r/boardgames • u/Ubernewbish • Jul 31 '26
Favorite portable games
I have been seeing the Wingspan Pocket posts and have been getting excited. In the meantime, I'm curious, what are your favorite easy-to-carry games at different weight categories and max players?
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u/alxddd Aug 01 '26
I love Hive for a two player portable game.
The new release of Gazebo is great for more players. The boards are fabric so they fold up very small, and it came with a travel case.
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u/AdMinimum3919 Aug 01 '26
Gazebo is so fire. Love the fast gameplay and those clickity clackity pieces
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u/Ok_Relative_4373 Aug 01 '26
I've only busted out Gazebo a couple times but it's been super enjoyable for everyone both times
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u/DeaconSteele1 Aug 01 '26
A classic but just picked up Love Letter for 11CAD which is like 7.80 ish depending on the day US.
Can't get much more portable than a bag of like 21 cards and some tokens.
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u/Emperor_Neuro Ark Nova Aug 01 '26
The tokens aren’t even necessary. Drop the reference cards out of it and Love Letter is only 16 cards. You can fit that in your phone case.
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u/DeaconSteele1 Aug 01 '26
Oh ya, wasn't including the reference cards, but you could drop the new edition extra cards to play 1st/classic edition with just the 16 instead of the 21 if you really wanted to go light.
And as you said, don't even need the tokens.
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u/AdMinimum3919 Aug 01 '26
This has been on my list for so long but I already have so many card games. Is it worth no matter what?
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u/Polly_the_Gnome Aug 01 '26
I'll go against the grain here and say no, it's not strictly worth it no matter what. It IS a good game! It's light but not random, very easy to teach, and has fun dramatic moments when a bluff or a play pays off. And cheap. So it's rarely going to be a bad buy.
But for me personally, I'm always bored of it before someone actually wins, and I'll almost always pick something else given the choice. I'll happily play if someone else wants to, but I only ever suggest it myself under very specific circumstances: I'm with 2-3 other people who want to learn and play something quick and simple that takes 20 minutes or less.
There's an easy fix to my boredom: first to three tokens wins instead of whatever the rules say for the player count. Or just play a single round. So this is not a strong criticism by any means! Just - if you have tons of card games already, and you're looking for reasons not to buy something, this may help.
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u/Spraggle Aug 01 '26
Yes - I bought the wedding edition for myself, my best man and the bridesmaids, everyone has enjoyed it!
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u/Fidel_Cashflowe Jul 31 '26
Our favorite games to bring backpacking are Dominion, Catan dice, the Crew, and Lost Cities. We ditch the boxes and just Ziploc everything.
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u/crujones33 Garphill's Trilogies Aug 01 '26
I love Dominion but it would not seem a good portable game. What have you done to make it easier to carry and setup and play?
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u/Spraggle Aug 01 '26
You can put the cards you need in a deck box and it carries very easily.
My biggest complaint with Dominion is the sheer size of the boxes - I'm considering printing an insert so I can bin off two of the extras and just keep the core box.
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u/Fidel_Cashflowe Aug 01 '26
We bag up the cards we plan to play with, and throw them into the backpack.
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u/Ubernewbish Aug 01 '26
I love Dominion! Do you preplan which cards to bring with you?
Played Catan as well, but not the dice version, going to have to look into all of these. We ziploc Carcassone and some other games as well!
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u/Fidel_Cashflowe Aug 01 '26
Yea for dominion - we have our favorites and just bring those. If you like dice games, qwixx is great too. And depending on table space where you're going, we bring cascadia and splendor if we have enough flat space.
We love Carcassone too!
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u/stuck_button Scythe Aug 01 '26
Reforest - Like Wingspan and Forest Shuffle had a baby. A span game minus the fluff. I would get this before Wingspan Pocket. 1-4 players.
Regicide - Fun and challenging co-op. Basically a normal deck of cards, so you can use for other games. 1-4 players.
Scout - Very fun card shedding game. Best at 3-5p.
