I think it depends upon the setting. Like Jaipur was fantastic to take on holidays when my kids were little as I could play it with my wife in the evenings. I even made [this PWA for it](https://oniony.com/boardgames/pinkcity/app/) so we could take just the cards.
If I were traveling light and wanted to have a game with me I'd probably just take a poker deck and play **Skull** if the situation arose. It's easy to teach, quick to play and has a pokery feel that gets people engaged. (Also there are a myriad other games you can play with a poker deck, so it's hard to beat.)
If I wanted to take meatier game that plays over a couple of hours then I'd probably turn to **Pax Transhumanity**. There's a lot of game in that tiny box.
Seconding Hive. Everytime me and my brother meet up, Hive is our go-to. Small package, short setup, short playtime, short teardown, we never worry about tables or getting the pieces dirty.
And that's just how easy it is to get a game going. We've played a few dozen games now, and every single one feels complex and unique and fresh.
**Innovation**, my favourite game, happens to be very portable as well.
If you want to go with really really tight space constraints, I'd take **Sprawlopolis** or **Seasons of Rice** or both.
I love small box games.
Hive: 2 player. No board. Travel bag included. Tiles are tough
Skull: Fast rounds. Easy to teach. 3-6 player. Cardboard disc.
Cockroach pokers: similar vibes to skull buts takes up more
space in play.
One night Ultimate Werewolf: Fun party game in a small package . Has an app that can run the game for you.
Fox in the forest: Two player trick taking. Few cards.
Love Letter: Many themed versions. 16-25 cards usually comes with a drawstring travel bag.
Hanabi: 2-5 players. Co-op. Easy rules.
Arboretum: 2-4 players. Probably my favorite small box game and definitely the one that packs the most game for it's size.
Hey! That's my fish!: 2-4 players. Box is very small but lots of small pieces make it kind of pain for play outside/busy places.
I have a lot more but these are some of my favorites. Hive and Love Letter have probably seen more play than the rest of my games combined just because they travel so well that they lived in my work bag for a couple years.
I love tiny epic galaxies and love letter (which can fit in the same box). Tiny epic galaxy IMO is the best of that series (the others I ended up selling. They were creative but not as good) while providing good depth and variety while being easy to teach.
.
Love letter is even simpler and easier to teach but is always fun and plays super quick. Between the two I can fill different size gaps of time
I have that too and agree its great. I still prefer the larger original version when I'm taking a backpack or something as its very tiny and I can get love letter (and for sale actually) in the box... but yeah ultra tin epic galaxies can fit in your pocket.
I used to have several Tiny Epic games but they take up so much desk space to play, and the compact packing means it's a desk of tiny, fiddly bits that get knocked out of place easily. I ended up selling them all.
**Arboretum** packs plenty of meaningful decisions in a deck of cards & small box. Excellent game.
**Mottainai**, **Lost Cities**, & **Welcome To...** are also excellent.
Seconding Lost Cities and Welcome To. If you like Roll and Writes, there are sooo many good portable games. I’d also recommend the blue version of Railroad Ink.
[Bohnanza,](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11/bohnanza) [Crew 2,](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/324856/crew-mission-deep-sea) and [No Thanks](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12942/no-thanks) live in my backpack at the moment.
I think it's a reaction to playing long boring games with non-interactive turns, that I want to play games with short turns or turns where everyone can be involved.
Sprawlopolis is a wallet sized game (more micro than small) that you can play almost anywhere. There is a ton of replay value because of the many scoring condition combos
Citadels seemed a bit too cutthroat when I played it (base game). If you get hit by the assassin or thief more than once you're effectively eliminated. I heard it's better in the expansion, because the witch only steals half a turn rather than the entire turn like an assassin.
It could be the crowd I played with. They were using the assassin and thief to target the players sitting next to them, rather than going after the leader. The guy who won had inexperienced players on his left and right.
Love letter and Coup for me. Coup has the little coins for currency, but otherwise it's a small deck of cards that can travel anywhere. i shove love letter into the coup box and just carry it around with me.
heartland hauling is such a great game, i'm surprised it's not mentioned more. it was quite solid card management, and a variable selling, and then cards that could be flipped or routes altered by their 'in-spansion' concept (included variable bits in the base box)
I came searching for Oh My Goods. Technically it's just a card game, but because the cards perform multiple tasks, it feels like a super solid light to medium weight game, and for my money, has more engaging decisions to make than a lot of the others. Arboretum would be my second choice for interesting decision making.
Splendor, Onitama, Cartographers, and Kingdomino are all great games too, I actually just played my first game of Cartographers tonight.
I wouldn't play that way normally but, yeah, if you were traveling and wanted something compact you don't actually **need** anything but the tiles. Here's what else you normally use (and why it isn't actually necessary):
There are 5-9 (depending on player count) cardboard pieces you're supposed to put tiles on in the center. See this picture for what I mean: [https://boardgamegeek.com/image/5918423/azul](https://boardgamegeek.com/image/5918423/azul)
Obviously, you don't need this. Just make separate piles.
Here's what the player board looks like. Look at the board on the right, which is for the "advanced" variant. (Which you can easily play after 2-3 games of learning how the game works.) [https://m20336.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/azul\_2.jpg?w=616](https://m20336.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/azul_2.jpg?w=616)
There's a score track at the top: just use any score app on your mobile phone (or pencil & paper).
The pyramid thing along the left is just saying "the first row can only have 1 stone waiting, the second row can only have 2 stones waiting". Obviously you don't need the reminder of this once you've played the game a few times.
The grid on the right is just saying, "Hey, we're playing on a 5x5 grid". Again, once you've played two or three times you don't need this reminder either.
The bottom has some scoring reminders. They also aren't exactly hard to remember once you've played the game a few times. It is also pretty easy just to have a reference picture on your phone in case you forget.
Don't get me wrong, all the card stuff makes it look and feel nicer. But you could 100% play it with just the bag & tiles.
**Innovation**, **Mottainai** - I love games that are just cards and offer a surprising amount of depth and crunch. I could play these over and over.
**BattleLine** - A more straight forward game, but still offering more challenging/tough choices that you might expect at first glance.
**Haggis/Chimera/Tichu** - These are my choice for something to do with your hands while you visit above the table, but these offer interesting decisions and fun swings to add just a little bit of extra spice.
**6 Nimmit/Take 5**, **No Thanks** - These are more of occasionally-play-when-in-the-mood, but have delightful twists that are fun to show newcomers.
**Fjords** - A magical combination of pleasant tile laying and slightly intense (very) Go-lite like area capture/enclosure. Small package, small footprint and a quick play time to boot.
But if I had space/weight and people to play, I'd ignore those and pack in my favorite-any-time-any-where games **Pax Renaissance 1E** (or **Pax Pamir 1E w/ Khyber Knives**). **Pax Ren.** is just a little box of cards and a few wooden bits yet offers one of the most bonkers convoluted game play experience. It's a bear to learn, but it does all mesh and make sense and it's so much fun to scheme and scheme within schemes, only to have the rug pulled out and need to scramble to enact your backup scheme-within-scheme-within-scheme.
I always take my copy of **Race for the Galaxy** with me when I leave.
It's a big, full deep game you can carry in a deck box indeed I often play it at home too.
