My Top 10 Favorite Limited-Communication Cooperative Games

Honorable mentions: Letter Jam, Groundhog Day, Gloomhaven, Fog of Love, Codenames Duet, Magic Maze

Added later: Paint the Roses

Top 10:

10. Similo
9. Hanabi
8. So Clover
7. The Shipwreck Arcana
6. The Crew
5. Smitten
4. Mysterium Park
3. Tranquility
2. The Mind
1. Just One

00:00 - Introduction
00:45 - Honorable Mentions
01:20 - Top 4-10
12:31 - Top 3

[JerzyMuller]

I really like Codenames: Duet, which is a fully cooperative version of the game 🙂

[CheeseDud]

I really need to try several of these. This is one of my favorite categories of games.

I’d also like to try some limited communication cooperative deduction games like Décorum/Paint the Roses

[olivierjodoin]

Love this genre! Gloomhaven, The Crew, Hanabi, Codenames Duet and Just One are all in my top 15 games.
I also own Mysterium, The Mind, Similo and Cahoots. Wavelength is not officially cooperative, but it's a team game that we mostly play as an activity similarly to Just One to just trigger discussions.

[oddaudiocrafting]

1) Love the shirt!
2) I would recommend getting a few Similo decks and playing in person. Especially since you can ramp up the difficulty by giving clues with a different deck than the one laid out (which is super difficult, especially if they are very disparate decks).

[brennansmith]

My top games with the expection of decorum are the same as you :)

Decorum
Just one
The mind

I need to try tranquility and similo

Decorum offers a logic deduction puzzle type game that is really fascinating to try and puzzle out.

[pisecobabe]

Lots of the games you mentioned today are favorites for us, too. My most recently acquired limited communication co-op is Paint the Roses... we enjoy the group deduction where the only means of communication is adding your tokens to indicate whether spaces on the board meet or don't meet your current requirement for the Queen's garden.

We also really enjoy The Game, which worked better for us (especially when my kids were younger) than the completely no-talking The Mind.

[Paper_Smith]

Omg!! This is my family’s favorite style of game!! Thank you SO much for this list! Gonna pick up a couple to play over the holidays 😁 this couldn’t have come at a better time! Thanks Jamie!!!

[hugoiwata]

I spent the whole video waiting if The Mind would show up. It is a game that divides opinions, but I love it.

[BillyIndiana]

I haven't played many limited communication games, but really enjoy Smitten & Groundhog Day. Just One is also my favorite overall though because it works with Just about everyOne 👍

[JohnLudlow]

Mysterium is one of my wife's favourite games.

I'll mention Deadline, where you don't know what the other players have in their hand, but you are encouraged to talk thematically about your cards before you start a scene. For example, if you have gun symbols (it's a symbol matching game) then you could say that you're ready for a fight.

[TheGameBoyGeeks]

Great list Jamey! Have you played Beyond Baker Street? Inspired by Hanabi but it replaced Hanabi for me. Also have you tried Paint the Roses? That replaced Shipwreck Arcana for me. Lastly, Decorum is another great one in this genre that came out this year (best with 2 players though).

[scottbollinger]

So Similo is a reskin of Unusual Suspects?

[poetryalpastor]

I notoriously can't stand the activity/game distinction, so take this with a grain of salt, but imo even under a strict definition of "game" you "win" Just One when the person guessing guesses correctly; it just feels like an "activity" because there is not really a greater, mechanically distinct win condition. It'd be like if the winning team in football was the first person to score a goal. Maybe not the most exciting win condition, but well within the definition of a game imo.

[GamerRMT]

With regard to Gloomhaven, I strongly, STRONGLY suggest you not play it as written. Share initiatives, gold and retirement goals freely. I find it significantly improves the experience to take out the limited communication elements and makes the game more interesting strategically.