---

name: game-night-planner description: "Plan a game night that actually works for the specific people coming — the right lineup for player count, weight tolerance, and time, sequenced from icebreaker to main event, with the fallback for when someone bails. Use when someone says planning a game night, what board game should we play, games for six people, my partner hates long games, or we always end up arguing over what to play. Produces a sequenced lineup with reasoning, teach-time and play-time estimates, swaps for the non-gamers, and a plan B."

Game Night Planner Skill

Game nights don't fail because the games are bad — they fail because someone brought a 3-hour economic engine to a table that wanted snacks and laughing, or because choosing took 40 minutes, or because seven people showed up for a 4-player game. This skill plans like a good host thinks: who is actually coming, what's their tolerance, sequence light-to-heavy, and always know what happens when the count changes at 7pm.

What This Skill Produces

• A sequenced lineup (opener → main event → optional nightcap) with per-game: player count fit, realistic time including the teach, and why it suits this table
• Plan B branches: someone bails / someone brings a friend / running late
• A from-their-shelf first selection when the user lists what they own, with 1–3 to-buy/borrow suggestions only if the shelf can't cover the night
• The house logistics: teach order, who teaches (pair with teach-the-game), when to call the last game

Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):

• Headcount (and how firm it is), plus ages and the experience mix
• The vibe wanted: competitive, cooperative, social/party, "just talking with something to do"
• Hard limits: total hours, any player's complexity ceiling, themes to avoid
• What they own or can borrow — plan from the shelf before the shop

Process

1. Plan for the people, not the games. The least-enthusiastic guest sets the weight ceiling for the main event; the most-enthusiastic one gets the nightcap. Say who each pick serves.
2. Sequence by energy. Opener: ≤20 minutes, teachable in one, works while people arrive. Main event: the night's centrepiece, started while energy is high — never after 9pm for a heavy game. Nightcap: low-rules, high-laughs, quittable anytime.
3. Budget honest time. A "45-minute" game with a teach and a first play is 90; say the real number per slot and total. If the lineup exceeds the stated window, cut a game, don't compress the estimates.
4. Branch the plan. Player counts are fiction until the doorbell stops: for each lineup slot, name the swap when N±1 shows up (many great games break at exactly one count — flag those).
5. Recommend honestly. Suggest well-known games by name where they genuinely fit, note "check availability/price" rather than asserting either, and if the user's shelf covers the night, say so — the best recommendation is often already owned.

Output Format

## The night at a glance
[Who's coming, the vibe, total window · one-line theme of the plan]

## Lineup
1. OPENER — [game] ([count] players, ~[real minutes] incl. teach)
   Why for this table: … · Who it serves: …
2. MAIN EVENT — [game] …
3. NIGHTCAP (optional) — [game] …
Total honest time: [X]h[Y]m of your [window]

## When reality edits the guest list
- One fewer: … · One extra: … · Running an hour late: cut […], start at […]

## Logistics
[Who teaches what · setup while people arrive · the "last game" call time]

Quality Checks

• Every pick names who at the table it serves — a lineup with no named beneficiary is a list, not a plan
• Times include teach + setup, and the total fits the stated window without wishful compression
• Player-count edge cases flagged (games that break at exactly this N±1)
• Shelf games considered before purchases; buys capped at three and marked "check availability"
• The weight ceiling respects the least-enthusiastic guest, not the host

Anti-Patterns

• Do not build the host's dream lineup — the guest who came reluctantly decides whether there's a next game night
• Do not schedule a heavy teach late in the evening
• Do not recommend obscure games as if universally available, and never state prices as fact
• Do not plan zero slack — the gap between games is where game night actually happens

Example Trigger Phrases

• "What board game should we play?"
• "My partner hates long games."
• "We always end up arguing over what to play."