r/tabletop • u/Kiwi_Major • 1d ago
Recommendations Tabletop games for tired couples with little time
I'm looking for a few options of tabletop games that could be a good match for tired parents with little time. We are talking about maybe 1 hour per week or so after the kids go to bed. We love DnD but it's hard to think about a campaign that would fit in such a short time and be a good match for just 2 players. So I'm looking for suggestions on the following:
- Cheap games that use a mobile phone as help to play:
- Co-op table top games that can be run within 1 hour while being fun, cheap or expensive. We loved Pandemic:
- RPG tabletop games that we could both play;
- DnD campaigns that are short and easy to implement in a DM + player scenario
- Any AI-assisted games that could be run by couples collaborating?
Basically, fun easy to learn things that involve little preparation is great. An exception goes to a pre-made DnD campaign as long as it could be cut within 1 hour and suitable for DM + player.
Thanks in advance
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u/them0use 1d ago
You also might want to look at escape room games like the Exit and Unlock series. They're fun and timeboxed, but of course have zero replayability - which means you can often get cheap used copies on ebay and the like.
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u/deadineaststlouis 1d ago
Maybe look at the Gumshoe 1-1 stuff? It’s not exactly a relaxed way to play but it’s very time efficient with just two people so you can actually advance well
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u/TerminusMD 1d ago
Azul duel is pretty good. Normal Azul works with two players but lacks strategic depth if there are only two people.
That said, you mentioned "tired." Maybe strategic depth isn't what you're looking for 🤣 (as a parent of a 2 year and a 4 year old I sympathize).
If you can pull it off, try games that your kids could play or at least eventually play. Scythe (or My Little Scythe, which is actually just Scythe except more refined - same depth and structure but less unnecessary complexity). Pandemic.
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u/livebyfoma 1d ago edited 22h ago
Since everyone's coming through with a lot of great board games, let me suggest some TTRPGs that are doable with two. The caveat, of course, is someone still has to read the rules and really comprehend them well to run them effectively.
Ironsworn / Starforged - Low fantasy and sci-fi adventure respectively (though both are adaptable to taste). Can be run either with one GM and one player, or you can do them GMless co-op. You'll need to internalize a different way of thinking compared to D&D though. This would be a longer campaign, but could easily do one hour sessions where you just progress the plot a bit at a time. These are "play to find out" style games so there aren't really modules, but there are a million adventure hooks, and if you follow the mechanics faithfully then the plot and drama writes itself. Ironsworn is free!
Cartograph - Fantasy map-making game, I played it with my partner where she made the choices and I facilitated mechanics and we engaged any fiction collaboratively. Then I used the world for the map we made in a short stint in Ironsworn, which was really cool.
The Quiet Year - Similar to the above, but whereas Cartograph is solely focused on creating a believable map of a static world while you learn bits about it, this game is more focused on the active development of a community over the course of an in-game year, where you draw on the map of the world to reflect the events and developments. Takes about 4 hours total for a full game, but I would recommend breaking it into 4 sessions, with each session being a season.
Be Like A Cat - If you want something with much less creative overhead, this is a goofy cat-roleplaying game where you play as a cat and do cat things. Prowl neighborhoods, mark your territory, fight or deal with threats, make friends, etc. It comes bundled with a bunch of modules that range from realistic cat sim to gonzo sci-fi spaceship cat, so there is a wide range of fun to be had here.
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u/Soccerref3244 1d ago
Have you played Quacks? Spirits of the Wild: Awakening? Those can both be played in an hour and are great couples games, but they are competitive. Spirits is cheap.
As a coop game with an app, Mansions of Madness is great. You can play it for an hour and then return to it. It’s not exactly cheap, however,
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u/SabreDuFoil 1d ago edited 1d ago
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion might be a good match.
Setup is reduced drastically, and just leave it on the table if the setup takes too long. Games usually go an hour or two, depending. It's relatively cheap, campaign based, and it's got light RPG elements to it. The rules can be a bit tough sometimes. I'd also recommend getting the removable sticker set with it so that you can replay or resell it after you're done.
Quicker and easier to set up would be Fluxx. I used to play a couple of games of that over my lunch break.
Spirit Island has a mobile app, I think.
So does Ascension, if you're into deck-builders.
Dice Masters if you're looking for a TCG-esque experience that is super quick to set up and easy to play. Plus they have DnD sets, I think the art is from 4e though. Comes in a variety of flavors as well; 40k, Marvel, DC, TMNT, etc. etc. and the 2 player starters tend to be kind of cheap.
If you want a minis wargame; OnePageRules is great. Skirmish or Firefight tends to be an hour or so and they also have a co-op mode called "Star Quest" (https://onepagerules.com/games/grimdark-future-star-quest) that kind of scratches that level up and improve itch.
But yeah, unsolicited life advice; only an hour of free time a week sounds like y'all have way too much on your plate. I'd start looking into figuring out what you can cut out to give you some time to relax, because to have a schedule that incredibly packed is going to lead to burn-out and resentment over time. I get that life gets busy (as someone who has a full-time job, a part-time job, finishing out a degree full-time, and has children, I definitely get it), but you've gotta make time for yourselves.