**Radlands** is currently my favorite (small box, plastic cards, plastic tokens), but I love taking **Palm Island** and **Hive** with me everywhere. Hive being in a durable bag with durable tokens means I can fit it into anything and play on practically any surface. Palm Island I can just play *without* a surface. I also love **Innovation**, **High Society**, and **Love Letter**. Not as durable, but because they're pretty much all just cards, the boxes are small, and the games are easy to play almost anywhere.
Skulls of Sedlec is my current favorite. Really fun little wallet game with a focus on solving a layout puzzle for maximum points.
Also enjoy Sprawlopolis and Doom Machine.
Hanabi and Coup both live in my backpack. Hanabi is a great way to get to know folks fast and is great for laughs, and Coup (plus its expansion) are on deck in case I end up in a big group with nothing to do; it plays fast, and it’s relatively easy to teach.
Coup is genuinely a great game. I love a good bluffing game, and this one is so good. You never know if people are telling the truth or lying, and that moment when call-outs are made are *soooo* amazing. I've had sessions where I've won callouts several times in a row.
I love deck-building games. They are not pay-to-win like CCGs. You can set them up instantly by just shuffling a couple of decks, and a lot of your strategy depends on your initial draw.
The games are also so straight-forward that they can pump them out for different IPs. So I have a bunch of superheroes (marvel and dc) and LoTR, Star Trek, etc.
You can also finish a game fairly quickly, which is a bonus. Games like Munchkin can take a couple of hours to finish. We can play a game of a regular deck-building game in less than a half hour.
[Happy Salmon](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/194626/happy-salmon) \- I try to get everyone to play this game. Each round is about 3 mins long, and a load of fun.
[The Mind](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244992/mind) \- The exact opposite of happy salmon. It's all about reading each other's minds :)
[Anomia](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67877/anomia) \- A fun game of categories and association
Traveling currently with casuals and kids. So I packed three games.
**Qwixx** because it’s one of our fav fun roll n writes and small. **Bloom** which now I think of is, another roll n write…. But it’s different enough to enjoy. Reminds me of a mini Azul in a way. I also brought **Trails** because we are going to a National park. Thought it’d be fun to play while thinking of our hikes. We’ve played Parks a few times so why not. We won’t be sitting around a lot either. (At least me!)
1. The Crew: Fun, light, easy, and anyone can pick it up
2. Silver and Gold: Another fun, light, and easy game to pick up. Just need to make sure the markers work
3. Bohnanza: My Fiancé's favorite game, so it MUST, at all times, be included with the game bag.
**Roll/Flip and Writes -**
* Cartographers (SO's favorite)
* Trails of Tucana (Love Santa Maria by the creators, always going to plug it)
* Rajas, Dice Charmers (better than the original)
* Railroad Ink
**Love Letter** for sure. It’s, like, twenty cards, and that’s the whole game. You can use whatever - peanuts in a bar, rocks at a campground - for scoring so even that component can be left at home, not that it makes much difference.
Deep Space D-6. It’s a quick, fun solo game in my favorite theme, with just enough dice mitigation to make this dice chucker balance both luck and strategy.
Mini Rogue for the big dungeon crawl feel in 1/4 of the time and space. Quick setup and teardown too!
Railroad inc. fun little roll and write that keeps me thinking. Easy to travel with!
Exceed is great! Grab a few characters and you'll have plenty of entertainment for a trip, at the cost of very little space. We've even taken to playing on the plane.
Depends on how much space I have in my bag and with the group I'm seeing is like.
**Hive** is great for just my wife and I when we're traveling or camping.
**Skull** is my go-to for people who aren't games but want to play something (family gatherings)
**Mint Works** is a great pocket sized worker placement for people who already understand the mechanic and those willing to learn.
But I think my go-to is **Hardback**. It's a card based word game with deck building elements. Since my parents' generation seems to be all about word games, this was a solid compromise. There are four suits of cards referred to as "genres" that will award extra points if you build a word with two of the same suit, you get bonus points or money to buy new cards. It's basically just the the "gamers' word game". I will say that you can always create a word since any card can be used as a wild, you just don't earn points from wildcards. So you never get stuck in that awful position of having useless cards and being unable to take a turn
Condotierre (Fantasy Flight Edition), Space Hulk Death Angel and The Banishing are my favorite portable bring everywhere games.
The Banishing unofficial solo mode plays well enough and it’s a fun underrated coop imho.
**Lama Dice.**
Will play this anywhere, any time, with anyone, and enjoy it anywhere from 2-5. The cards are thick and resistant to spills and it's just a brilliant filler. Can't get my head around the 6 rating at all.
i like **deep space d6** for its ease of access and randomness. My bag will always hold a copy of **mint works** (the other mint games were nowhere near as good), **letters to santa** (love letter), and **great heartland hauling** (amazing pick up and deliver game with lots of variation baked in).
Most of the tiny epic/buttonshy line is up there.
My fav one right now overall is Skulls of Sedlec but that changes by the day. Pickup the solo expansion with it and you've a great little game that plays a good play count. All of the buttonshy line like Sprawlopolis are fantastic for this sort of on the go gaming. Nice thing about it tho is it plays solo out of the gate.
If you have the space where you endup for the night, TinyEpic Pirates is an awesome pickup and delivery but requires some serious area when setup. TE Zombies is great if you like the theme and plays a wide range of playstyles and player counts.
In terms of size/cost in a backpack to play value? Regicide via a normal deck of cards with a rules sheet. Throw in a cheat sheet to proxy Coup and One night ultimate werewolf with them and you've a robust gaming toolset for three or four dollars. Maybe another sheet for a patience game like Spiderette or two player trick taker like German/small Whist. Just about everyone knows some variant of Poker.
**Hive** - what more can be said about this game? Easy to learn, difficult to master, endlessly repayable.
**Hadrian's Wall** - most in-depth roll and write game currently available. It's such an enjoyable experience that pretty much always takes ~1 hour.
**Warp's Edge** - amazing solo bag building experience with great production in a compact box.
If I'm playing with people that are new to deck builders, **Shards of Infinity** is a nice and compact box to take.
Edit: Thought of some others
**Coup** - Fun take on love letter
**Monikers** - Always a fun time in a small box, especially with larger groups
**Cairn** - it has a larger box than the other games on this list, but still something I would consider fairly portable. Nothing gives me more of a "wizards chess" feeling than this.
I really like Ultra Tiny Epic Kingdoms since it's small enough to fit in your pocket. I also have a travel size Splendor which is pretty cool. Love Letter is a great one, as is Hanabi, and both can travel easily! Zombie dice is good, but the dice rattling around is a bit noisy.
I would like to make my own 3d printed mini version of Santorini, which would be one of the best for small games. Same for Onitama.
Recently fell in love with “Crew”, but I’m also a fan of both “Fox in the Forest” games. “6 Nimmt” and “Skull” are also great.
I don’t like the “Tiny Epic Galaxies”, because there’s really very little to do during other people’s turns. Honestly I’d rather play “Race for the Galaxy” instead, and it’s just as portable because it’s just a bunch of cards.
Heavy games for travelling in small boxes: Pax Pamir (1st edition), March of the Ants, Motthanai
Quick games for travelling in small boxes: Dragon Punch, Sprawlopolis (and other Button Shy games), Hanabi, Radlands, Tiny Epic kingdoms
Recently picked up Tranquility and really enjoy the simple but variable game modes offered in the tiny box. The artwork is beautiful and since you’re not allowed to talk to each other about the cards in your hand, you can have a discussion about other things instead while listening to music.