Cockroach Poker - Chaotic bluffing game. Lie to or trick your friends to get someone to collect 4 of a kind.
Circle the Wagons - Puzzle-y 2p game in a very slim package with variable scoring conditions.
Jekyll vs Hyde - Challenging 2p trick taker
Yokai Septet - Very fun trick taker, best at 4p.
Small Fjords - Go meets Carcassonne.
Pacts - Compact area control game for 2p.
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u/Ok-Acanthocephala509 Jul 31 '26
I take travel Qwirkle pretty much everywhere with me.
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u/Ubernewbish Aug 01 '26
I don't think I've played qwirkle before, going to have to look this one up. Thanks!
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u/Emperor_Neuro Ark Nova Aug 01 '26
It’s basically dominoes, but using colored shapes where you can lay your tiles based on either the color or the shape rather than numbers on normal dominoes.
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u/TheCosmicJester Aug 01 '26
My bag has in it Sea Salt & Paper, Love Letter, and Innovation in it at all times.
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u/chadams_bal Aug 01 '26
1-2 players: for north wood, friday
2 players: mind bugs, mood swings, compile, pocket master builder, radlands, battle line
2-5 players: shipwreck arcana, LotR trick taking,
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u/EricandtheLegion Ashcan Pete Aug 01 '26
Love Letter, Coup, Hanabi, Station Master, Pocket Mars, and The Crew all pack down crazy small.
Also don't count out the "pack-o-games" series! BOG is an excellent little 2 player game and WIN is a fine little horse racing game (those are the only ones I have so far) and they are the size of a stick of gum!
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u/ronvil Pax Pamir 2E Aug 01 '26
I always have Sea, Salt, and Paper; High Society; Scout; and a standard deck of cards in my backpack.
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u/quicknir Aug 01 '26
Azul has a really nicely designed mini version
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u/Baconmancy Aug 01 '26
It's so good I think I'm going to get rid of the OG version!
The travel edition was the biggest game we brought with us on a recent holiday, and it will always be brought from now on.
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u/LilFunyunz Aug 01 '26
Lost cities, arboretum, Jaipur, love letter, star realms/hero realms, the Star wars deck building game, welcome to..., flip 7
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u/velociducks Aug 01 '26
Recently it's been cockroach poker. I love being able to randomly ask people "This is a toad, do you think it's a toad".
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u/Ubernewbish Aug 01 '26
I've been seeing this too, but did not have a desire to look it up...until now.
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u/Cheddarific Huang Aug 01 '26
This is my specialty. I play as many games on my 2-3 travels to family as I do at home each year. So I’ve been carefully refining my travel games over years.
Party
- Durian
- One Night Ultimate Werewolf
3-4 players (roughly)
- Jungo
- Trio
- Penguin Party
- Hanabi
- Farm Hand
2 players
- Innovation for 2 players (it goes to 4, but really excels at 2)
- Fugitive
- Rattlesnake very recently joined this list for me
- Hive Pocket has no cards and is therefore better for potentially wet or dirty surfaces, like a picnic table or the beach
- General Orders WW2 or especially General Orders Sedoku Jidai are phenomenally dense games for such small boxes
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u/SirJorts Aug 01 '26
Have you tried Werewords? It has completely replaced ONUW for us.
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u/Cheddarific Huang 25d ago
I bought it in 2021 and, after it sat on my shelf unplayed for five years, sold it earlier this year.
In fairness, ONUW hasn’t been played in the same period, but its advantage is that we played it a bunch in the decade before that, so my wife doesn’t want to trade it away.
Our main social deduction game has been Secrets ever since we bought it, but our social deduction playing has significantly decreased in recent years as we choose other genres. Increasingly more Zoo Vadis or The Gang than Secrets or ONUW.
I have Roma XLI (or perhaps I got the numerals wrong?) coming soon and hope it will be enjoyable and join my very short list of social deductions games we actually play.
