New situations can sometimes be difficult. We don’t know what to say and we don’t know what to do. Thankfully this has been a shared experience with people for hundreds of years and we’ve thought of many ways to get over this initial awkwardness. Icebreaker card games are just one of the modern inventions that can plant the first seed to a life-long friendship!
Table of Contents
- Spot It!
- Exploding Kittens
- Dutch Blitz
- Sushi Go!
- The Mind
- Codenames
- Love Letters
- The Game of Things
- Telestrations
- Icebreaker Card Games Good Fun or Titanic Failures?
Spot It!
Spot It! or Dobble in Europe, is a pattern-oriented game played by people of all ages. The game is fast-paced and thrilling for players involved. Players will find 55 circular cards in the set, each of which has eight symbols on it. The main objective is to find the matching symbol between any two cards. There is always one of these between any pair chosen in the playing round. The pressure is on and it is incredibly fast paced – it definitely will help you learn who is competitive soon enough! The first player to spot and name the matching symbol wins the card and the player with most cards at the end of that round wins the game. The game is easy to learn and can be played with two to eight players. This game is easily portable and ideal for travel and family gatherings on Christmas.
Exploding Kittens
Exploding Kittens was designed by Elan Lee, Mathew Inman, and Shane Small. The game is about cats and destruction, intending to avoid drawing an exploding kitten card. In this game you want to draw a few cards as possible, to lessen your chance of getting an exploding kitten. The deck has various cards, such as attack, making your opponent draw more cards; and skip, letting you pass your drawing phase. Each player has their turn drawing cards on the deck, and if they draw an exploding kitten card, they are out of the game. However, you do have a safety net, players can save themselves when they have a defuse card. Exploding Kittens can be played by two to five players. A small family or group of friends can enjoy their time with this game. It’s a great casual card game, fast and punchy, acting as a great Icebreaker.
Dutch Blitz
A German immigrant from Hamburg settled in Bucks County and thought of a card game that could be used in a small to large family setting. Dutch Blitz is fast-paced and can bring the much-needed thrill to a family event anytime. The game is played with a specially printed deck of cards and can be played with two to four players or up to eight players if you have a special expansion pack. A single player can earn points by playing as many cards on Dutch Piles as quickly as possible and emptying the Blitz Pile. This game has been popular in the Pennsylvanian Dutch Community and the Amish community for a long time.
Sushi Go!
Different events call for different themes for card games. A food-oriented event could be well complemented by the game Sushi Go! This game is easy to learn and can be played with two lovebirds on a picnic or a family of five enjoying their game night. The game consists of a deck of cards featuring different sushi types, such as maki rolls, sashimi, and dumplings. Players take turns selecting one card from their hand and passing the rest of their hand to the player on their left. The players aim to score the most points by collecting sets of sushi cards. Most sets have certain requirements, for example: collect three of a kind for a bonus, or the more of this sushi types you collect the more points you get, or even collect more of this sushi type than your opponent.
The Mind
The game is a thrilling cooperative set that challenges the players to work together and play cards in ascending order without communicating with each other. It is quite refreshing to have an icebreaker game that is co-operative rather than competitive. There are 100 cards numbered 1-100 on the stack. The players must play their cards in order without speaking or signalling each other in any way- it’s time to build that hive mind connection! The team wins if they successfully play all their cards in ascending order. The Mind will enlighten the mood as the players try to learn what the other player is thinking in a fun way. The game is harder with more players, but at the same time that’s what makes it enjoyable.
Codenames
Codenames is a word association game that can be played with two to eight players and is Czech Games Edition’s best selling game. The game consists of a grid of 25 words, and players are divided into two teams. Each team has a spymaster who knows the secret identities of the words on the grid. The spymasters give one-word clues to their teammates to help them identify the words that belong to their team. The game’s objective is to identify your team’s words before the other team does. The game is a perfect icebreaker, which can be played in under 15 minutes.
Love Letters
Another ideal game for travel and family gatherings is Love Letter. The game has a deck of 16 cards with different characters on it. Players can learn the games on the spot and enjoy them between two and six players. The game is played by the participants drawing and playing a card. Each card has different abilities. A guard, for example lets you eliminate a player if you guess the card in their hand correctly; the baron allows you to compare your highest card to another player and the lower value gets knocked out. The objective is to be the last person standing at the end of the round or if there is another player, the highest value card wins the game.
The Game of Things
The Game of Things is the way to go when planning a party and you want to add some life and fun. The game is hilarious and is perfect for 4 or more people aged 14 and above. The game has 300 topic cards, a response pad, a score pad, 8 pencils and an instructions manual. The player reads a funny topic and writes down their response. They then continue to guess which of the other players said what response. The party will surely keep going as hilarious answers will be heard as players try to guess who said different things. This game’s wood-box package is ideal for gifting and could double up as a display in the living room.
Telestrations
Like any other board game, Telestrations is an exciting drawing game that can be played between 4 and 8 players. The game has a set of cards with different words or phrases printed on them. The players take turns drawing a picture of the word or phrase on their card and then passing their drawing to the next player. The player with the card now has to guess what the drawing represents. Telestrations can be played in under 30 minutes, which makes it an excellent icebreaker to pave the way for other activities or games in the plan.
Icebreaker Card Games Good Fun or Titanic Failures?
The titanic was famously sunk by an iceberg, but hopefully these Icebreaker card games will help keep the conversation afloat. Like an iceberg, there’s more to some of these games than meets the eye. Love letters, for example, is a personal favourite, it can be as easy or as complicated as the players want it to be – but is always a guaranteed fun time!