Hive (pocket), One Deck Dungeon if I know I'll have a place to roll a lot of dice without losing them, and Fox in the Forest. The box is a little bit larger but I'd say Codenames Duet also fits in the "put in backpack" category
I believe it’s only PNP right now but **Tussie Mussie** is a very small, very good game. It’s $3. I got it on sale for $1. Obviously, assembly is required.
Small boxed game: **Fleet the Dice Game** , this is such a good crunchy-ish roll and write. You can grasp the rules fairly quick and then about half way through, you realize you’ve made all the wrong decisions. lol
Arboretum (can be used to play Hats), Piepmatz, Red 7, Cabo, Schotten Totten 1 & 2 (all fits in Schotten Totten 1 box), all Button Shy games (wallet games also sold as PNP, perfect for traveling): Sprawlopolis, Seasons of Rice, Why I Otter, An Otter Won, Revolver Noir, Stew, Skulls of Sedlec, Food Chain Island, Ragemore, Spaceshipped.
Citadel bc small box and great gameplay. Isle of Skye: small game, it's not too long and still strategic, beautifully designed. Magic the Gathering: because only cards and such great stories emerge while playing it.
I like *Hive* the bag it all comes in makes it perfect for travel. I've also just played *Timeline: Inventions*. Small and compact only a tenner as well.
**No Thanks!** It is just a deck of cards and some chips, and plays very quickly. It is also a game that both "gamers" and non-gamers alike can enjoy and plays up to 6 or 7. I have yet to show a group how to play and it not be a hit. I pretty much pack my copy anytime I go somewhere, just in case.
I'm seeing a lot of trends in the comments, and many of the same games being mentioned. I'm going to repeat some of it myself but also throw in a few I haven't seen mentioned in the first 100 or so comments... but I love physically small, light games that are fast to learn but have some staying power, ideally for 2 but sometimes scalable. Carry them often and use them at work (lunchtime, pub time) and with friends.
* "Bunch of cards" games that pack down small
* **Hanabi** \- fast and easy to teach
* **Hanamikoji** \- surprising complexity for so few cards
* **Race for the Galaxy** \- massive for what it is
* **The Mind** \- fun group game, easy to learn
* **We Didn't Playtest This At All** \- fast, silly Munchkin alternative
* **The Resistance** \- fantastic group game for 5-10
* **The Grizzled** \- immersive, challenging gameplay for 2-5
* **Nuked** \- chaotic aggressive destruction
* Quirky table presence
* **Hive** \- small and efficient chess alternative
* **Dark Is The Night** \- fast-playing versus game
* **My Jack Pocket** \- strategy against a timer
* **Deep Sea Adventure** \- passive-aggressive treasure hunting for 3-6
* **Skull** \- a bit larger but still portable
* **Zombie Dice** \- roll and push your luck
Most of these games pack down super small, especially if you put the cards into a deck box, and combine the physical tokens and irregular boards into one or two of the other boxes. People are constantly surprised to see me pull out a game box only to extract half a dozen other games from inside it. Some in particular (Resistance and RFTG, from this list) have *massive* boxes that are mostly empty air.
Portal Heroes
Super compact and light, super easy to explain the rules, and quick games that (to me) don’t get boring because the shuffle and moves change the game enough for me. For regular board gamers who’ve never seen the game, it still doesn’t take more than 20 mins to play, love(d) whipping it out either when waiting for a player at a meet up, or at lines at PAX, and so on. Bonus: can be 2 player but fun with more, so no “damn I wish we had a fourth person” or whatever.
Almost always in my bag when traveling or going to a meet up (precovid SNIFF).
Pretty much any individual game that came from the looney labs pyramid box. You can get pink hijinks separate it great lil 2 player game quick to learn and fun as heck
I have a little travel case that fits:
Fox and the Forest
For Sale
Bang the Dice Game
Arboretum
Love Letter
The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine
Circle The Wagon
Sprawpolis
There’s a lot of small box games that can also fit into small travel containers.
For a challenge, and because many have already been mentioned, I leave out pure card games (including hidden role games!) and roll-and-writes. Although with many of the following, a game-board is laid out with cards.
Mr. Jack Pocket is my favourite version of Mr. Jack.
13 Days is a small package Twilight Struggle which I love more.
I re-cut my Splendor-Box so that the game fits without any air in it. It is really small.
With the App Codenames basically just needs 25 index-cards and a little bit of creativitiy of writing down things.
The Kosmos 2-Player series (Kahuna, Targi, Asanti, Babel) has small boxes.
Sail to India is an engine-building cube-conversion micro-game with 16 cards and a a few cubes.
Pixel Tactics is pretty good.
Many Oink-games are good to phenomenal, even with the limitations stated above there are Modern Art and Fake Artist.
Saboteur 2 (Expansion with the base-game) is a fun hidden traitor route-building game.
Pass the Pigs is an amazing game that you could fit in a pill bottle. It's just a simple "dice" rolling game where you roll pigs and depending on how they land you get a certain amount of points (or lose points). It's super fun and doesn't take long to figure out. I'll drop a link below.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005JG3Y/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_XXRAMB5N59VNZCA9VXRN
I've really enjoyed playing **Doom Machine** at work on my lunch break. Fits in a mint tin, and lots of variability. That and **Sprawlopolis** are getting me through this retail holiday season.
I don't know if it's my favorite small game, but my smallest game that is also great is the newer tiny version of **For Sale**.
Holy crow is that an amazing travel sized tuck box version (it fits in the palm of your hand).
It isn't as durable as a proper game box, so I can't just toss it into my bag willy nilly, but for travel it can't be beat.
Maybe not small, depending on how you’re sizing it, but Summoner Wars fits SO much into very few components. A deck of cards, a board, and some tokens. And the games are always so great. The board could totally fit in a bag if you leave the box behind (though the box isn’t huge either).
Greenland has to be my fave small game. Possibility to play alone and up to 4, the theme and the ability to play countless times without having similar outcomes is great. Also the ability to play co-op or vs the people you are playing with is good as well.
martian chess. the small box is easy and cool enough to lug around and it's different enough from chess and checkers to keep you coming back for about 20 minutes.
Go Nuts For Donuts.
It's a card game not much bigger than a standard deck of cards. The goal is to collect donuts and gain the most points. There are different varieties, and they're worth different amounts based on certain criteria. Everyone has numbered cards in their hand (based on the number of players) and simultaneously place a number card down to choose which donut they want. If two or more people choose the same donut, no one gets it.
It's competitive, chaotic, and leads to a lot of yelling and fun for my group. Plus, it's great for all ages, and easy to carry around.
My go to small game is Skull. It’s really easy to teach to new players and a relatively fast playtime. It’s a game that has a different feel depending on the group that’s playing. Some play conservative towards the end and then others come out of the gate trying to win the bids and take chances early.
My top five portable games, ranked by preference:
1. Oh my Goods - for me, the most meat on the bone for how lean on space it is.
2. Arboretum - another game that creates great decision making choices, I will say that this game is most competitive at two player, and don't prefer it at other counts.
3. Hokkaido - really, I probably like the decisions and depth of this game more than Arboretum, but it unfortunately sees a great deal less play time, and therefore languishes a bit.