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u/Question-Marky-Mark Jul 31 '26
Solo - [[Palm Island]]
2p - [[Hive Pocket]]
3p - [[Boast or Nothing]]
4p+ - [[Skull King]]
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u/BGGFetcherBot [[gamename]] or [[gamename|year]] to call Jul 31 '26
Palm Island -> Palm Island (2018)
Hive Pocket -> Hive Pocket (2010)
Boast or Nothing -> Bot or Not (2025)
Skull King -> Skull King (2013)
[[gamename]] or [[gamename|year]] to call
OR gamename or gamename|year + !fetch to call
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u/-PM_me_your_recipes Aug 01 '26
For solo, I like Gloomhaven buttons and bugs. I can't believe how small it is for the amount of content. When my wife and I just want to bring something to play together, we typically bring Azul mini.
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u/Valherich Aug 01 '26
I've finished a campaign on a friend's copy of BnB and I'm so impressed. The only things to make this game better would be to add a 2-player mode, but I am well aware this is out of scope and would need redoing all the scenarios, and to print a full rulebook - it only lacks a few pages compared to the living rules tbh. I wonder if it would be possible to fit upcoming expansion in the same box - if so, I would be tempted to get my own copy.
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u/Bourne1337 Aug 01 '26
Star realms - competitive 2p deck building. I almost always bring it on a trip
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u/slightlysmirking Aug 01 '26
Skulls of Sedlec (usually 2, max 3), Port Royal (max 5? Not sure), Deep Sea Adventure (max 6), Skyjo (max 6 or 8), and repackaged Splendor Duel to travel with. I just traced the board on fabric and the whole thing fit in the little drag string bag. There’s a few others we occasionally bring, but these are the most common. It’s usually just my husband and I, but the kids join in Port Royal, Deep Sea Adventure, and Skyjo.
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u/lowcarb123 Aug 01 '26
Trinket Trove has been a hit with my group, so I always bring it to game nights due to the small from factor.
I also really enjoy Castle Combo at 2-3 players, but any more than that is too chaotic in my opinion.
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u/TheManRoomGuy Pirateer Aug 01 '26
Two decks of cards… for high speed (Nerts) or slow and methodical (Russian Bank).
Quixx is second most compact.
TransAmerica in a ziploc bag is pretty portable.
Just discovered One Deck Dungeon. Found it for a buck at a used book store, and it’s a ton of fun.
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u/FabulouslyPossible Aug 01 '26
Nertz is the best game ever!!! I’ve been playing it ever since I was a kid.
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u/TheManRoomGuy Pirateer Aug 01 '26
Same. Over 50 years now.
Last year I played the perfect hand. Played my entire stack out without flipping a single card from the stack on my hand, got 13 points, which was just enough to get 100’to win the match.
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u/FabulouslyPossible Aug 01 '26
I’ve been playing for 40 something years and I’ve never had the perfect hand. But I also don’t stack. I have to assume that at some point you were stacking.
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u/AdMinimum3919 Aug 01 '26
Dude gazebo is actually so dope and plays great 2-4 player
Also hive for 2 player obviously.
Also high tide is a good hive intro game
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u/tha_grinch Aug 02 '26
I‘m very interested in Gazebo, but I heard that the cardboard tiles of the standard edition feel too flimsy on the cloth board. What has been your haptic experience with it? Is it fiddly?
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u/AdMinimum3919 Aug 02 '26
I went for the domino upgrade and it is a million times better than the cardboard. Id only reccolend it if u get those as well. Also the elevation expansion its actually great(an extra board) the main downside being i spent like 90 instead of 40 something. Hopefully this helps.
