Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have a dedicated D&D group of eight people that meets once a week. Every now and then, we decide to take a break from D&D to play board games or run a different RP system just to keep things from getting stale. The RP systems aren't really a problem as they tend to scale fairly well for larger groups, but it's really hard to find board games and card games for more than 4 players. Sometimes while we're on our breaks from D&D, some of the other players bring their wives, so we have had as many as ten players at a time. Thus far, our mainstays are Munchkin (always fun), Zombies (though a couple of player usually have to use dice to represent themselves), and Smash Up (if you haven't tried this yet, it's freaking amazing!). My question is what games do people play when they have large groups? I'd really like to get some ideas.

Have you considered splitting into pods? Splitting in half gives you two groups of four, which is optimal for a lot of games.

Mercs is a co-op board game that can have 6 players.

Diplomacy (and Colonial Diplomacy) is good for 7.

I believe AH's Advanced Civilization goes up to 8 players, but I'm not positive. Talisman can be played with any number of people, but will take FOREVER to finish.

Betrayal at the House on the Hill, and Smallworld are both personal favorites of mine, and can have up to six players. Unfortunately, I'm at a loss for 8 player board games.

Not cheap, currently on FFG's reprint list and not everyone's cup of tea, but Twilight Imperium (3rd edition) has up to 6 players in the base game, and one of the expansion packs brings it up to 8.

Another space empires game is Star Trek Ascendancy which is due out in the next few weeks IIRC, the base game covers three players but they're also releasing expansions to add other races/players - so far they've got two announced but apparently they've said they plan a dozen in total.

Settlers of Catan has 4 players max (base game) but can go up to 6 with the appropriate expansions.

I think combining multiple Zombicide boxes should technically give you an infinite amount of players. Scale up the scenario sizes, add more survivors and zombies as needed, and there you go!

Hope this helps.

It's not cheap but Fortune and Glory goes up to 8 players, it's an Indiana Jones type fight Nazis/the mob for ancient artifacts through Zeplin fights, cargo plane mishaps, and Yeti fights in the Sahara. I will admit, it's a little random for some people, you get a random character, gear is given mostly at random, the adventures are completely random, with the players drawing cards to see the challenges ahead, it's a lot of decks of cards to see what comes up but it's good fun if you can get into the spirit of it IMO, and the component quality is nice, good cardstock, good minis, and a Zeplin mini!

Another vote for Betrayal at House on the Hill, amazing fun for up to 6 players, and a new expansion coming out around mid October.

Another one I'd consider is BANG! Pretty fun card/bluffing cowboy game, good for about 5-7 players.

If you're looking at 8+, games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf are pretty decent.

BANG! is a great game if there are a few non-gamers in the mix. It's fun and easy without any of that dirty nerdy feel to it .

Betrayal at House on the Hill actually works better with a large number of players, and should fit your roleplaying group well, because it has rpg elements to it. Highly recommended, but try to get the most recent version, the original 2004 version has some serious typos.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10547/betrayal-house-hill

Secret Hitler, that was released a couple of weeks ago, is also a lot of fun. It's playable with up to 10 players, it doesn't have complicated rules or a lot of downtime, and it lends itself well to roleplay. I understand Secret Hitler is similar to the various versions of Werewolf, but unlike Werewolf, Secret Hitler doesn't need a player acting as moderator. There's also less player elimination, which is kind of the premise of Werewolf.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/188834/secret-hitler
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25821/werewolves-millers-hollow

Small World doesn't allow more than 5 players, but with some expansions, you can play with 6 players. I suppose if you combine Small World with SW: Underground and the tunnels mini-expansion, you could play it with up to 10 players, and with the River World expansion coming out this year, I suppose you could be as many as 15 players. Which in my experience would be nearly unplayable. Small World is great though.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40692/small-world
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/97786/small-world-underground
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/207121/small-world-river-world

Another favourite of mine is Cosmic Encounter, and if you get the first three expansion packs, you could play with as many as 8 players. I've tried 8 players, and while it was fun, it was too chaotic, and the game clearly isn't suited for 8 players. 6 players should be all right though. If you enjoy Small World, you might like Cosmic Encounter as well, because they're kind of similar.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/39463/cosmic-encounter

I would steer clear of Diplomacy and Twilight Imperium, which were recommended by some of the other posters in this thread. Twilight Imperium is a pretty good game, but it breaks down with more than six players because of the downtime while waiting for your turn. This gets progressively worse with more players, and because of the board setup you're less likely to interact with 1/3 of your opponents. Also, you should never play Diplomacy with people you want to remain friends with.

Hmm. Interesting suggestions. I'll have to find a copy of Small World for sure. I think Twilight Imperium and Diplomacy might be more involved than what most of my players are looking for. We try to keep game time below four hours when we can. About half the group has kids to get home to. All in all, some good suggestions. Another one I'm looking at is FFG's Arkham Horror. Haven't played since college, but if I remember right, it can go up to 8 players. Also the pod idea is a definite possibility. I have a cook-out coming up next weekend. May have to try that idea out.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. More ideas are always welcome.

