Rattlesnake

It's amazing how little it takes to make a game: a dozen magnets, a board, a die, and a small handful of rules.  Sure, it's a simple game, and like all simple games, there's a fine line between "just long enough" and "it's officially overstayed its welcome", but in short doses, this is a good filler.

It's basically Magnetics 101, but as long as you're able to play a game solely to have fun, it works.  To us, the rules as written make for *too* short of a game, though.  We extended it by treating what the rules call a game a round. Rounds end when someone places their last egg, at which point everyone counts their remaining eggs, adding it to their running total.  The next round begins with whoever would be next.  When someone reaches (60/#players), whoever has the lowest total is the winner.  For those playing at home, that's 30 for two players, 20 for three, and 15 for four.

I grabbed two at Fantasy Flight's holiday sale so that i had a light game that can handle eight players (which are pretty much the only games that work with that many).  I haven't played it with more than four, but i'd still go with (60/#players), though i'll try to remember to update this if i find out that that doesn't work.

As an aside, i like that they took the time to make it color-blind friendly, with every snake having the same expression which matches a face on the die.  Oh, and while the game should really have come with a quad-fold board and therefore a smaller box, you gotta give them credit for a creative insert.