Family Games

Dobble is a modern-day classic game of observation. Each card in the tin is unique and has 8 symbols on it.à However one of these, but only one, symbols is shared with each of other cards.  You have to be the first to spot that shared symbol .  It should be easy but it's not.

Suitable for 6 years+  (younger children might stuggle with some of the symbols so try Kids Dobble which has fewer but more recognisable symbols)

 

 

 

 

Sleeping Queens is a card game in which the first player to wake up four of the 12 queens is the winner.  So you lay out the 12 queens face down (sleeping) on the table and deal five cards to each player. The stack of remaining cards is placed (face down) in the centre of the table.  When it's your turn, you must play one of your cards.

Playing a king means that you get to wake up a queen; a knight enables you to steal one of your opponents' queens unless they hold a dragon card which counteracts a knight; a sleeping potion card is used to send an opponent's queen back to sleep unless they can negate that with a magic wand card; jokers allow you to pick up another card from the pile number cards can be discarded singly or in multiples. At the end of your turn you pick up fresh cards so that you always have five cards in your card and of course you hope to pick the useful cards that will enable you to win more queens.  Sounds complicated but it's not really.  Each game takes about 20 minutes.

2 - 5 players

Age suitability: 8+  (although the game was invented by a six year old and many children below 8 will be able to enjoy the game)

 

 

Rat-a-Tat-Cat is a quick and fun card game that should not trouble most people intellectually even though it has been endorsed by Mensa. A good memory helps though.

The aim is to assemble a hand of four cards that, when revealed, add up to the lowest possible number.  Cat cards are low number cards and so are good whereas rat cards have high numbers and should be discarded.  The problem is that you are only allowed to look at two of your cards and then only at the start of each game.

At each turn, you have a choice.  You can take the discard card and swap it with one of your cards.  Of course you know at the start the value of two of your cards but not of the other two cards, so it's a risk that you might be discarding a low value card.  You can take the unknown card off the top of the park and, having seen it, decide whether to keep it or put it back in the discard pile face up. Alternatively you may draw a 'power card' which could enable you to have a peek at one of your cards or swap one of yours, sight unseen, with one of your opponents.

When someone thinks they have assembled a winning hand, they call out rat-a-tat-cat and everybody has to add up the value of their cards to determine who has won that round.

Tha game takes about 20 minutes.

2-6 players

Age suitability: 6 +

Dobble is a modern-day classic game of observation. Each card in the tin is unique and has 8 symbols on it.à However one of these, but only one, symbols is shared with each of other cards.  You have to be the first to spot that shared symbol .  It should be easy but it's not.

Suitable for 6 years+  (younger children might stuggle with some of the symbols so try Kids Dobble which has fewer but more recognisable symbols)

Jungle Speed is a fast and furious, somewhat chaotic, game of observation and then of lightning reflexes, so that rules me out.

It is a matching game, a bit like snap, but, instead of calling out snap when two cards match, you have to be the first to grab the Totem (the yellow rubber cylinder thing) that sits in the middle of the table.

The cards are divided equally amongst the players (the more, the merrier).  On each card is a symbol in a variety of colours.  Some symbols are quite different, others are deceptively alike. Players place their cards in a pile face down in front of them.  One by one, each player flips over the top card and, as they accumulate, gradually makes a discard pile in front of him.  When one player flips over a card whose symbol matches the shape of the symbol on the top card of another player's discard pile, both players make a lunge for the Totem.  The winner then smugly hands over his discard cards to the loser who puts both these and his own discard cards face down under his cards.  Grabbing the Totem mistakenly results in you getting everybody's discard cards. The winner of the game is the first to get rid of all their cards.  Each game takes about 20 minutes.

To complicate the game further, there are several special cards.  One of these special cards for example changes the rules so that you have to match the colour of symbols rather than the shape. A different special card requires every player to lunge simultaneously for the Totem.  A third one requires everybody to flip over a card at he same time on the count of three.

2 - 8 players

Age suitability: 6 +

Here's an excellent Youtube video from Skip the Rules (NB the Totem has since been changed from wood to rubber):