
- - Kluster (Dexterity)
- - Ohanami (Drafting)
- - Just One (Party/Social)
- - No Thanks! (Bidding)
- - Coloretto (set collection)
- - Qwixx (Roll & Write)
- - 6 Nimmt! (card prediction)
- - Flip 7 (push your luck)
- - Skull (bluffing)
Tier 2: still easy, but with extra salt
- - Love Letter (Card Battle)
- - Scout (Shedding)
- - Startups (Markets)
- - Cabo / Rat-a-Tat Cat (Memory)
- - Hanabi (cooperative info puzzle)
- - Bohnanza! (negotiation)
- - For Sale! (Auction)
- - Sea of Strife (Trick Taking)
- - That's Pretty Clever (dice combos)
But as I was writing this list, I realized, there are some distinctive mechanics missing. These would be deck building, hand building, flick dexterity, tile placement, line battler, engine building, worker placement, and area control.