Cooperative Family Games?

Ticket To Ride – my 5yo can understand the game enough to play pretty well, my 7yo, 9yo, and 10yo play just fine and I love it too……We’re really sort of addicted to it and play at least once a week.  (And everyday someone plays the app version on our tablet!)

At the beginning of the game, you pick 3 destination tickets and must keep 2.  Then, you set about trying to get from point A to point B (1 destination) and from point C to point D (the 2nd destination).  You collect colored train cards (you get two on each turn).  And turn in those cards when you claim a route.   Then you put your little plastic train cars (there are 5 different colors for the 5 different players) on that route.  And get points.  And then, hopefully, win!

I’m not familiar with any specifically cooperative games, but one of our favourites is “The Farming Game”.  I like it because, unlike Monopoly, when one person does well, it isn’t at the expense of the other players.  With a few adaptations, you could make it cooperative.  Each player has a farm and has to purchase different crops or cattle and try to make a profit.  The object is to be the first player to reach a $250,000 net worth.  You could change that to a combined goal instead.  There are a few cards where the player has to pay an expense, and if someone else owns the right equipment the payment goes to them instead of to the bank, but you could adapt those if you wanted.

My 9 yo old enjoys the game.  My 7 yo can play independently, but doesn’t much because he doesn’t enjoy most board games.  Non readers would need some assistance, but if you are playing cooperatively, that wouldn’t be a big deal.

We did board games at our co-op and we would have kids bring their favorite games. We really like Qwirkle, it only takes 1/2 hour to finish a game. My 8 year old started playing it when he was 5 or 6.

We just bought Dicecapades recently, that would be a good one for a co-op, mix of Trivia, challenges and fun stuff.

Yes!! Sleeping Queens is a favorite here.  Five Crowns is in my shopping list for my family right now.

We love a lot of the games mentioned — Sleeping Queens, Qwirkle, Ticket to Ride, 5 Crowns. None are inherently cooperative but they can be modified.

We we also play a game called Famous Peoples. No special equipment. All you do is have everyone write down 3-4 famous people and put them in a hat. Take turns picking one at a time. In the first round you describe the person with words to get the others to guess it. 2nd round you can only use 3 words. 3rd round you use 1 word and last round you act out with no words. Even knowing which names are in the hat it is very hard to act out the likes of Martha Washington!

Nebby