Concept

As gaming and geek culture continue to run rampant, many new games are relying on increasingly complex game mechanics driven by a series of convoluted rules. And with board games, it's not uncommon for them to come with hundreds of pieces and require hours of your time, but Concept bucks the trend and focuses on what makes a great party game—a simple concept for a big group just looking to have fun. Akin to charades, Concept tasks two-player teams with silently working with their partners to try to get the other players to guess a mystery phrase, but instead of acting out the clues, the team places markers on an icon-filled board to lead guessers in the right direction. For “milk,” players may place markers on “liquid,” “eat,”and “white,” for example. What makes the game so effective is that each icon on the board has multiple meanings, so a “rock” icon could indicate “rock,” “mineral” or “hard,” forcing players to simultaneously think in both a literal and a figurative manner. With secondary and tertiary markers to add meanings, or sub-concepts, the real fun is finding out how your friends think and communicate. Sound simple? Well, then, your phrase is “Allen Ginsberg.” Time starts now!