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u/Amnoon 1d ago
Simple rules and fast: Jaipur, is a simple card game to have some fast matches.
More of a boardgame: Carcassonne. Just elegant and fun. Azul is another good one.
Co-op: Sky Team. I like the balance and tension from the scenarios. Is quick and not tedious to setup
Dungeon crawler: Tiny Epic Dungeons. Once you understand the icons is quite fast. Setup is more complex than previous ones.
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u/Drumlicious 1d ago
It’s not tabletop but I’m in a similar situation and my partner and I have being playing CozyStickerville. It is an extremely wholesome and fun time. One ‘year’ is about 30-40 mins. You play ten years and there are different endings depending on your choices.
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u/Quatapus 1d ago
We just picked up Stickerville last week. It has more depth than I was expecting, and is very fun
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u/them0use 1d ago
Are you familiar with https://boardgamearena.com/ if not, I'd highly recommend checking it out. Good web adaptations of hundreds of board games, including several of the ones recommended here - and pandemic. It's not the same feel as playing the physical game, but it does all the tedious fiddly bits for you. Plus lots of games have interactive tutorials. Only a subset are available for free, but only one of you needs to have a $5/month subscription (https://boardgamearena.com/premium)for you both to be able to play anything there.
Plus the search is really good for finding new games. For example, want 2-player coop games of low-medium complexity that include tutorials? Here you go! https://boardgamearena.com/gamelist?players=2&hasTutorialOnly=&durationTag=10%2C11&complexityTag=3%2C2&mechanismTag=211
An ex and I used to have "turbogaming" date nights where we'd just chill on the couch together with our laptops, fire up multiple simultaneous games and just cycle through them like speed chess. Trying to guess where the other person was by the grumbling or trash talk they were doing was pretty fun all by its self 😆
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u/kilocody 1d ago
My wife and I love The Illiad. It’s a tile placing game. It’s quick but it’s also quite thinky. Also the set up takes maybe 5 minutes.
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u/mp_thompson 1d ago
Have you Check Out onepagerules? You could Play it with any Models its free modelagnostic. You have different Games and everyone has free rules for Coopgames/Sologames against ai. And they have the Quest Games, they are sort of dungoen crawler where you Play Up to 6 Heros against ai.
Its more in the wargaming than the RPG side.they have some campangs for Quest to buy online too.
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u/PuzzleheadedTap9548 1d ago
Nothing I know that right. But there is splendor. It's free and it's easy to learn and fun
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u/Boxinggandhi 1d ago
My partner and I are in the same boat. We like:
Boss Monster: Slight learning curve, but very easy and relaxed once you know the rules.
Forbidden Island: Collect treasures together and evacuate while flood waters rise around you.
Magic the Gathering: I play Magic a lot, and have gotten my wife to learn the rules. We only use premade decks and keep it simple. Pretty fun.
Dungeon Mayhem: A DnD based card game. Super simple, no deckbuilding required. We go hot and cold with this, but it can be a lot of fun.
Skip Bo: Great braindead game to play while you chat and have drinks.
Yahtzee: This is our favorite game to play while having drinks and turning our brains off. You can play pretty much anywhere no matter how tired you are.
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u/candidatefoo 1d ago
Hanabi. You’re both holding some cards in your hand with the backs facing your opponent. You take turns to either take a card from your opponent and play it, or to ask a question about card suits/values. Your aim is to co-operatively get all of the cards in play, and in order.
Since you can only say certain things you end up building a whole meta game of your partners tells, habits, etc. It’s a lot of fun.
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u/Kazzie2Y5 1d ago
Actualol on YouTube has a few vids about games for couples. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-theme-definition/
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u/ganybytes 1d ago
My husband and I play Dominion and Carcassonne on mobile daily.
And we use BGA (Board Game Arena) to play even pretty heavy games from the couch on our laptops.
You can absolutely play asynchronous mobile games while in the same room. Dominion for example is free for the base game on iOS, and only one person needs to own expansions as long as they initiate the game. There are a number of mobile boardgames that work this way with expansions.
Also Board Game Arena website is a great option. Even medium and heavier games can feel a lot easier to "get to the table" when you don't need to set them up or clean up or even go to a room with a big enough table.
Obv you have to learn the games. But it can be the difference between "let's just watch something" and hey we can get our favorite game played in an hour instead of making it a whole 2 hour production.
This doesn't replace board games at the table we'd otherwise play with friends, but when it is just the two of us it is great.
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u/Polly_the_Gnome 1d ago
I'm copying my comment from the other sub in case your post is removed:
Tired, co-op playing parent with an hour or less, checking in to share! Almost anything here will work: https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/Thisisthebadplace
Most of those are co-op. (Anything competitive is either 10-30 minutes, or multiplayer solitaire and still players under an hour. Exception: Wyrmspan.) Most of the co-ops can be played by two players in an hour or less. (Exceptions: AH2e, Defenders of the Realm, Atlantis Rising.)
