Host a Game Night With Friends

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If you're tired of the typical dinner-and-a-movie social plans, why not rally a group for a game night? As a host, the responsibilities are delightfully minimal — drinks, chips and salsa

can suffice — though you will need to choose a board game or two and to be able to clearly explain the directions to your guests.

As for the game itself, while you might want a standby like Scrabble or Pictionary on hand, an unfamiliar option may provide a little more diversion for the gathering as a whole. Because

there are so many choices on the market now, we played nearly a dozen and asked a few experts to offer you a handful of new standouts (all available at Amazon.com) that may remind you of

some of your favorite classics. 

Players: 4+

Time: 15+ minutes

Cost: $15.99 

“Skull is the game that killed poker for me,” says Michael James Heron, editor of Meeple Like Us, a game review website. “It gets rid of the card play and replaces it with pure, raw

bluffing.” The goal is pretty straightforward: reveal flower cards and avoid skull ones while goading other players to land on skulls. If that sounds confusing, know that it takes about two

minutes to get the hang of it and even less time to fall in love with it. There’s faking and mental trickery — prepare to get your game face on — in  this this  quick , portable game with

surprisingly pretty cards.

Players: 4+

Time: 20+ minutes

Cost: $34

Wits & Wagers has won dozens of awards and for good reason: As game  researcher  Joe Wasserman of West Virginia University says, it “provides a twist to the trivia game genre. Instead of one

player trying to answer a trivia question correctly, all players answer each question and then place bets on whose answer is closest.” Think of it as similar to the bar game Quizzo with

some carefree gambling thrown in.

Players: 2-5

Time: 30+ minutes

Cost: $34

Using a seven-card hand, players take turns creating words while scoring “money” and rewards along the way. “Letter Tycoon is a true mashup of Scrabble and Monopoly,” explains Jon Freeman, a

clinical psychologist who owns the board-game stores and cafes, the Brooklyn Strategist and Hex & Company. The game even has Mensa’s seal of approval, having won the “Mensa Select” award in

2015.