Qork

Every player holds a string; the other end is a small peg sitting on the table under a raised cup. One player rolls two dice over and over while the rest of you watch. The moment the dice show a total of seven or a double, you yank your peg out before the roller slams the cup down. Pull too early on a harmless roll, or too late and get caught under the cup, and you take a penalty. Fewest penalties after the agreed number of rounds wins. That is the whole game, explainable to a table of strangers in one sentence. Rounds take a few minutes, five players is about right, and language does not matter. We use it as a wake-up between longer games and with families where the youngest cannot read yet; in spirit it sits next to Dobble and Jungle Speed.