Whodunnit is at home here. Every theory goes round four other hands, and passes are public, so you learn as much from who could not answer as from the card you are finally shown. Lucky Seven lays every card face up, and all five of you watch each other push a round until one repeated number wipes it.
Picture Stories is right at five: the storyteller’s card hides among four decoys, and if everyone finds it — or nobody does — the storyteller scores nothing. Thorns is the reverse of its three-player self, with up to twenty discs down and a bid nobody can check.
Only One is close to its best here too. Four clue givers means a duplicate costs you one clue rather than the round, and there are still two or three left standing to push the guesser somewhere — which is the difference between a co-op and a coin toss.
Twelve at their best around five
Brain Blimp1–8 players · 3–5 min
Ruff Luck2–8 players · 5–15 min
Only One3–7 players · 10–15 min
Bad Drawings3–8 players · 10–20 min
Thorns3–6 players · 10–15 min
Picture Stories3–8 players · 15–20 min
Lucky Seven2–10 players · 5–15 min
Last Card2–10 players · 5–10 min
Whodunnit2–6 players · 10–20 min
Sketch Telephone2–10 players · 10–15 min
Clover2–6 players · 15–20 min
Somewhere1–12 players · up to 100 with Teams · 8–10 minPlaying in under a minute
- 1One person opens tableparty.io on a phone or a laptop and picks a game.
- 2Everyone else types the four-letter room code on their own phone. Nothing to install.
- 3Play. Anything secret stays on your own screen, so it works across a table or a video call.
Questions about Games for 5 players
Is five enough for Quest of Shadows or Secret Dictator?
Exactly enough — both start at five. Quest of Shadows at five deals three good against two evil, and the Assassin can still take the whole game back at the end by naming Merlin correctly.
Which five-player game runs shortest?
Ruff Luck, at five to fifteen minutes. Five players means four bombs in the pile and it is over the moment the fourth one lands — quick enough that whoever lost gets a rematch before the room has moved on.
Does anything get worse at five?
Word Tiles is out, since it caps at four. Clover and Thorns both still seat six, but at five a Thorns bid already covers more discs than anyone can honestly account for.
Is an odd number a problem for teams?
Nothing on this list needs teams, so no. If you do want two sides, Spectrum, Intercept, Forbidden Words and Charades all run three against two without complaint.