H is a dud, so the two boys and I need some three player games next week while we’re recovering from hiking at GNP all day!
Rummy
Phase 10
UNO
Scrabble, bannagrams, hearts, trumps, even mah jong with real tiles can be played 3-handed.
Skat. Learned to play in Germany - it’s a really great card game. https://www.pagat.com/schafk/skat.html
SushiGo! Is a terrifically fun drafting card game. And the cards are so darn cute! https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/133473/sushi-go
Bananagrams–great game. It’s obsessive. Cartagena is another fun board game, which 3 can play. Played both this summer with adult kids at vacation place.
Pandemic is a pretty fun cooperative game that can be played with 3 players. Also Settlers of Catan, but it’s slightly better with 4 players IMO.
I haven’t heard of hearts or mahjong being played with 3 players (I’ve only played 4-player for each) but I’ll check them out sometime.
Scrabble can be played 3 players, but most serious Scrabble players will recommend 2 players (or teams) since there is a lot more luck involved in a 3- or 4-player game.
Quiddler is one of my favorite card games.I take it with me on family trips all the time.
Ticket to Ride is a fun board game.
Boggle.
Three handed cribbage.
Farkle is a dice game that works for any size group and very portable.
Quiddler and Five Crowns are our favorite card games. Dominion also is a great card game. Since we started playing Settlers of Catan three years ago, we rarely choose to play any other board game.
I like Settlers of Catan, but the game we played obsessively last summer was Dominion. It’s a bit more complicated than the other games mentioned, but we really like it. There’s a basic box you start with which has sets of cards. You use a subset of those cards so that the winning strategy can be different each time you play. And if you get bored wiht the original box there are themed expansions.
If you like playing board games I highly recommend watching the youtube videos called “Tabletop”. They feature people playing the games and provide a review of the game as well. They are pretty funny, and helpful to see if it’s your kind of game or not. (For example our family hates all Mafia type games.) Bonus if features Wil Wheaton (aka Wesley Crusher) as the host.
My problem with cooperative games like Pandemic is that we always end up with a team leader who orders all of us around. So it gets boring. The only one I’ve enjoyed is Space Alert which is designed so that while it’s cooperative there are portions of the game where you aren’t allowed to talk to your team.
Cards versus Dice is an awesome three player game. Good 4 + player game as well. It has the added benefit of being cheap, simple, and easy to learn. We are really enjoying it.
Clue, Monopoly, Yahtzee, can all be played 3 handed easily. Gin and its variants can be played with 3 players as well.
Hearts can be played with varying numbers of players, including 3.
[Nuclear War](Tunnels & ■■■■■■ - Rebellion Unplugged) is another card game that can be played with varying numbers of players, including 3.
Yes, 3-handed cribbage is fun. 7 Wonders can be played with 3 people(or more). Yahtzee can be played with 3, tho haven’t done so in ages.
Hoopla is noisy fun. It’s a cross between pictionary, charades and passwords. It’s a cooperative game where the team races against the clock. The funniest thing is that when we played it as a family we were able to guess things so fast on clues that nobody would ever get. Even the person giving the clue would get confused and someone else would still guess the answer out of the seeming blue. It was like having mental telepathy. Guess we know each other too well!
Another vote for watching Table Top for anyone interested in games. There are so many new games and it gives you a chance to see how complicated it is and player dynamic before buying. It also is a release if you never can get a group together to try out new games!
Ticket to Ride
Mexican train. It can be played with 2 or more. No board required, just the domino tiles.