radiant fracture

I need a game.

My full family visited me, all six of them, parents, brother, sister-in-law, two nephews aged 21 and 2, last weekend.

The one thing we all, from age 2 to 72, at all sorts of levels of ability and distraction, can do together is go to a restaurant. I had to refuse to order food twice because I just couldn't eat any more.

I need a game. A game we can play at a cafe or restaurant or dinner table. I have many requirements.

Of course I want to invent the game myself, but five weeks may not be quite enough time.

Some Parameters, In No Particular Order

1. No fiddly bits a small person could swallow or put up their nose
2. Played in rounds so you can easily drop in or out
3. Playable by at least 6 players
4. Playable without lots of reaching over the table
5. Playable on limited table real estate (probably involves not too much putting things down on the table (maybe just by the dealer))
6. Played in turns rather than free-for-all, to avoid spillage
7. Actually fun
8. Strategy for my brother
9. Randomness for me
10. Doesn't have to be playable by the 2-year-old, but would be nice if he could grow into it

A card game or dice game, adapted, might work -- maybe something like Dixit or Apples to Apples / CAH, a matching game of some kind, where each person makes a match attempt or a bid or something that's then compared/evaluated.

In the past we have had table success with King of Tokyo and San Juan, but both of these are not workable with the 2-year-old.

We could play a cell phone or tablet game in turns but that isn't very interactive -- it's more like sequential solitaire.

Collaborative or competitive -- both are good.

Any thoughts, either in terms of actual games, adaptations, or designs?

I am thinking of adaptations such as wearable points. Ex. instead of putting down counters or tokens to count your score / position, I was thinking there ought to be a silly hat for whoever was winning. I mean, a pencil is okay. Written scorekeeping is okay. I just like silly hats.

{rf}