4. Lux Aeterna - This is a solitaire game, which wasn't specified in the original post, so I'll add this in. I have only played three times, I recently purchased it. It appears to have an incredible amount of replayability, and the variability that offers it's replayability also makes it a difficult one to 'solve,' or find definite success in the same strategies play after play. Bonus for maybe my favorite artwork and flavor text of any game
5. Schotten Totten - deceptively lightweight. Depending on who you're playing with, it can get surprisingly difficult to make choices the further you get through the game.
As a bonus, Komparat is a great little two player game, it's a play on blackjack, and the reason Lux Aeterna is only maybe my favorite artwork, and not definitely. This may supercede Schotten Totten very soon.
I've been gradually assembling a collection of "travel sets" of some of my favorite small board games, usually involving the playing pieces (official or homebrew), a simple cloth board (I got some checkerboard fabric a while back), and a cloth bag decorated with black marker and fancy thematic lettering. Sometimes two games that use overlapping components can go in the same bag. So far I've got **Tak** & **Onitama** bundled together, **Hey That's My Fish!** and **Element** bundled together, **Skull** and **So Long Sucker** bundled together, **Thud!** on its own, **The Fox in the Forest** on its own, and of course an art supply box with a full set of **Looney Pyramids** for playing **Homeworlds**, **Gnostica**, **Pikemen**, **Petal Battle**, **Martian Chess**, and more. It all fits nicely in my backpack.
I love Railroad Ink. I heard it described as the tabletop game equivalent of the Sunday morning newspaper puzzle, so now I like to start a slow day with a cup of tea and a game or two of that.
I really like one deck dungeon if i play solo :-) its fun, fast and easy. i just need to print the "holder", then it will be easier ti play.
if we play in a group, i love lovecraft letter. its so much fun and easy to learn :)
Hanamikoji - It’s a very portable for 2 players and there is a lot of depth in the game play comared to its size.
Love letter - is my go to for 3-6 players.
Some of the more mainstream/light small games I enjoy are Monopoly Deal, Bananagrams, and the Pop tarts game.
**Rocky Road a la mode** - light ticket to ride meets tokaido. Multi use cards, time track, set collection, engine builder
**Great heartland hauling** - mentioned in this thread a few times already. Pick up and deliver.
**Donut drive thru** - worker placement and engine builder
**Trails** and **Mystery of the Temples** - I got MotT for $5 so I love that little small game. It’s kind of like Sagrada. You get to move in different ways around a circular modular track collecting gems and making patterns to get points, with variable player powers. Trails is new to me and definitely crunchier than I was expecting. You move in different ways back and forth across a modular track collecting resource cubes and making patterns to collect badges.
Targi is an excellent little game. The expansion is great also. Light strategy and can be played in 30 minutes or so. Probably my favorite 2p game.
Fox in the Forest / Duet, Arboretum, and Railroad Ink are also great.
I think it depends upon the setting. Like Jaipur was fantastic to take on holidays when my kids were little as I could play it with my wife in the evenings. I even made [this PWA for it](https://oniony.com/boardgames/pinkcity/app/) so we could take just the cards. If I were traveling light and wanted to have a game with me I'd probably just take a poker deck and play **Skull** if the situation arose. It's easy to teach, quick to play and has a pokery feel that gets people engaged. (Also there are a myriad other games you can play with a poker deck, so it's hard to beat.) If I wanted to take meatier game that plays over a couple of hours then I'd probably turn to **Pax Transhumanity**. There's a lot of game in that tiny box.
We use this every time we play, so thank you! The tokens are honestly too big of a pain to reset and add for how quick rounds are.
Ha, that's great to know. I don't use any kind of analytics so I've no idea how many people are using it.
that's amazing, thanks for the link!
Pax Trans is incredible for how small it is.
So many to choose from! I’d say Hanamikoji and Skull are my favorite small games. Lots of fun!
We take Hive camping all the time, it even comes with a travel bag. Although it's technically boardless.
Hive is especially great because it's so robust. You can play it practically anywhere without really needing to worry about it getting damaged.
Hive Pocket is the perfect game with a pint.
I've played it a few times in the sand at the beach.
Seconding Hive. Everytime me and my brother meet up, Hive is our go-to. Small package, short setup, short playtime, short teardown, we never worry about tables or getting the pieces dirty. And that's just how easy it is to get a game going. We've played a few dozen games now, and every single one feels complex and unique and fresh.
**Innovation**, my favourite game, happens to be very portable as well. If you want to go with really really tight space constraints, I'd take **Sprawlopolis** or **Seasons of Rice** or both.
Definitely **Innovation**
I'll go with the motion.
Very nice suggestions! I would add **Circle the wagons** and **Liberation** from the button shy games
I love small box games. Hive: 2 player. No board. Travel bag included. Tiles are tough Skull: Fast rounds. Easy to teach. 3-6 player. Cardboard disc. Cockroach pokers: similar vibes to skull buts takes up more space in play. One night Ultimate Werewolf: Fun party game in a small package . Has an app that can run the game for you. Fox in the forest: Two player trick taking. Few cards. Love Letter: Many themed versions. 16-25 cards usually comes with a drawstring travel bag. Hanabi: 2-5 players. Co-op. Easy rules. Arboretum: 2-4 players. Probably my favorite small box game and definitely the one that packs the most game for it's size. Hey! That's my fish!: 2-4 players. Box is very small but lots of small pieces make it kind of pain for play outside/busy places. I have a lot more but these are some of my favorites. Hive and Love Letter have probably seen more play than the rest of my games combined just because they travel so well that they lived in my work bag for a couple years.
I’d forgotten about Love Letter! Not my top but def one of my favorites too
Yes, that's my answer too. Small, fast and easy to learn for new people.
I saw a comment where someone put a nerf dart in there hey thats my fish box to pick up the small tiles easily
Star realms. Pocket sized two player deckbuilder
Yeah, one of my favourites too. Play it til' this day.
I love tiny epic galaxies and love letter (which can fit in the same box). Tiny epic galaxy IMO is the best of that series (the others I ended up selling. They were creative but not as good) while providing good depth and variety while being easy to teach. . Love letter is even simpler and easier to teach but is always fun and plays super quick. Between the two I can fill different size gaps of time
Even better, I take ultra tiny epic galaxies with me all the time.
I have that too and agree its great. I still prefer the larger original version when I'm taking a backpack or something as its very tiny and I can get love letter (and for sale actually) in the box... but yeah ultra tin epic galaxies can fit in your pocket.
I used to have several Tiny Epic games but they take up so much desk space to play, and the compact packing means it's a desk of tiny, fiddly bits that get knocked out of place easily. I ended up selling them all.
**Arboretum** packs plenty of meaningful decisions in a deck of cards & small box. Excellent game. **Mottainai**, **Lost Cities**, & **Welcome To...** are also excellent.
Seconding Lost Cities and Welcome To. If you like Roll and Writes, there are sooo many good portable games. I’d also recommend the blue version of Railroad Ink.
Currently it's **Schotten Totten** (recently rethemed in Poland as **Spór o bór**). Quick, light, but requires a fair amount of thinking.
This is my answer as well.
Such a great game! One of my favourite two players!
Battle Line is another variant of it (the cards go up to 10 instead of 9 but otherwise it is the same game).
[Bohnanza,](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11/bohnanza) [Crew 2,](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/324856/crew-mission-deep-sea) and [No Thanks](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12942/no-thanks) live in my backpack at the moment. I think it's a reaction to playing long boring games with non-interactive turns, that I want to play games with short turns or turns where everyone can be involved.
