Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Today we're having a party! But everyone's stuff is littered around the house, so before the guests arrive, we have to straighten up this place.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
Today we're having a party! But everyone's stuff is littered around the house, so before the guests arrive, we have to straighten up this place. Grandma and Grandpa will pitch in, too, but the guests might show up at any time. Try to quickly tidy up more stuff than anyone else. Can each family member finish straightening up, and get ready to receive the guests with out any mishaps? In Before the Guests Arrive, you do your best to tidy up a messy house for a party. To set up the game, shuffle the guests card into a small pack of cards and place it on the bottom of the deck. Lay out 10-13 cards in an interlocking series of rows and columns. On a turn, choose a row or column, and take all cards in it, adding them to your collection; if at most three cards are in the display, first refill the display, then choose a row or column. After taking cards, you can tidy up with one member of the family. The Mom, Dad, Girl, and Boy can each tidy up two types of stuff at a time, whereas Baby, Grandma, and Grandpa can each tidy up only one type. Stuff comes in five colors, and each color has three types of stuff, e.g., baby stuff (yellow) has blocks, bears, and lollipops. Yellow stuff can be tidied only by Baby, Grandma, and Grandpa, whereas red stuff can be tidied only by the Girl or Grandma. When tidying up a type of stuff, you can tidy as much of that type of stuff (i.e., stuff with the same illustration) as you like, so it's useful to get a bunch of the same stuff and tidy it all up together. When refilling the house, if the guest card appears, then the game ends, with everyone having one final chance to tidy up or discard a single card. Players then score points for the stars on what they've tidied, then lose points for stuff not tidied and family members not used. Whoever scores the most wins!