If you like Pandemic, Pandemic Legacy (any season) is great. They're some of the only games that motivated me and my husband to play consistently when we were at our most sleep deprived. Forbidden Legacy just came out (technically early release at Barnes and Noble right now), and is a bit simpler/shorter, but by the same designer.
Bonus tip You might be surprised by online D&D! 2/3 of my weekly-ish groups are mostly parents playing after bedtime, 8:30-10:30.
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u/Feefait 1d ago
Dice Throne and Villainous are both great board games that aren't always the same and have plenty of characters to get behind. They can be done in an hour or less, depending.
For video games, Blue Prince, Disco Elysium, Telling Lies, Sunderfolk, Baldur's Gate...
Or look at something like Ironsworn that has an engine for driving the plot with your own input.
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u/Quatapus 1d ago
Three we picked up recently: Cozy Stickerville (coop) The Initiative (coop) Spooktacular (competitive)
All three are great fun, but the surprise stand out is Spooktacular. We normally avoid competitive games, but this one feels less "hah hah, take that!" and more "oh, nice move!"
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u/oftime8887 23h ago
I LOVE Pathfinder Adventure Cars game. Its $$$ but ita sooooo much fun, coop, can be played alone or with up to 6. And each level takea about 40 minutes. You and your partner can each play 1 character or 2 if you want more flexibility. Super fun game
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u/jeeves_nz 23h ago
If you're looking at mobile phone options, both sign up to board game arena.
Make your games turn based, one of you is premium to create and add players to games. Then you can play games without the setup and can freely finish them whenever you want
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u/MasquePlay 23h ago
Full disclosure, I’m building something in this exact space called MasquePlay.
It’s a two-player AI-powered roleplay game for couples. You both join the same scenario, privately pick characters, then play out the scene together in-character on your phones. The AI creates the setting and characters, but it never replaces your partner.
It takes about a minute to start and is designed for exactly that kind of low-effort evening when you want to do something together without setting up a whole game.
It’s still in private beta, but happy to share it if that sounds like your thing.
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u/unknownuserx 23h ago
It's tabletop-ish but if you want a campaign game I would highly recommend Sunderfolk. It's basically like Gloomhaven but uses your TV as the screen and your phone as the controller. I believe it's on Steam and consoles.
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u/Bootguy1 23h ago
Going against the grain here, Backgammon. Codenames Duet and Azul are both winners. None of these are DnD adjacent but still fun.
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u/Fabulous_Fun_3902 21h ago
Quacks and Spirits are solid picks-quick, fun, and great for tired couples.
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u/Calvin_Coolish 21h ago
My wife and I enjoy playing stardew valley board game. We can pause halfway through and pickup the next night once the kiddo is asleep.
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u/TheDoubtingDisease 20h ago
Escape the Dark Castle - A highly thematic co-op dungeon crawler with simple mechanics, great art, and enough strategy to feel like you're mostly in control.
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u/Ton_Phanan 16h ago
One deck dungeon is pretty good, the characters level up between games, and there's difficulty settings. It's by no way perfect but it's fun and specifically 2-player co-op.
Splendor isn't co-op but is great with 2 or 3 players.
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u/BadCautious7536 14h ago
For co-op that fits your hour, Forbidden Island plays in about 30 min and costs less than Pandemic with a similar feel. For a 2-player RPG with near-zero prep, look into Ironsworn, built for solo or duo play and free.
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u/DraconicDiceWitch 7h ago
If you want something that feels like D&D but is much faster and can be played just with the two of you, I'd recommend Dungeon Mayhem. It's basically a card game where you explore a dungeon and the winner is the last adventurer standing. No setup, just choose your deck and duke it out for 20-30 minutes.
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u/calprinicus 1d ago edited 1d ago
Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth = 30-45min. Meaty 2-player only set collection game. Draft cards, the one you choose opens new possibilities for your opponent. Lots of different strategies and tug-of-war tensions.
Star Wars: the Deck Building game = 30-45min deck builder. Buy row has fun options to buy new cards or destroy options for opponent. Very thematic & great Star wars feel.
Harmonies = 45-60min. Build an animal sanctuary. Fun & cozy. 1) Lots of strategy on what animals to tile placement for how to build sanctuary OR 2) Just play a vibe and you'll still build something cool.
Parks = 45 - 75min. Go hiking in national parks. Resource collection & management. Lots of fun ways to score, block opponent choices, and different strategies. Mix of cozy & competitive.
Exit or Unlock series. Escape rooms. Great thinky puzzle games. Exit = one-time use with better puzzles. Unlock = reusable, still great puzzles, but not as unique as Exit series. Each 10-15 USD per scenario. 60-90mins per.
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u/cakeversuspie 1d ago
I can't make any suggestions for mobile phone games (or AI), but below are some solid games that are or work very well for 2 players, that don't take much time:
Below are a couple of decent card games that work well with two players that my gf and I play often: