I do a lot of Roleplaying and need some games for in-between and “gambling” for the others I play with. I don’t want my players to learn a long and massive game. Something that feels a bit medieval and uses dice of 55/32 card decks would be perfect. Like Gwent or Zombie dice. Maybe where you can cheat?
Might wanna consider Knucklebones from Cult of the Lamb. 1v1, should be played with eighteen 6-sided dice (which can be found surprisingly cheap), but a notepad and a pencil can reduce this to just one. Game typically lasts about 20 single die rolls. There’s a little strategy involved, which may or may not be obvious at first. I don’t think there are any occasions to cheat that you wouldn’t find in other games.
I could totally see Fantasy Realms filling this need if it matches up thematically with your universe.
Otherwise maybe any trick taker with a little extra theme sauce would get you there. Or look for some top filler games and then reprint them in the style of your world. For Sale, No Thanks, 6 Nimmt, Skull.
One more suggestion, zero theme but very entertaining: Strike! You are throwing dice into an arena trying to get matching faces. Rolling X means you lose those dice and your turn. You can hit other dice to try to change their faces. Plays quick, we sometimes use it to decide the first player in the real game.
The loser has to drink a shot! Don‘t be fooled by the 5.9 rating, this game is easy to learn and offers a lot of tension. It mixes luck with social deduction and offers a great starting point for a bar fight.
How about Regicide, a co-op playable with a standard 52+jokers deck, has a vague medieval/fantasy theme. A bit heavier than Zombie Dice but should be manageable. Just have to memorize 4 simple suit powers.
There is also a nice thematic deck available which is a good way to support the game's designer.
Red Dragon Inn is pretty fun and easy to learn. Essentially you’re an adventuring party hanging out at the tavern. You can gamble, pass drinks out to folks, and engage in other shenanigans. Each character has some different abilities or strong suits. Last person to pass out wins. You can even reskin some of the character abilities to match up with your own OCs if you want to do some extra RP.
Depending on how many players and how many shenanigans occur I’d say 30-60 minutes. It’s a full game. One players turn is probably 1-3 minutes or so. It probably wouldn’t be very satisfying to not play out the whole game, though.
Are you looking for separate games to play in between roleplaying sessions, or games to play “inside” the roleplaying game?
One game that comes to mind is “Love Letter”. A fun little card game that involves a little bit of deduction and bluffing but only takes about 4 minutes.
Kinda both. My idea is to start sessions in the Inn, giving them the opportunity to play for some info and money for the session. Dice and card games work great for that, because they can be manipulated by role-playing skills to some extent
The Love Letters theme seems a bit odd to me, but so far I have only heard positive stuff
The theme is very minimal. I think the premise is “someone is trying to sneak a letter to the princess. Guess who has it? The guard? The maid? Etc.” It’s just a deduction game.
But there are also loads of “themed” versions if you prefer. Batman, Cthulhu, Munchkin, Santa Claus, Legend of the Five Rings, The Hobbit, Marvel, etc.
And since there are only 13 cards, you could easily re-theme it with a Deck of Many Things or something.
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