The Giant Brain's Favourite Budget Games

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My current favorite is one where budgeting is actually a thing: For Sale! It's quite simple, but the total change in play in the middle of the game is kind of fascinating.

Can’t really argue with anything on the list. I would only add Hanabi and Liar’s Dice, top of class games that match minimal physical materials with maximal interaction.

Love Letter is one of those games I sort of derided from a distance until I actually played it, and after one play I was convinced it was an all-timer. My wife and I bring it with us when we travel, and it's a perfect icebreaker in pubs, hotels, and just about anywhere.

I wish I liked Cockroach Poker more. It's... fine, but I've never played a game where I was having as much fun as everyone else was. I don't really know why, because I've played it at pretty much every player count, with and without beers.

Played Cockroach Poker last night, with 3 other people. I don't think it works unless you play people you can make fun of.

I'd agree with that, it's definitely a game to have aw chat over. Skull kind of fits it this slot as well being pure bluff in tin.

Hanabi I have played, but ultimately moved on after a good few plays. Liar's dice is always going to be a classic and I would love to see more games use it as a base mechanic and build on it.

thegiantbrain wrote: Liar's dice is always going to be a classic and I would love to see more games use it as a base mechanic and build on it.

There are games that use it as a mechanic?

Rhino Hero Super Battle, it LOOKS cool (see the picture), but it actually has a lot less tension because the structure is more stable and you have choices. We play on the hard side of the base boards, all of them, and then don't play with a hand (i.e., just draw a random board to place). That gets that tension back up there.

For Sale is fantastic. I have the travel edition which is a deckbox.

Cockroach Poker is fun, yes, depends on the group. Skull maybe is a little less group dependent for a similar sort of thing.

For the real budget conscious, nothing has beaten my Rage deck, purely because I can play hundreds of different games with it.