Exploding Kittens

You draw cards from a shared deck and hope none of them is an exploding kitten. Draw one and you are out, unless you hold a Defuse card to put it back somewhere of your choosing. The rest of the deck is there to help you dodge: peek at the top three cards, skip your draw, make the next player draw twice, or shuffle everything. On your turn you may play as many cards as you like, then you must draw one to end the turn. The last player still sitting wins. Rules fit on one card and the deck shrinks as it goes, so the tension rises every turn. It is a good first game to hand to a group that says it does not play board games, and it copes well with a table of mixed ages. Fifteen minutes and a natural warm-up before something meatier.