this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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Board Games

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Looking For a Simple, Short, Portable 2 Player game (discuss.online)
submitted 5 days ago by umean2me@discuss.online to c/boardgames@sopuli.xyz
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Im familiar enough with board games to know that I’m asking a lot here. My goal is to have a game that I can carry around with me, walk up to people I meet in public, and ask them to play.

The most obvious path here I thought of would be some type of game played with a standard deck of cards. While I’m not opposed to this, I fear the randomness that comes with that might not be what I’m looking for. I want the game to be strategic with minimal luck but simple enough that a first time player could reasonably win against someone experienced.

Something like Hive comes to mind, as it has the pocket variation and seems like it could be easy enough to teach, but I have yet to play it so I fear it might be daunting to newcomers in ways similar to chess.

Thank you in advance for any and all answers, and if you would like further clarification I’d be happy to elaborate!

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[–] IndigoGollum@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Go might be a good option. It uses a simple square grid or checker board, and only has one kind of piece per player. The rules are super simple. Play time depends on the players' skill and the size of the board.

Also good is Pente, which uses the same pieces and board as 19x19 Go. It also has simple rules and is easy to learn.

Checkers is an option. I haven't played it enough to know how strategic it gets.

All of these are easiest to port if you have a board that rolls instead of folding.