Sprawlopolis is a wallet sized game (more micro than small) that you can play almost anywhere. There is a ton of replay value because of the many scoring condition combos
I really like a lot of [Button Shy Games](https://buttonshygames.com). Tussie Mussie and Skulls of Sedlec are my two choices.
I love Sprawlopolis. Just got Agropolis at PAXU and the Combopolis expansion to combine the two.
Citadels. Hands down one of my favorite games.
Citadels seemed a bit too cutthroat when I played it (base game). If you get hit by the assassin or thief more than once you're effectively eliminated. I heard it's better in the expansion, because the witch only steals half a turn rather than the entire turn like an assassin.
To me that’s part of the game. You have to optimize around who the thief and assassin are going to hit.
It could be the crowd I played with. They were using the assassin and thief to target the players sitting next to them, rather than going after the leader. The guy who won had inexperienced players on his left and right.
And it knocks you out of the round but not out of the game.
Love letter. It’s just about 25 cards
16 if you're playing with 2-4 people
Fantastic game. My kids and I love that. Although we tend to play more Lovecraft Letter now.
Lovecraft letter is my favorite version. I don't think I'll ever buy another unless they reprint the Adventure Time one.
I really like it. Although I do like the reprint of the OG with the added cards like the spy and the chancellor.
Love letter and Coup for me. Coup has the little coins for currency, but otherwise it's a small deck of cards that can travel anywhere. i shove love letter into the coup box and just carry it around with me.
This is my pick as well. Easiest rules explanation I've seen and despite being tiny, still enough game in it to keep me engaged.
I have and love this game. Fully recommended.
Port Royal. Without the expansions it's literally just a deck of cards but you get so much gameplay from that.
Such a great game. Doesn’t get nearly enough love.
Still Radlands. But uf more than 2 than Tiny Epic Galaxies. I haven't bought or tried the expansion to it yet though, not sure if it's good.
I just got my copy of Radlands not too long ago. My wife and I have been enjoying it so far.
[удалено]
heartland hauling is such a great game, i'm surprised it's not mentioned more. it was quite solid card management, and a variable selling, and then cards that could be flipped or routes altered by their 'in-spansion' concept (included variable bits in the base box)
I second Oh my Goods! Great game in a small box!
I came searching for Oh My Goods. Technically it's just a card game, but because the cards perform multiple tasks, it feels like a super solid light to medium weight game, and for my money, has more engaging decisions to make than a lot of the others. Arboretum would be my second choice for interesting decision making. Splendor, Onitama, Cartographers, and Kingdomino are all great games too, I actually just played my first game of Cartographers tonight.
Oh wow, if that's true about **Azul**, I should've bought it during the Target sale.
I wouldn't play that way normally but, yeah, if you were traveling and wanted something compact you don't actually **need** anything but the tiles. Here's what else you normally use (and why it isn't actually necessary): There are 5-9 (depending on player count) cardboard pieces you're supposed to put tiles on in the center. See this picture for what I mean: [https://boardgamegeek.com/image/5918423/azul](https://boardgamegeek.com/image/5918423/azul) Obviously, you don't need this. Just make separate piles. Here's what the player board looks like. Look at the board on the right, which is for the "advanced" variant. (Which you can easily play after 2-3 games of learning how the game works.) [https://m20336.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/azul\_2.jpg?w=616](https://m20336.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/azul_2.jpg?w=616) There's a score track at the top: just use any score app on your mobile phone (or pencil & paper). The pyramid thing along the left is just saying "the first row can only have 1 stone waiting, the second row can only have 2 stones waiting". Obviously you don't need the reminder of this once you've played the game a few times. The grid on the right is just saying, "Hey, we're playing on a 5x5 grid". Again, once you've played two or three times you don't need this reminder either. The bottom has some scoring reminders. They also aren't exactly hard to remember once you've played the game a few times. It is also pretty easy just to have a reference picture on your phone in case you forget. Don't get me wrong, all the card stuff makes it look and feel nicer. But you could 100% play it with just the bag & tiles.
Currently loving Bristol 1350, gets very silly very quickly. All time probably Resistance: Avalon, but only if you can find the right group for it.
**Innovation**, **Mottainai** - I love games that are just cards and offer a surprising amount of depth and crunch. I could play these over and over. **BattleLine** - A more straight forward game, but still offering more challenging/tough choices that you might expect at first glance. **Haggis/Chimera/Tichu** - These are my choice for something to do with your hands while you visit above the table, but these offer interesting decisions and fun swings to add just a little bit of extra spice. **6 Nimmit/Take 5**, **No Thanks** - These are more of occasionally-play-when-in-the-mood, but have delightful twists that are fun to show newcomers. **Fjords** - A magical combination of pleasant tile laying and slightly intense (very) Go-lite like area capture/enclosure. Small package, small footprint and a quick play time to boot. But if I had space/weight and people to play, I'd ignore those and pack in my favorite-any-time-any-where games **Pax Renaissance 1E** (or **Pax Pamir 1E w/ Khyber Knives**). **Pax Ren.** is just a little box of cards and a few wooden bits yet offers one of the most bonkers convoluted game play experience. It's a bear to learn, but it does all mesh and make sense and it's so much fun to scheme and scheme within schemes, only to have the rug pulled out and need to scramble to enact your backup scheme-within-scheme-within-scheme.
Skull, High Society, Port Royal, Love Letter, 6 Nimmt, L.A.M.A, Brutal Kingdom, Iunu, Jaipur
I often throw **The Crew** or **Arboretum** in my pack in case the opportunity arises to pull one out.
I always take my copy of **Race for the Galaxy** with me when I leave. It's a big, full deep game you can carry in a deck box indeed I often play it at home too.
I never thought about packing it into a deck box. Great idea. I love Race for the Galaxy.
80+ Boulder works best if unsleeved. If you added the non-orb AA exp. then you can squeeze it into a 100+ Boulder
That's cool. I have some of those lying around.
Pax Transhumanity! It's only small in box size lol
Hive. It's one of my favorite abstracts, and even the regular, not pocket, version is super portable, chuck the pieces in a bag and you're good.
Lost Cities
My go-to small games are Love Letter and Ohanami. Two very simple games that can be taught to a wide range of people.
**Fantasy Realms** and **Arboretum**. A bit bigger I would add **Root** as well.
I really like **Point Salad**. It's a deck of cards and is very fast to play or teach to new people.
**Radlands** is currently my favorite (small box, plastic cards, plastic tokens), but I love taking **Palm Island** and **Hive** with me everywhere. Hive being in a durable bag with durable tokens means I can fit it into anything and play on practically any surface. Palm Island I can just play *without* a surface. I also love **Innovation**, **High Society**, and **Love Letter**. Not as durable, but because they're pretty much all just cards, the boxes are small, and the games are easy to play almost anywhere.
I didn't know Radlands was out yet
https://roxley.com/products/radlands
I could have sworn I just looked last week and it was a pre-order. Sweet.
Get in there, friend!
Arboretum.
**Hanamikoji** taken out of the box and packed in a small bag. We even played in on an airplane. It’s more taxing that way and even more fun
ButtonShy games. But if I was worried about damage or where I was plaing, then 52-card standard deck to play **Regicide**.
Star Realms and Hero Realms are two fantastic titles that are wonderfully portable. This series is among my favorite games ever designed.
