The Game: Mancala

Number of Players: 2.
Play Time: 10 to 20 minutes.
Ages: 8 and up.
To Buy: $12, www.areyougame.com.

Great For...

Traveling. With simple rules and a compact folding board, this is an ideal game for vacations (imagine less “Are we there yet?”). You can also make your own game anywhere: Use eggcups; dig holes in the dirt or sand for hollows; or play with small stones, seeds, or even jelly beans.

How It's Played

Each player begins with a row of six hollows holding four stones each. Take turns dropping the stones from any of your own hollows into an adjacent sequence of hollows on the board; stones are collected and points scored according to where the last stone from a hollow lands. (The trick? Figuring out which hollow to empty and when.)