Games: guaranteed atmosphere

It’s fun to rack your brains, but you can also have a lot of fun with games that are a little more festive and that first offer an atmosphere.

These games are played in groups, but let’s say that at the moment, they are played mostly with family.

These are fun pleasures that can be enjoyed on a rainy afternoon or after a hearty meal. In short, we play there to forget the ambient grayness.

We offer three games that will appeal to groups of friends (who are in red zones) or even family. Let go and have fun.

Master Word

• 3 to 6 players
• 12 years +
• 15 minutes

If you like Codenames or Decrypto, this game should please you since it is located at the same address. After all, who doesn’t like trying to find hidden words?

In Master Word, there is one player who is the guide and the others are the researchers. The guide knows the key word to discover, but cannot share it.

The card with the word to discover will give you a clue and then you will have 90 seconds to discuss the possibilities. Each player will write a word on a card with an erasable pencil and the guide will place as many tokens next to the cards as there are valid tracks, according to his judgment of course, without saying which tracks are good.

A new game will then start and you will discuss based on the words you have written and the leads they contain to find other words that can tie them together.

Once the players think they have found the correct answer, they write it down on one of the solution cards. The object of the game is to find the word within seven turns of the game.

It is played out and explained quickly, and we can go around the table several times, switching roles, so that everyone will have a good time.

Stay cool

• 3 to 7 players
• 12 years +
• 25 minutes

Think it’s easy to do multiple things at once? Stay cool will put you to the test, because you will simultaneously answer as many questions as you are asked by your neighbors.

There are the turquoise questions which you must answer orally and the red questions whose answers must be formulated by means of dice. And all of this is done while an hourglass is flowing putting pressure on you.

At the end of your turn, you count your points by multiplying the turquoise points by the red points.

Easy, you say? Indeed, the mechanics and the rules are very simple, but from theory to practice, there is a big step to be taken.

It is really not easy for the brain to be called upon like this, and you will see that simple questions can quickly become very complicated, only because you are not fully focused on them.

Everything is in place for us to hear funny or wacky responses that will lead to bursts of laughter.

Paranormal Detectives

• 2 to 6 players
• 12 years +
• 45 minutes

Under this apparently classic game is actually a party game that stirs the soup well to offer a different experience.

Before getting to the heart of the matter, it is played by two, but becomes much more fun with several.

So there is a ghost and detectives. The ghost has in his possession a card which tells him the circumstances surrounding his death and the five elements that the detectives must discover, namely who (the murderer), the place of the crime, the why, the how and the weapon.

On their turn, a player must first ask the ghost a question. You can ask any question, as long as the answer is not yes or no. The players have cards in their possession and will play one to determine how the ghost will phrase its response. The card will then be discarded for the rest of the game.

And this is where we see that it is a party game since the ghost can respond via a Ouija-style spiritualism tablet, by making figures with hanged ropes, by miming the response, by wording with his mouth without speaking aloud, making a sound, using tarot cards, drawing it while holding the detective’s hand, writing on his back with a finger or placing gauges on a ghost meter where we find icons.

Everyone is provided with a card where you take notes in erasable pencil and after asking their question, the player can try to solve the riddle. If he has the five correct answers, the game is over, the player and the ghost win. Otherwise, the ghost will let him know how many good leads he has without communicating it to others.

If a player tries to solve twice without success, they are removed from the investigation and the other detectives continue to play. The game ends when one player has found the correct answer or when everyone has formulated two answers without success. The ghost having taken notes, he will award the victory to the player who has found the most correct answers, the earlier in the game, but the ghost will have lost.

Investigation cards are one-time use only, but one app provides plenty of other files for hours of fun and laughter, since seeing investigators floundering can be downright funny. It is also possible to play in cooperative mode.