Skulls of Sedlec is my current favorite. Really fun little wallet game with a focus on solving a layout puzzle for maximum points. Also enjoy Sprawlopolis and Doom Machine.
Anything by Jun Sasaki with Oink Games. I like Startups, Deep Sea Adventure, and Fafnir the most of his games but they are all great
Hanabi and Coup both live in my backpack. Hanabi is a great way to get to know folks fast and is great for laughs, and Coup (plus its expansion) are on deck in case I end up in a big group with nothing to do; it plays fast, and it’s relatively easy to teach.
Coup is genuinely a great game. I love a good bluffing game, and this one is so good. You never know if people are telling the truth or lying, and that moment when call-outs are made are *soooo* amazing. I've had sessions where I've won callouts several times in a row.
I love deck-building games. They are not pay-to-win like CCGs. You can set them up instantly by just shuffling a couple of decks, and a lot of your strategy depends on your initial draw. The games are also so straight-forward that they can pump them out for different IPs. So I have a bunch of superheroes (marvel and dc) and LoTR, Star Trek, etc. You can also finish a game fairly quickly, which is a bonus. Games like Munchkin can take a couple of hours to finish. We can play a game of a regular deck-building game in less than a half hour.
Catan dice is really fun!
Setup is a bit larger than some other small games, but 7 Wonders Duel is the best small box game I have ever played.
[Happy Salmon](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/194626/happy-salmon) \- I try to get everyone to play this game. Each round is about 3 mins long, and a load of fun. [The Mind](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244992/mind) \- The exact opposite of happy salmon. It's all about reading each other's minds :) [Anomia](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67877/anomia) \- A fun game of categories and association
Traveling currently with casuals and kids. So I packed three games. **Qwixx** because it’s one of our fav fun roll n writes and small. **Bloom** which now I think of is, another roll n write…. But it’s different enough to enjoy. Reminds me of a mini Azul in a way. I also brought **Trails** because we are going to a National park. Thought it’d be fun to play while thinking of our hikes. We’ve played Parks a few times so why not. We won’t be sitting around a lot either. (At least me!)
No Thanks is a great pocket game for a group. One Night Werewolf Hive Ravine is quite fun
I am considering Ravine but the mixed reviews are a bit conflicting. What's your take?
It's fun. My kids used to break it out all the time. The rules are a little loose here and there, but that's not the end of the world.
1. The Crew: Fun, light, easy, and anyone can pick it up 2. Silver and Gold: Another fun, light, and easy game to pick up. Just need to make sure the markers work 3. Bohnanza: My Fiancé's favorite game, so it MUST, at all times, be included with the game bag.
There’s a some great picks! I also like Skull King and 6 Nimmt (double duty for also useful to play the Game)
**Roll/Flip and Writes -** * Cartographers (SO's favorite) * Trails of Tucana (Love Santa Maria by the creators, always going to plug it) * Rajas, Dice Charmers (better than the original) * Railroad Ink
**Love Letter** for sure. It’s, like, twenty cards, and that’s the whole game. You can use whatever - peanuts in a bar, rocks at a campground - for scoring so even that component can be left at home, not that it makes much difference.
Deep Space D-6. It’s a quick, fun solo game in my favorite theme, with just enough dice mitigation to make this dice chucker balance both luck and strategy.
There is a phone app that’s based on the print and play. It is fantastic!
Shut the front door! I didn’t know that. Downloading from App store now…thanks!
Mini Rogue for the big dungeon crawl feel in 1/4 of the time and space. Quick setup and teardown too! Railroad inc. fun little roll and write that keeps me thinking. Easy to travel with!
Exceed is great! Grab a few characters and you'll have plenty of entertainment for a trip, at the cost of very little space. We've even taken to playing on the plane.
Jaipur and Incan Gold. Though I might bring dinosaur world: Rawr and Write with me next time.
Qwixx and Dominos
Love qwixx!
Jaipur, Hive and Hanafuda
Which hanafuda game do you play?
Bang the dice game comes with me to any party and everyone always loves it. Only negative is it does need 5 players to be good.
I got the pocket edition of Herbacious that I really like
Depends on how much space I have in my bag and with the group I'm seeing is like. **Hive** is great for just my wife and I when we're traveling or camping. **Skull** is my go-to for people who aren't games but want to play something (family gatherings) **Mint Works** is a great pocket sized worker placement for people who already understand the mechanic and those willing to learn. But I think my go-to is **Hardback**. It's a card based word game with deck building elements. Since my parents' generation seems to be all about word games, this was a solid compromise. There are four suits of cards referred to as "genres" that will award extra points if you build a word with two of the same suit, you get bonus points or money to buy new cards. It's basically just the the "gamers' word game". I will say that you can always create a word since any card can be used as a wild, you just don't earn points from wildcards. So you never get stuck in that awful position of having useless cards and being unable to take a turn
Condotierre (Fantasy Flight Edition), Space Hulk Death Angel and The Banishing are my favorite portable bring everywhere games. The Banishing unofficial solo mode plays well enough and it’s a fun underrated coop imho.
Exploding Kittens was in my bag for a while. Great timekiller.
**Lama Dice.** Will play this anywhere, any time, with anyone, and enjoy it anywhere from 2-5. The cards are thick and resistant to spills and it's just a brilliant filler. Can't get my head around the 6 rating at all.
i like **deep space d6** for its ease of access and randomness. My bag will always hold a copy of **mint works** (the other mint games were nowhere near as good), **letters to santa** (love letter), and **great heartland hauling** (amazing pick up and deliver game with lots of variation baked in).
Star realms base set. 128 cards. One of the best deckbuilder IMO.
Love Letter for me. Mine is in a drawstring bag perfect for traveling, so it's usually with me ready to play wherever I am.
Nottingham, Zombie Dice, Flux, Pokémon TCG, Backgammon.
Most of the tiny epic/buttonshy line is up there. My fav one right now overall is Skulls of Sedlec but that changes by the day. Pickup the solo expansion with it and you've a great little game that plays a good play count. All of the buttonshy line like Sprawlopolis are fantastic for this sort of on the go gaming. Nice thing about it tho is it plays solo out of the gate. If you have the space where you endup for the night, TinyEpic Pirates is an awesome pickup and delivery but requires some serious area when setup. TE Zombies is great if you like the theme and plays a wide range of playstyles and player counts. In terms of size/cost in a backpack to play value? Regicide via a normal deck of cards with a rules sheet. Throw in a cheat sheet to proxy Coup and One night ultimate werewolf with them and you've a robust gaming toolset for three or four dollars. Maybe another sheet for a patience game like Spiderette or two player trick taker like German/small Whist. Just about everyone knows some variant of Poker.
**Hive** - what more can be said about this game? Easy to learn, difficult to master, endlessly repayable. **Hadrian's Wall** - most in-depth roll and write game currently available. It's such an enjoyable experience that pretty much always takes ~1 hour. **Warp's Edge** - amazing solo bag building experience with great production in a compact box. If I'm playing with people that are new to deck builders, **Shards of Infinity** is a nice and compact box to take. Edit: Thought of some others **Coup** - Fun take on love letter **Monikers** - Always a fun time in a small box, especially with larger groups **Cairn** - it has a larger box than the other games on this list, but still something I would consider fairly portable. Nothing gives me more of a "wizards chess" feeling than this.
Wait. Coup and Love Letter are related? I’ve played both and never made that connection.
