In between our testing and publishing this guide CMYK, the publisher of Monikers, announced the release of an updated version of the game. The gameplay should largely stay the same, but they've updated the visual design, tweaked some of the rulebook, and included a completely new set of prompt cards. We're trying out this updated version now, but are confident in keeping the old version as a pick while stock still lasts. We'll update this guide with our thoughts on the new version soon.

Cards Against Humanity is a staple party game and -- at least for a certain age range -- likely one of the first party games that a lot of people ever played. Each turn, one judge draws a question card, while the other players try to play the funniest answer card in their hand, specifically appealing to the judge's sense of humor. The answer cards are unabashedly crass. This can be fun in a subversive kind of way, but it's just as easy for it to be alienating and uncomfortable. In addition, it doesn't give players much agency, relying on the game writers' comedic sensibilities rather than those at the table. We feel our picks do a better job in both regards.

Cash 'n Guns is a bluffing/negotiation game that casts players as mob members going on raids and splitting the loot afterward. But before the loot is split, players all decide whether to load their guns by secretly playing a "bang!" or "click" card in front of them. Then they simultaneously point their guns at other players. If you end up with a gun pointed at you, you can duck. Doing so makes any "bang!" cards miss you, but gives up your share of the loot. Alternatively, you can remain standing and hope that the players are bluffing and you hear a round of clicks. It can get pretty raucous, but this game never really stood out in our testing, and some may find the gun theme off-putting.

Decrypto is a communication game where players try to guess a series of numbers based on word clues placed in a decryptor standee. To its credit, its gameplay gracefully balances trying to communicate the secret code to your team without being so obvious that the other team can "intercept" the code and steal your points. But in our testing, we enjoyed A Fake Artist Goes to New York more.

Hues and Clues is a communication game based around colors. Each round, players try to get their team to pick the correct shade on a board of 480 options by saying a clue associated with that color. It's simple to learn and can lead to some fun interactions. And though we worried that folks with color-vision deficiencies would have a difficult time playing, particularly in the clue-giving role, a number of online reviewers with various color-vision deficiencies have said their ability to play didn't suffer. But overall, we preferred the other communication games we recommend.

Letter Jam is a cooperative communication word game where players try to help each other find the longest word that can be created from letters that are placed in front of each other. The catch is that the players only see other players' letters -- never their own. The result is an engaging blend of communication and deduction as players try to signal where other players' letters would fall in a word. But we found we liked Just One better on the whole due to its clue- giving structure and how easy it was to teach and learn.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a breezy social-deduction game that can be run with the assistance of an app if no one wants to play as the game master. It's an iteration of the ubiquitous game Werewolf (which you may also know as Mafia) that, as the title says, only takes place over one day and night. While it's a quick introduction to the genre -- games only take about 10 minutes if your group is chatty -- making the game so short saps it of a lot of the intrigue. In our opinion, The Resistance: Avalon is a more in-depth and interesting introduction to social deduction.

Phantom Ink is another communication game where teams of mediums ask questions of spirits to determine a secret object. Each team includes one spirit who has a secret object to focus on. Then the other players on their team give them question cards (things like "What mood does it cause?" or "What causes people to fight over it?"), which the spirits answer by slowly writing their answer letter by letter. Once a medium feels like they know the answer, they call "silencio!" to make the spirit stop writing, preventing the other team from gleaning any extra info from the clue. We found it fun to play and simple to learn and teach, but it wasn't as interesting as our picks.

Quest is a reimplementation of The Resistance: Avalon but with more player roles and extra powers that make it more complicated to teach and learn. If you're experienced at playing social-deduction games, or have spent time with The Resistance specifically, it can be a more satisfying strategic experience. But we'd still recommend the original game for people new to the genre.

Ready Set Bet is a real-time horse race betting game. Throughout three races, a race caller rolls a set of dice and moves corresponding horses down the track based on the rolls. At the same time, players can use chips to make bets as the race progresses, earning more points the earlier in the race they place winning bets. It can be a fun experience, with wild swings in fortune as the randomness of the dice leads to unexpected results. But we have a hard time recommending a game that's such a direct analogue of sports betting, especially when the game's age range is listed as 10 and up.

Secret Hitler is a social deduction game much in the same vein as The Resistance, but the goal is to thwart the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany. Though the game takes a clear antifascist stance, it does ask a player to compete as Hitler, which, while appropriate for the theme, could be distasteful for some.

So Clover! is a cooperative communication game that's both a word-association game and a spatial puzzle. In it, players draw square cards containing four words, one along each edge. They place the cards randomly in a two-by-two grid inside a larger four-leaf clover, and then handwrite clues on each leaf that unify the two words on the corresponding edge of the grid. Finally, they draw a fifth word card, shuffle it with the original four, and challenge the other players to place the cards correctly, associating them with the handwritten clues. We found the game engaging in our tests but thought it wasn't nearly as active or exciting as our picks.

Ultimate Werewolf Extreme is the most involved edition of the social-deduction game Werewolf. The game includes 40 additional roles beyond the traditional werewolf and villager characters. These new roles complicate the game but also give opportunities for more players to learn information, making the daytime portions of the game more exciting. Outside of an associated mobile app and a blank notepad, though, the game doesn't give moderators many tools to help manage the dramatic increase in complexity. Players can also be eliminated from the game early and then have to sit through the rest of the game without being able to participate, which is a bit of a bummer.

The Best Games to Start a Party