What are your favorite filler games? Clever Move asked you this question this week, and you answered.
Here are the top filler games based on your responses.
Love Letter
(Suggested here, here and here.)
Love Letter may take a little longer than other games on this list (as much as half an hour), but it’s a game where it’s easy to declare “next point wins.” It also loans itself to home-made custom sets and tokens.
Coup
(Suggested here, here and here.)
With almost no setup and games that rarely (if ever) last longer than 15 minutes, Coup does a great job of filling lulls during any game gathering. Coupe also has the advantage of handling up to six players.
Zombie Dice
(Suggested here, here and here.)
Like Love Letter, Zombie Dice has both an official ending and the ability to declare an arbitrary ending such as “next person to get three brains in a turn wins.” Zombie Dice also has the advantage of a very flexible player count. Its BGG page officially lists Zombie Dice’s player capacity as “2-99 players.”
One Night Werewolf
(Suggested here)
At just 10 minutes per game with a flexible player count (3-10), One Night Ultimate Werewolf can function not only as a filler game, but as a holding area where players constantly cycle in and out.
Timeline
(Suggested here.)
Filler games don’t get much quicker than this. Shuffle the deck, draw some cards and start laying them down in the right place. And it supports up to eight players.
We Didn’t Playtest This At All
(Suggested here)
We Didn’t Playtest This At All (and its spinoffs) functions as a great time-killer. While it has the player flexibility of One Night Werewolf, it doesn’t quite have the replay-ability, Playtest is better reserved for shorter periods, as it’s effectively a long series of jokes with little strategic thought.
Bang! (The Dice Game)
(Suggested here.)
Standing as a strange cross between zombie dice and Werewolf, Bang! The Dice Game supports 3-8 players and takes just 15 minutes to play.
For Sale
(Suggested here.)
At just 20 minutes, For Sale differs from other games on this list in that it focusses on auctions and bidding and not cards or die rolling.
Escape: The Curse of the Temple
(Suggested here.)
This game has the advantage of taking exactly 10 minutes, every play. Setup and take down are another story — but it should never take more than 30 minutes start to finish.
Ninja Dice
(Suggested here.)
This game is on the longer side for a filler (30 minutes), but it’s quick to pick up and constantly keeps all players involved. It also comes a neat box.
Eight-Minute Empire
(Suggested here.)
This may be the quickest area control game ever created. It supports up to five players, and will take less than 15 minutes from set-up to clean-up.
Flapjacks and Sasquatches
(Suggested here.)
Players aim to chop down the trees in front of them by using axe cards to roll dice. Watch out, though: other players can play actions to take your winnings away.
Roll Through The Ages
(Suggested here.)
Roll dice to obtain commodities and workers to build your civilizations. At 30 minutes, this might be longer than most games on this list, but it has very limited setup and takedown time.
Incan Gold
(Suggested here.)
This simple and quick press-your-luck game asks players to decide, each turn, whether they want to venture deeper into the temple, or retreat to camp with their share of the gold.
King of Tokyo
(Suggested here.)
Roll some dice. Smash some monsters and put everything away in 45 minutes or less.
Honorable Mentions
The following games are all solid, but are difficult to suggest as filler games because their length can stretch a little too long to be considered a filler.
- The Resistance (suggested here). Some people regularly play games of The Resistance that last more than an hour.
- Mascarade (suggested here).
- 7 Wonders (suggested here). Some groups really have this game down to a 20-minute science. For most groups, though, setting up and putting away 7 Wonders will expand its 30-minute playtime to more like 50 minutes.
- Greed (suggested here). This was probably a good suggestion there have been a lot of games called “Greed,” and we’re not sure which the commenter meant.
- Guillotine (suggested here). While Guillotine is often a decent filler, game conditions can sometimes make it stretch longer than its expected 30 minute play time.