 EnTyme wrote:
Hmm. Interesting suggestions. I'll have to find a copy of Small World for sure. I think Twilight Imperium and Diplomacy might be more involved than what most of my players are looking for. We try to keep game time below four hours when we can. About half the group has kids to get home to. All in all, some good suggestions. Another one I'm looking at is FFG's Arkham Horror. Haven't played since college, but if I remember right, it can go up to 8 players. Also the pod idea is a definite possibility. I have a cook-out coming up next weekend. May have to try that idea out.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. More ideas are always welcome.

Funny you say that, I started a thread a couple weeks ago on that too! The general consensus was pick up Eldritch Horror (same theme/game as Arkham) if you like world hopping and tighter rules/quicker play. Arkham Horror is a bit more complex/detailed and is USA focused.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/702396.page

Eclipse is a 4X space game with an economic bent that plays up to 9 with the expansion, it does play 30-45 mins per player though (quicker with more experienced players usually) so be aware of that.

 FakeBritishPerson wrote:
It's not cheap but Fortune and Glory goes up to 8 players, it's an Indiana Jones type fight Nazis/the mob for ancient artifacts through Zeplin fights, cargo plane mishaps, and Yeti fights in the Sahara. I will admit, it's a little random for some people, you get a random character, gear is given mostly at random, the adventures are completely random, with the players drawing cards to see the challenges ahead, it's a lot of decks of cards to see what comes up but it's good fun if you can get into the spirit of it IMO, and the component quality is nice, good cardstock, good minis, and a Zeplin mini!

A Touch of Evil by the same company can also be scaled up to at least eight players - potentially more. It requires some expansion buying, but the core game is cheaper than Fortune and Glory. With the core game and two big box expansions you have 16 different heroes and three map areas so you won't be tripping over each other - probably best as a number of smaller teams to keep things going.

- oh, the game itself is basically Sleepy Hollow the board game, you are investigators trying to save the area from a supernatural threat - some sort of monster, of which there are many - which greatly expands replayability. You have to learn the secrets of the town elders and gather gear and allies for the final showdown with the monster, before someone else defeats it first. It's pretty cool.

Haven't tried Touch of Evil, but have played Last Night on Earth, also quite fun, give the Quarterback the chainsaw, it's amazing, but I think Flying Frog makes fun products, I'll look into Touch of Evil, it sounds cool

Beta wrote:Diplomacy (and Colonial Diplomacy) is good for 7.

Also ending friendships from what I hear.

Gashrog wrote:Not cheap, currently on FFG's reprint list and not everyone's cup of tea, but Twilight Imperium (3rd edition) has up to 6 players in the base game, and one of the expansion packs brings it up to 8.

I say this as someone for whom TI is their absolute favorite board game: Do not try to play TI with 8 people. TI is well known as a game that takes an entire session (or more) to play. We usually play at 4 - 6 players and even that takes several hours. I cannot imagine trying to play with all 8.

FakeBritishPerson wrote:It's not cheap but Fortune and Glory goes up to 8 players, it's an Indiana Jones type fight Nazis/the mob for ancient artifacts through Zeplin fights, cargo plane mishaps, and Yeti fights in the Sahara. I will admit, it's a little random for some people, you get a random character, gear is given mostly at random, the adventures are completely random, with the players drawing cards to see the challenges ahead, it's a lot of decks of cards to see what comes up but it's good fun if you can get into the spirit of it IMO, and the component quality is nice, good cardstock, good minis, and a Zeplin mini!

Fortune and Glory is a great suggestion! Kind of expensive, and there are a couple expansions, but if you like more random games it's a great one. It does have some considerable setup/breakdown time though, so I would suggest the game owner arrives a bit early to host. It can be played co-op or competitive though, so it's got some decent replayability on it.

Bromsy wrote:A Touch of Evil by the same company can also be scaled up to at least eight players - potentially more. It requires some expansion buying, but the core game is cheaper than Fortune and Glory. With the core game and two big box expansions you have 16 different heroes and three map areas so you won't be tripping over each other - probably best as a number of smaller teams to keep things going.

- oh, the game itself is basically Sleepy Hollow the board game, you are investigators trying to save the area from a supernatural threat - some sort of monster, of which there are many - which greatly expands replayability. You have to learn the secrets of the town elders and gather gear and allies for the final showdown with the monster, before someone else defeats it first. It's pretty cool.

I will second A Touch of Evil which is (theoretically) scalable to the number of characters in the game (which is a lot). At that point they suggest team play. Like Fortune and Glory the game can be played competitively or co-op, with the monster (and time to play) scaling proportionally with the number of players. Great theme, great components. Like most FFP games though, it is heavily random and often infuriatingly so.

Additional smaller suggestions:

Carcassone is a fairly simple to learn tile/worker placement game. With a couple expansions it scales pretty well in players as you get more tiles. If you have a couple extra meeple sets, you're golden.

7 Wonders is a card drafting game for 2-7 players. It scales somewhat decently and is a "simple to pick up, challenging to master" type that you can learn to play pretty quickly.

Eldritch Horror is for 1-8 players and pits various Investigators against the Old Ones and their minions. It's a more streamlined version of Arkham Horror, which is a great game (and plays 1-8 also) but much like TI takes awhile to set up and break down. I have not played Eldritch Horror, but I've played a ton of Arkham Horror.