Recommended by readers of Electric Speed (July 2023)

• I was recently introduced to the game Sequence. It’s easy to learn, requires a bit of strategy, and can be played by two people or a large group. —Barbara Boyd
• I love the game Relative Insanity, created by comedian Jeff Foxworthy.  It's a card game. Really fun to play with friends and family. Gets everyone laughing and puts them in a great mood. —ZG
• I love Codenames. It's fun to play in person with the board game but also works very well online via Zoom. My family played online throughout the pandemic. It was a fun way to connect with each other. —Christine Cook Mania
• My partner and I take Five Crowns with us on trips. It's a fun and easy card game, compact, can even be played on a train or plane tabletop, and you really don't know who will win "till the kings go wild” —Christy Obalek
• My husband Lynn and my favorite game is Mexican Train Dominoes. Best played with four people, five is okay, but six gets tiring. Need a table big enough to build long trains of dominoes. There are the rules of how to play, then there are a few rules that can be bent to meet your favorite way to play. Such as, at our house everyone does NOT need to have started their own train to start the Mexican train. It makes the game go more quickly and gives players more options for play. We call this our "house rule" because we are more interested in having fun and keeping the game moving forward than following the stated rules. —Rhonda Wiley-Jones
• My favorite games: Card games like Uno, War, etc. Word Games: Boggle, BananaGrams, etc. For The Queen is a fun storytelling card game. And while not exactly a game I love my fidget toys. —Cheryl Rainfield
• Anything in the Mafia/Poison Dart Frog neighborhood is an instant yes from me. These games are where the Among Us video game draws its inspiration, but it's more fun in person. Essentially, there's a group of folks who are the "traitors" (or similar term, depending on the game), and the rest are innocents. Some games, like Mafia and Poison Dart Frog, have a detective who's trying to find the traitors. Others, like Murder/Traitor Tag, run on a collective system where all the innocents collectively vote people out. The innocents win if they catch all the traitors; the traitors win if they get all the innocents out of the game. —Beks Tryth Freeman
• One of the games we truly enjoy at large family gatherings is Fishbowl. It always results in hilarity and challenges our creativity and ingenuity. —Natasha Yim
• The game I've played a few times and always just loved is Cards Against Humanity. It's one of those games, kind of like when you're going on a road trip or are about to listen to very politically incorrect, filthy stand-up comedy, that you have to be with the right people. My mother? Hard no. People who think dirty things are bad? Hell no. —Wayne Jones
• Mah Jong, the actual Chinese game with tiles and 4 players. We used to play this as a family when I was growing up, great memories. —Matthew Goodall
• I don’t play many board games but I liked the idea of this one so much, I donated to their Kickstarter campaign. —Carol Michel
• We enjoy playing tic tac toe. It can be played anywhere, anytime and with any age and skill level we can play best of three rounds or play for an hour! We also bought a wood version of tic tac toe to keep in the game room—we have also used coins and lids as the markers. But paper and pen are our preference! —Yvette Prior
• I am still a super fan of Settlers of Catan. Its modular design means every game is different. All players are involved on every turn. Hoarding doesn’t pay—you gotta trade to win. And the original version should only last 1.5 hours. Makes me look forward to winter nights. —Julie Pithers
• NYT readers know that Wordle is addictive, but Spelling Bee is just as much fun. Both can be played for free if you’re a Times subscriber, but the downside of Spelling Bee is that, you can’t see the prior day’s results unless you pay for it. And my only reason to play is to find pangrams—words that use all the letters—so I never know if I missed one! —Patrick Henry
• My favorite board game is Scrabble. I own 4 versions, including the swivel kind so we don't have to cock our heads to read the words. This game is part of why I love to work with words as an author. —Kayleen Reusser
• Favorite game: Ticket to Ride, expansion pack edition. Favorite Card Game: Pinochle. My husband & I play a 2-handed version every lunch we’re at home. This week, I’m waaay up in the win column. No need to talk about last week. —Debi McCarthy
• My favorite non-electronic game has to be chess. Though when I visit my oldest son and his family we enjoy Scattergories. —Laura Ware
• My favorite board game is Conspiracy Theory by Neddy Games. It isn't political, just out of this world, easy fun. If you miss The X-Files, this game is for you! —Sharon Wagner
• Ransom Notes. Remember those Magnetic Poetry tiles? You use them to create responses to situations selected at random, such as "Draft an instruction manual for toilet paper." Creative and Hilarious. —Sandy