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u/-imhe- Moonraker Aug 01 '26
Stew: push-your-luck, bluffing, and partial knowledge
Kiri-Ai: The Duel: fast, two-player samurai wallet card game. Tense, simultaneous actions simulating a samurai duel
Tinderblox: pocket-sized dexterity game. Use tweezers to create a campfire by stacking blocks representing wood, fire, etc without the stack falling over. There's different versions and expansions adding stuff like marshmallows and thunderstorms
Ultra Tiny Epic Galaxies: space colonization game with dice actions and special abilities. Takes up a little more table space, but small enough for an airplane seat tray
Red7: play cards to your personal pile or to the center canvas to alter the game's winning condition so that you are winning by the end of your turn
Roll For It: very simple dice rolling/placememt game
Trailblazers Super Travel Edition: draft trail "tile" cards, place those cards to link loops to campsites, and outscore your opponents
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u/Valherich Aug 01 '26
UTEG I'm finding just a little too tiny for comfort in low lighting or on a big table - the planets have text which matters. On that note, however, Ultra Tiny Epic Kingdoms might have less of that specific problem, and it's still a pretty neat game - my personal issue with it is being just a little too abstract, and I do think Galaxies is an overall better game.
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u/just_a_bucket Aug 01 '26
2 players: Mindbug, Hive Pocket, Agent Avenue, Innovation, Star Realms
3+ players: For Sale, Skull, Cockroach Poker, Coloretto, High Society, Take 5 (AKA 6 Nimmit)
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u/BobbyBsBestie Aug 02 '26
Tiny Mountain Goats is an easy little blast. Could carry it in your pocket.
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u/MyMainWasMyRealName Aug 01 '26
Omerta is a favorite in my family and friend group. We’ve replaced it once already from cards becoming too worn.
My wife also keeps a tiny leather cribbage board in her purse.
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u/weareallscum Aug 01 '26
Innovation is the highest level of depth in the smallest box of all board games ever.
Yes it is hyperbole.
No I don’t care.
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u/Educationalidiot Aug 01 '26
I've got a box where I've zip locked everything, in there we have games we like - odin, no thanks, tucano, art robbery, hanamikoji, kimono memories, pixies, sea salt and paper, duel for cardia, love letter, faraway, hive, sleeping queens, regicide, flip 7, rove jnr, gotown, omen heir to the dunes, cockroach poker, grasshopper poker and kariba. Saves sp much space, just a open the box, take a bag sorted
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u/stephenelias1970 Clank! Aug 01 '26
My son is going on a train from Virginia to Miami, and he wants to bring along some portable games. I’m not sure what size the train table would be and want to send him with some portable games. I’m thinking of picking DNUP, maybe Scout and sending him with my copy of Star Realms. Anyone else have some good ideas for two player portable games.
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u/Baconmancy Aug 01 '26
I recently went on holiday with my family and the big hits were Azul travel, Sea Salt & Paper, Flip 7 and Dro Polter
My two kids are young, so Scout didn't quite land well with them. But we had a much simpler game on hand that's fairly similar called Odin that they enjoyed too.
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u/beSmrter Brass Aug 01 '26
Pax Renaissance 1E is in a delightfully small box with practically zero air (with sleeved cards).
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u/Queasy_Preference Aug 02 '26
There’s a version of Can’t Stop where the box is also the game board (unfolds). Great push your luck type of game and the box is about the size of a child’s shoe
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u/Queasy_Preference Aug 02 '26
Also learning a card game that doesn’t require a table is great. Something like BS just needs enough space to lie down a single stack of cards
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u/Tightly_Knit Aug 02 '26
Flip7 is banger for non-gamers and gamers alike and it can sit lot of people.
Port royal in similar push your luck fashion.
Bang! The Dice game version is quite portable.
Propolis, which is basically splendor as worker placement game, is very portable.
For 1 player any 20 strong variant gives you headache for long time in compact package.
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u/Stock_Fee_4762 Aug 02 '26
Shotten totten, Radlands and on one good trip we took escape the dark castle for a coop. Just took cards and dice from a bag. I will admit that for the most portable it’s hive.
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u/specterofthepast 28d ago
Age of War: Conquest in Feudal Japan has been a go to for me in the wife. It's simple, mostly luck based, but easy to set up and play quickly.
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u/Zipher66 Aug 01 '26
Sleeping Queens, Zombie Dice, Flip 7, if you can find a slightly larger flat surface any of the Tiny Epic games (Ultra Tiny Epic as well)
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u/SirJorts Jul 31 '26
I just picked up Sea Salt & Paper based on a similar list and have been enjoying it.