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 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.
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 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!
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)
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.