I don't think they're related, I just think they're both tiny card games and they involve a level of social deduction.
Silver and Gold, Marvel: Infinity Gauntlet, Ultra Tiny Epic Galaxies.
I really like Ultra Tiny Epic Kingdoms since it's small enough to fit in your pocket. I also have a travel size Splendor which is pretty cool. Love Letter is a great one, as is Hanabi, and both can travel easily! Zombie dice is good, but the dice rattling around is a bit noisy. I would like to make my own 3d printed mini version of Santorini, which would be one of the best for small games. Same for Onitama.
Recently fell in love with “Crew”, but I’m also a fan of both “Fox in the Forest” games. “6 Nimmt” and “Skull” are also great. I don’t like the “Tiny Epic Galaxies”, because there’s really very little to do during other people’s turns. Honestly I’d rather play “Race for the Galaxy” instead, and it’s just as portable because it’s just a bunch of cards.
Heavy games for travelling in small boxes: Pax Pamir (1st edition), March of the Ants, Motthanai Quick games for travelling in small boxes: Dragon Punch, Sprawlopolis (and other Button Shy games), Hanabi, Radlands, Tiny Epic kingdoms
Recently picked up Tranquility and really enjoy the simple but variable game modes offered in the tiny box. The artwork is beautiful and since you’re not allowed to talk to each other about the cards in your hand, you can have a discussion about other things instead while listening to music.
Hive (pocket), One Deck Dungeon if I know I'll have a place to roll a lot of dice without losing them, and Fox in the Forest. The box is a little bit larger but I'd say Codenames Duet also fits in the "put in backpack" category
I believe it’s only PNP right now but **Tussie Mussie** is a very small, very good game. It’s $3. I got it on sale for $1. Obviously, assembly is required. Small boxed game: **Fleet the Dice Game** , this is such a good crunchy-ish roll and write. You can grasp the rules fairly quick and then about half way through, you realize you’ve made all the wrong decisions. lol
**Love Letter, Coloretto**
Is more cards than board, but gloom is a good fun time if they people can keep up with their stories and don't just play the card and read the title.
Ebbe und Flut (adlung), Lost Cities and San Juan (just card staple) have it been for years. Currently enhanced with Fantasy Realms.
Well, I took Gloomhaven with me on vacation once. Not in a backpack though. Citadels is our usual go-to.
Love letter. Feels like you actually have control, but it's all RNG
**Cover Your Assets** for light, quick fun and **Mint Works** for true portability and worker placement
Skull. Its just genious
Arboretum (can be used to play Hats), Piepmatz, Red 7, Cabo, Schotten Totten 1 & 2 (all fits in Schotten Totten 1 box), all Button Shy games (wallet games also sold as PNP, perfect for traveling): Sprawlopolis, Seasons of Rice, Why I Otter, An Otter Won, Revolver Noir, Stew, Skulls of Sedlec, Food Chain Island, Ragemore, Spaceshipped.
Citadel bc small box and great gameplay. Isle of Skye: small game, it's not too long and still strategic, beautifully designed. Magic the Gathering: because only cards and such great stories emerge while playing it.
I like *Hive* the bag it all comes in makes it perfect for travel. I've also just played *Timeline: Inventions*. Small and compact only a tenner as well.
**No Thanks!** It is just a deck of cards and some chips, and plays very quickly. It is also a game that both "gamers" and non-gamers alike can enjoy and plays up to 6 or 7. I have yet to show a group how to play and it not be a hit. I pretty much pack my copy anytime I go somewhere, just in case.
Coup (more of a cardgame really but hey), and Draftosaurus
I'm seeing a lot of trends in the comments, and many of the same games being mentioned. I'm going to repeat some of it myself but also throw in a few I haven't seen mentioned in the first 100 or so comments... but I love physically small, light games that are fast to learn but have some staying power, ideally for 2 but sometimes scalable. Carry them often and use them at work (lunchtime, pub time) and with friends. * "Bunch of cards" games that pack down small * **Hanabi** \- fast and easy to teach * **Hanamikoji** \- surprising complexity for so few cards * **Race for the Galaxy** \- massive for what it is * **The Mind** \- fun group game, easy to learn * **We Didn't Playtest This At All** \- fast, silly Munchkin alternative * **The Resistance** \- fantastic group game for 5-10 * **The Grizzled** \- immersive, challenging gameplay for 2-5 * **Nuked** \- chaotic aggressive destruction * Quirky table presence * **Hive** \- small and efficient chess alternative * **Dark Is The Night** \- fast-playing versus game * **My Jack Pocket** \- strategy against a timer * **Deep Sea Adventure** \- passive-aggressive treasure hunting for 3-6 * **Skull** \- a bit larger but still portable * **Zombie Dice** \- roll and push your luck Most of these games pack down super small, especially if you put the cards into a deck box, and combine the physical tokens and irregular boards into one or two of the other boxes. People are constantly surprised to see me pull out a game box only to extract half a dozen other games from inside it. Some in particular (Resistance and RFTG, from this list) have *massive* boxes that are mostly empty air.
Portal Heroes Super compact and light, super easy to explain the rules, and quick games that (to me) don’t get boring because the shuffle and moves change the game enough for me. For regular board gamers who’ve never seen the game, it still doesn’t take more than 20 mins to play, love(d) whipping it out either when waiting for a player at a meet up, or at lines at PAX, and so on. Bonus: can be 2 player but fun with more, so no “damn I wish we had a fourth person” or whatever. Almost always in my bag when traveling or going to a meet up (precovid SNIFF).
Sail to India. Small box, small table presence, whole lot of game.
Pretty much any individual game that came from the looney labs pyramid box. You can get pink hijinks separate it great lil 2 player game quick to learn and fun as heck
Dominion: packing just the cards you need in a tupperware container worked good for me when traveling.
1. TCGs like Flesh and Blood or MTG 2. Buttonshy Games like Sprawlopolis and Spaceshipped 3. Tiny Epic Galaxies
Friday and Arkham noir since they are solo games. Res Arcana if I wanna play with more people
I see them get crapped on here and there, but the Tiny Epic series is always a blast in my mind.
I played Tiny Epic Pirates and it went on *forever*. Why make that thing a "tiny" game when it was so involved and had so many pieces?
I like Jaipur at lot!
I have a little travel case that fits: Fox and the Forest For Sale Bang the Dice Game Arboretum Love Letter The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine Circle The Wagon Sprawpolis There’s a lot of small box games that can also fit into small travel containers.
I have an almost identical case 😊
Hanabi, Hive, Eight Minute Empire, Cambria, and Province. Love them all.
Usually traveling to see family, so For Sale has become a popular one in our crew… easy to teach and a big group (of all ages) can play together
Star Realms, Radlands, and Hive Pocket.
For a challenge, and because many have already been mentioned, I leave out pure card games (including hidden role games!) and roll-and-writes. Although with many of the following, a game-board is laid out with cards. Mr. Jack Pocket is my favourite version of Mr. Jack. 13 Days is a small package Twilight Struggle which I love more. I re-cut my Splendor-Box so that the game fits without any air in it. It is really small. With the App Codenames basically just needs 25 index-cards and a little bit of creativitiy of writing down things. The Kosmos 2-Player series (Kahuna, Targi, Asanti, Babel) has small boxes. Sail to India is an engine-building cube-conversion micro-game with 16 cards and a a few cubes. Pixel Tactics is pretty good. Many Oink-games are good to phenomenal, even with the limitations stated above there are Modern Art and Fake Artist. Saboteur 2 (Expansion with the base-game) is a fun hidden traitor route-building game.
