There is a certain danger to bringing out a party game that uses the social dynamics of the friendship group as a gameplay mechanic. The games can start innocently enough with laughter and casual competition, before delving into secrets, insecurities, and truths about friends that would normally remain carefully hidden, sometimes leading to a few names being crossed off the Christmas card list.
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That social danger is what can make games like those on this list so interesting and gripping, but also so uncomfortably revealing.
Bad People
An Argument in a Box
- Player Count: 3–10
"Find out what your friends REALLY think of you" is the tagline on this party game's box, giving players a fair warning for what they're getting themselves into.
Bad People has a simple concept of anonymous voting for which member of the group best fits a question on a card, but it can achieve a perfect storm of social revelation thanks to how the questions thrive on uncovering what players think of each other.
"Whose parents are the most disappointed in them?" And "Most likely to lie about their age?" Are amongst the questions in this game, ensuring that no ambiguity is left in a friendship by the time the box is packed away with a few tears inside. Even the rules themselves in Bad People throw an insult at their audience, with a well-placed "If you still don't understand how to play the game, please hand the instructions to someone smarter than you."
One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Or Any Social Deduction Game With Bare-Faced Lying
- Player Count: 3–10
One Night Ultimate Werewolf is one of the many social deduction games that could have featured on this list, as the genre of party games can reveal, rather disturbingly, how easy lying comes to some of their friends, and how great a few of them are at it.
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In the case of One Night Ultimate Werewolf specifically, the game is based on the classic social deduction game Mafia, which is often rebranded to Werewolf. The original Werewolf assigns a majority of players as innocent Villagers and a minority - often one or two - as werewolves. It's up to the Villagers to work out on instinct and social clues alone who the Werewolves are, while the Werewolves try to remain undetected and "kill" at the end of each round.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf differentiates itself from the original Mafia/Werewolf by taking place entirely in one night (usually a ten-minute round). Every player is assigned a role, ensuring that each player must play a part and can't just fade into the background like the original Mafia/Werewolf.
Wavelength
This Popular Game Contains Some Surprisingly Political Questions
- Player Count: 2–12
Wavelength is one of the most popular party games on the market at the time of writing, thanks to its superb conversation-starter concept that is great for close groups of friends and also as an icebreaker at formal or informal events. In the game, one player knows the exact location of a hidden target on a spectrum, such as “Cold vs Hot,” and gives a clue to help their team guess where it falls, such as saying "Lava" if the target is far to the "Hot" end.
However, while many of the cards pose lightehearted fun, such as "Messy food" vs "Clean food" and "Movies that Godzilla would ruin" vs "Movies that Godzilla would improve," there are also some unexpectedly tetchy questions that can make a work event more awkard than intened, such as "Least evil company" vs "Most evil company," "Liberal" vs "Conservative," and even "Freedom fighter" vs "Terrorist."
The Voting Game
Dyce Games Strikes Again
- Player Count: 5-10
The Voting Game is owned by Dyce Games, the same company behind the aforementioned Bad People. Suffice to say, Dyce Games seems to have found a niche for itself in the friendship-altering market, and should perhaps sell its games with boxing gloves.
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Much like Bad People, The Voting Game features questions that love to push the boundaries, such as "Who is friends with someone they would rather be dating?" And "Who would lose an election because of something they did in High School?"
The questions themselves can be awkward enough, but the discussions they spark can be even more brutal. If The Voting Game isn't spicy enough already, there's always The Voting Game After Dark Edition.
Social Ladder
Rank Your Friends To Their Faces
- Player Count: 2-8
Social Ladder is a card game from The Sidemen, a British YouTube group featuring KSI. Social Ladder's gameplay is straightforward, with players simply having to rank their friends from Most to Least according to a card's parameter. Akin to other games on this list, the questions posed by the card unapologetically press on some difficult spots, sure to ignite some revealing debates.
While the game looks like great fun when The Sidemen play it - a group of guys used to having their insecurities and idiosyncrasies put on display - some members of a board game group may find it a bit jarring when they come expecting to play Catan and end up learning how attractive or unattractive their friends think they are. Social Ladder is great with the right group, though players need to be prepared for some harsh truths.
Best Co-Op Games On Steam To Play Right Now
From online multiplayer titles to local masterpieces, Steam has plenty of fantastic co-op games that cover a wide spectrum of genres.