House party tip #34 — Ensure all your guests interact with each other. As a good host you want to make everyone feel welcomed. In order to have all the guests genuinely bond with each other it is necessary to plan in advance. Even where all the people are of the same blood, a simple group activity can help shake off the dust of time and bring them closer. Family board game Double Ditto does just that. It is that fixed item on your menu which goes with every gathering.
Recipient of the 2016 Game of the Year Award by Creative Child magazine, Double Ditto provides fast entertainment which keeps things tidier compared to ‘A minute to win it’ and extends more thoughtfulness than a pack of ‘Uno’ cards. It has simple rules that can be grasped within five minutes and a format that provides fairness to players from all age groups- 8 to 80 years old. Trust this game to engage a group of ten or more, for anywhere between 20–30 minutes.
You will find that this best board game comes with a sand timer, scoresheets and a bunch of 400 topic cards like ‘Commands you teach your dog’ and ‘Things you put on your head’. Players take turns to be the ‘Ditto Master’ and read aloud the topic for every round. You get only 15 seconds to write down two things that come to your mind. If both your answers match with other players’ then you get 3 points. For one match you get 1 point. The person with the highest total score is the winner.
The unusual choice of answers triggers amusement. You also get to discover who thinks like a pack and who is an outlier. To keep this game timeless, you can also buy its separate expansion pack which consists of 300 additional topics and new scoresheets.
This fun family game is often credited for injecting quick, light fun, into an evening with friends. Popular reviews from users tell us that this game is enjoyable even among a group of six. Often times the sand timer is not introduced. If a topic is considered tough, it is skipped. And married couples often have an advantage as they think alike.
If laughter is the yard stick by which you measure the success of a party, then Double Ditto stands tall. However, be prepared to handle a few disagreements along the way. This is where the instruction card comes to your rescue. It describes lucidly what is considered to be a ‘ditto’. Like ‘fish’ and ‘salmon’ are not a match, but ‘open gift’ and ‘unwrap presents’ are. Another thing to consider is that these answers don’t even have to be correct. For instance, if someone writes Tel Aviv for capital cities of the world, he /she could still score as long as another player has mentioned it, too.
Now that you have taken care of the guests, its time to put up the ball-pit for pets. With Double Ditto family board game on your checklist, you have scored a match for your hospitality.
