Summer games you can play without anything
Of course, these days you'll find plenty of board games on store shelves designed specifically for summer or travel—and luckily, more and more people are rediscovering the joy of board gaming.
But we’ve put together a few ideas and practical suggestions for what you can play when you didn’t bring enough games with you—whether it was on purpose or by accident.
Written by
Máté Lencse
Educator, game designer,
founder of PlayWise
Why listen to him?
Máté has been regularly playing modern board games and classic abstract board games since 2013. He plays because he loves to. He plays because as an educator, it is his most important motivational and developmental tool. He plays because as a father, it is one of the highest quality times spent with his daughter. He plays because it adds to his marriage. He plays because this is how he can best connect with many of his friends. He plays to get to know games and as a game designer, to be able to create new ones. Thus, it's not surprising that he often plays through 15-20 games weekly. Learn more about him and his background on his author page or follow him on social media:
At PlayWise, this is a topic we care deeply about—it’s probably no surprise, given how often we write and reflect on it. While we do explore board games in their classic, physical form, we honestly believe a shift in mindset is needed: board games should be treated as play, not products.
We should try to separate the joy of play from the consumerist urge to possess. And what better time to do that than summer—full of movement, travel, and time spent outdoors?
This article pulls in a few games from our previous posts (those are worth revisiting too!), but you’ll also find new ideas to try out!
Games you can play with just a deck of cards
Sure, I know this is kind of cheating—but a deck of cards is basically nothing.
Whenever someone asks me what game I’d take to a desert island if I could only bring one, my answer is always the same: a deck of standard playing cards. Because with that, you can play almost anything.
First step? It’s worth refreshing—or learning—a few classic card games you can play with a standard deck of cards. And even just doing that, you’ll start to realize what a treasure you’re holding in your hands. Here are a few popular examples: Poker, Bridge, Rummy, Hearts, Spades, Euchre, Piquet, President, Cheat, Go Fish.
But it’s not just the classics—there are also plenty of modern, creative game ideas that use a standard deck of cards. In this genre, David Parlett has undoubtedly created some of the most enduring contributions.
A legendary game designer (Hare & Tortoise), Parlett has made many of his card game inventions freely available on his website. You can explore his card games by clicking here.
It’s definitely worth browsing and trying them out. If you’re looking for something a bit more complex, the one I personally recommend is Ninety-Nine.
Games to play with just a few dice
Since we already allowed ourselves a bit of “cheating” with the deck of cards, it's worth thinking about dice games too—specifically the kind where you really don’t need anything else besides the dice themselves.
For inspiration, we can once again turn to a legendary game designer: Reiner Knizia, who wrote a book called Dice Games, in which he describes nearly 150 dice-based games—plus several variations, bringing the total number of rule sets close to 200.
For Pig, you only need a single die and at least two players, though it works well with four or five players too. The winner is the one who first reaches 100 points, which you accumulate by adding up the values of your rolls. When it's your turn, you simply roll and add up the value of your rolls.
For instance, a roll of 5 followed by a roll of 6 means you have 11 points. But be careful! The twist of the game is that if you roll a 1, you reset your score for that round. So, if you roll a 5 and a 6 and then a 1, you score 0 points for that round and must pass the die to the next player. You can prevent this by writing down your accumulated points. For example, if you roll a 6, a 4, and a 3, you can choose to write down these 13 points, which are then safe. However, you must then also pass the die to the next player, ending your turn.
Remember: your turn also ends if you roll a 1. The first player to reach or exceed 100 points wins the game.
Pig is a real mischievous game; it always surprises me how well it can hold attention. Nobody checks out when it's not their turn because we must pay attention to the others, in case they also roll a one, and we can tease them a bit.
Games you can play with just a few stones
One of my absolute favorites in this category is Nim. You really don’t need anything—just 15 of something. Pebbles, matchsticks, buttons, whatever you’ve got. And just like that, the game is on!
There are many variations, let's now look at the one where you arrange 15 pebbles (or whatever you're using) into piles of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, like this:
The game can be played by two people. Taking turns, players pick up pebbles, and the winner is the one who can pick up the last pebble. The only rule for picking up is that you can only take from one pile per turn, but you can take any number from that pile. So, if you choose the pile with 4 pebbles, you can pick up 1, 2, 3, or 4 pebbles—it's your choice, but you can't take from another pile in that turn!
Another thing I’d recommend: it’s really worth knowing a bunch of simple two-player abstract games. Most of the time, all you need are a few stones in two different colors—and the game board can be drawn right in the sand.
Take Lahti, for example—it’s played on a simple 5×2 grid.