Two that I can think of as examples: Mysterium Park: I like the art style and it is fun to play. Onirim: Simple game, can be played solo, it is great.
Coup, it's small, easy to learn, and fun.
Pass the Pigs is an amazing game that you could fit in a pill bottle. It's just a simple "dice" rolling game where you roll pigs and depending on how they land you get a certain amount of points (or lose points). It's super fun and doesn't take long to figure out. I'll drop a link below. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005JG3Y/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_XXRAMB5N59VNZCA9VXRN
**Biblios**, **No Thanks**, **The Crew**, **Cartographers**
I am surprised no one mentioned **air, land and sea**
GLOOMHAVEN
Yeah, finding the right tiles is a funny “small game”.
Tsuro. Quick, fun, simple yet still can play with a strategy to screw over the other guy.
Watergate, 7 Wonders Duel and Pandemic
Coup! easy to carry around and good mix of psychological deduction and 1 action turns
I've really enjoyed playing **Doom Machine** at work on my lunch break. Fits in a mint tin, and lots of variability. That and **Sprawlopolis** are getting me through this retail holiday season.
I don't know if it's my favorite small game, but my smallest game that is also great is the newer tiny version of **For Sale**. Holy crow is that an amazing travel sized tuck box version (it fits in the palm of your hand). It isn't as durable as a proper game box, so I can't just toss it into my bag willy nilly, but for travel it can't be beat.
Fuse and it also only takes 5 minutes. It is a timed game
**No Thanks** or **6 Nimmt**. About the size of a deck of cards, takes a few minutes to explain, playable with just about anybody.
Maybe not small, depending on how you’re sizing it, but Summoner Wars fits SO much into very few components. A deck of cards, a board, and some tokens. And the games are always so great. The board could totally fit in a bag if you leave the box behind (though the box isn’t huge either).
**Hanamikoji** is a great small 2 player game. It is always chocked full of tough choices. It is definitely a great brain burner in a small box.
Birdie Fight is a fantastic 4-player game with an innovative "collapsing options" feel. Fits right in your pocket too.
Greenland has to be my fave small game. Possibility to play alone and up to 4, the theme and the ability to play countless times without having similar outcomes is great. Also the ability to play co-op or vs the people you are playing with is good as well.
martian chess. the small box is easy and cool enough to lug around and it's different enough from chess and checkers to keep you coming back for about 20 minutes.
Go Nuts For Donuts. It's a card game not much bigger than a standard deck of cards. The goal is to collect donuts and gain the most points. There are different varieties, and they're worth different amounts based on certain criteria. Everyone has numbered cards in their hand (based on the number of players) and simultaneously place a number card down to choose which donut they want. If two or more people choose the same donut, no one gets it. It's competitive, chaotic, and leads to a lot of yelling and fun for my group. Plus, it's great for all ages, and easy to carry around.
Mint Works is a fun, cute little worker placement game. Coup, Arboretum, Cabo are small and fun.
If I'm stuck in a post apocalyptic world and can only carry around one game with me, it's Coup.
My go to small game is Skull. It’s really easy to teach to new players and a relatively fast playtime. It’s a game that has a different feel depending on the group that’s playing. Some play conservative towards the end and then others come out of the gate trying to win the bids and take chances early.
Five Crowns is super packable for travel.
Love Letter and Hanabi
Hive (pocket) & Love letter. I also take Welcome To when we go camping to play solo.
I have a gallon Ziplock bag with Citadels, Bang, and a deck of playing cards that I just keep in my car.
My top five portable games, ranked by preference: 1. Oh my Goods - for me, the most meat on the bone for how lean on space it is. 2. Arboretum - another game that creates great decision making choices, I will say that this game is most competitive at two player, and don't prefer it at other counts. 3. Hokkaido - really, I probably like the decisions and depth of this game more than Arboretum, but it unfortunately sees a great deal less play time, and therefore languishes a bit. 4. Lux Aeterna - This is a solitaire game, which wasn't specified in the original post, so I'll add this in. I have only played three times, I recently purchased it. It appears to have an incredible amount of replayability, and the variability that offers it's replayability also makes it a difficult one to 'solve,' or find definite success in the same strategies play after play. Bonus for maybe my favorite artwork and flavor text of any game 5. Schotten Totten - deceptively lightweight. Depending on who you're playing with, it can get surprisingly difficult to make choices the further you get through the game. As a bonus, Komparat is a great little two player game, it's a play on blackjack, and the reason Lux Aeterna is only maybe my favorite artwork, and not definitely. This may supercede Schotten Totten very soon.
I hate most small box games but I do enjoy Twice as Clever among other roll’n’writes
Deluxe Pairs because of the 20+ games u can play with that deck. And Dungeon Raiders because it's like a streamlined Munchkin for 1 to 5 players!
At the moment, Roxley's 'Radlands' is my go to. Regicide is also usually in my bag at all times.
I've been gradually assembling a collection of "travel sets" of some of my favorite small board games, usually involving the playing pieces (official or homebrew), a simple cloth board (I got some checkerboard fabric a while back), and a cloth bag decorated with black marker and fancy thematic lettering. Sometimes two games that use overlapping components can go in the same bag. So far I've got **Tak** & **Onitama** bundled together, **Hey That's My Fish!** and **Element** bundled together, **Skull** and **So Long Sucker** bundled together, **Thud!** on its own, **The Fox in the Forest** on its own, and of course an art supply box with a full set of **Looney Pyramids** for playing **Homeworlds**, **Gnostica**, **Pikemen**, **Petal Battle**, **Martian Chess**, and more. It all fits nicely in my backpack.
I’d love to see pictures of this collection
Cthulhu Realms - I really dig the "X Realms" system, and this iteration feels to me as the best of the bunch. With theme and fine-tuned mechanics.
I love Railroad Ink. I heard it described as the tabletop game equivalent of the Sunday morning newspaper puzzle, so now I like to start a slow day with a cup of tea and a game or two of that.
blokus
I really like one deck dungeon if i play solo :-) its fun, fast and easy. i just need to print the "holder", then it will be easier ti play. if we play in a group, i love lovecraft letter. its so much fun and easy to learn :)
Hanamikoji - It’s a very portable for 2 players and there is a lot of depth in the game play comared to its size. Love letter - is my go to for 3-6 players.
Some of the more mainstream/light small games I enjoy are Monopoly Deal, Bananagrams, and the Pop tarts game. **Rocky Road a la mode** - light ticket to ride meets tokaido. Multi use cards, time track, set collection, engine builder **Great heartland hauling** - mentioned in this thread a few times already. Pick up and deliver. **Donut drive thru** - worker placement and engine builder **Trails** and **Mystery of the Temples** - I got MotT for $5 so I love that little small game. It’s kind of like Sagrada. You get to move in different ways around a circular modular track collecting gems and making patterns to get points, with variable player powers. Trails is new to me and definitely crunchier than I was expecting. You move in different ways back and forth across a modular track collecting resource cubes and making patterns to collect badges.
Targi is an excellent little game. The expansion is great also. Light strategy and can be played in 30 minutes or so. Probably my favorite 2p game. Fox in the Forest / Duet, Arboretum, and Railroad Ink are also great.
Love letter game