Board Game Recommendations?

Question

Any recommendations for family board games?

We've got the usual and perhaps the unusual...

We have and like these:

Cranium

Monopoly (about a dozen versions)

MadLibs

Scrabble

Chess

Balderdash

Risk

Diplomacy

OutBurst

We have and are not so keen on:

Trivial Pursuit (too much entertainment related stuff)

Sorry (gets boring)

Life

Survival (?) Survivor(?)

Clue

Any great new board games?

Answer 1

Pit.  It's a multi-player stock trading game that gets REAL LOUD at times.  First one to trade all their cards and get the corner on the market and RING the final bell, wins.

Mancala.  700 year old 2 player game played by moving seeds around a board.  You can play with 4, 5, or 6 seeds by sowing them in a counter-clockwise direction and trying to capture your opponent's seeds

Have fun

Answer 2

I don't know how big your family is, so io'm just gonna list games that take alot of players, making note of games that have relatively fewer max players or those that could improvise with teams.  I put a * next to my personnal favorites

Cranium

puzzles, manual dexteiry, and trivia makes this a well rounded game. Plus, this is a nice game to play in teams.

*Scattergories (1988)

is up to 6 players, but you may play in teams. Come up with words that start with a specific letter matching the current category

Boggle (1 to 6p)

Trivia Pursuit

AFAIK, 6 players is the most players any edition can accomodate, but you may consider playing in teams to speed thigns along, squeeze in more players, and use as a handicap for those "trivially challenged"

*Chinese Checkers

There's definately a 6 player version

Pay Day (2 to 6p)

Kinda like Monopoly, but themed around getting salary, making extra bucks, paying bills, and unforseen expenses. Games are quicker since end condition is how many loops you go through the board and not by money elimination like in Monopoly.

*Careers (many, many versions. 2 to 6p)

Based on real life careers. U set goals ($$ earned, fame, and happiness) for your career, and win by being the first one to earn them. Various ways to earn those 3 attributes, and lose them too. Can increase your salary, and use event cards to 'make your own luck'. There are MANY versions/editions of this game. I played the one with the following career loops: medical, conservation, college, big business, teaching, media, athletics..... and forgot one of the loops.

*Settlers of Catan (3-4p w/o player expansion) + its exp (5-6 player WHICH REQUIRES SETTLERS OF CATAN MAIN GAME)

If more than 6p, i suppose u could have a team game (more then 1 person per player). That would certainly make things interesting since in trading, u deal with 2+ ppl and in strategy since you could hear ppl discussing it out loud.

This game has excellent midgame. Even those who are trailing, by no small margin have been known to come out on top and win the game.

*Seafarers of Catan (3-4p w/o player expansion) + its exp (5-6 player)

offers extras that expand on Settlers. Maps of different layouts, ships, and added special game features to name a few. REQUIRES SETTLERS OF CATAN TO PLAY.  FOR SEAFARERS PLAYER EXPANSION, REQUIRES SETTLERS PLAYER EXPANSION AS WELL

Cities & Knights of Catan (3-4p w/o player expansion) + its exp (5-6 player)

still uses Settlers foundation, but gmaeplay is VERY diff from Sett and Seaf. There's also deploying defenses, upgrading structures, and getting additional resource types for improvements. REQUIRES SETTLERS OF CATAN TO PLAY.  FOR CITIES & KNIGHTS PLAYER EXPANSION, REQUIRES SETTLERS PLAYER EXPANSION AS WELL

*Betrayal at House on the Hill (3to6 players)

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10547

a board game with a scary movie theme (not the actual movie called "Scary Movie" where they parady other scary movies, but the scary/horror movie genre overall).  Some of the artwork is bloody-like whcih may not be suitable for younger kids, but if over 10yo, it'll likely work out, as while the game tries to be scary, some of it ends up being cheesy or campy.  

Ppl explore house and when the trigger comes, one player turns out to be the traitor, or "bad guy" while the remaining players are the heroes or good guys.  There are dozens of scenarios to try out, and the house gets created randomly for each game, so truly no 2 games are ever alike.  Stuff like events, omens, and items add some depth and strategy to gameplay while your characters traits or stats add more of those 2.  There's good amt of teamwork among the heroes.  Push come to shove, this game makes a nice family game b/c 1) u can easily learn as u play it and 2) the game is such a blast that in the end, no1 is really disappointed if they lost.

Reiner Knizia's Samurai (2to4 players)

A German board game.  VERY easy to pick up and play

====2p board games

the traditional....

checkers

chinese chess

Go

backgammon

connect 4

Othello/reversi

====technically not a physical board game

*Apples To Apples

It's subjective, so much will depend on how much you really know each other or how well u can predict them. Easy to pick up and learn, and it's flexible enough to add up to 8 to 12 players.

*any Apples To Apples expansions

For better diversity in the game, and perhaps to accomodate more players easily if you are reaching 10+ ppl. Never tried the expansions, but they should be easy to pick out aind integrate.

Scene It.  AFAIK, this is played with an electronic board displayed by your DVD player and TV, but still worth mentioning, esp if u have an edition with a theme the family's into (e.g. TV shows, movies, Disney trivia, etc.)

Bohnanza

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/11

technically a card game.  Grow, manage, and harvest various beans (cards) of diff rarity and value to earn as much $$ as u can.  Game forces some tough decisions now and then, and also has trading/donating social elements to it.

win lose or draw

Answer 3

I always liked Battleship.

Answer 4

You should try Swarm.  It's an abstract strategy game like chess and checkers, but more than two players can play it.The links below will tell you more about it.

Answer 5

I looked over the list of current responses. My ideas (and ones others said that I support):

Carcassone - tile based game, easy to learn, fun, strategic and simple.

Settlers of Catan - Another easy to learn game, it forces you to interact with the other players and encourages cooperative competition.

Ticket to Ride - This game has had so much support and won so may awards. It is an instant classic.

Fluxx - A card game where the rules change with each card played. Extremely simple, the rules can be learned in less than five minutes. The game is never the same and is a lot of fun.

Pit - S commodities trading game. It does get load, chaotic, and wild, but that is part of its charm.

King's Blood - This is also a card game, and is based on the idea creating royal bloodlines. It has cute anime style fantasy art and is simple once you learn it.

All of these games are great for kids of all ages, but are still interesting and fun enough for adults too.

Answer 6

whunu its a cranium game boggle is a modern classic

Answer 7

Carcassone - Is a simple yet addictive tile laying game, ideal for family gaming. I am looking forward to getting the Inns & Cathedrals expansion.

Settlers of Catan - A little more involved, though still easy to learn. Each game is different due to how the board is constructed. The Seafarers expansion gives even more variety. New edition is being released this month. Link below is an online tutorial.

Answer 8

Try something like Scene It (lots of different versions), Catch Phrase, Tribond, Sequence, Boggle, Battle of the Sexes (obviously better if you have both males and females in the family)...  Also, scan the board game section at the store.  Sometimes I see one that looks like a lot of fun that I'd never heard of.

Answer 9

I stick to the classics so don't know anything new, but I find boggle an entertaining time killer, and backgammon is a fun strategic game.

Answer 10

It seems you enjoy a variety of different game types.  I see several word games, some group/party games, and some strategy games, so a few recommendations for each:

Party/group games:

Quelf - Fun, highly interactive, and potentially embarrassing.  A ton of fun with the right group.  http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/19370

Wits and Wagers - A trivia game where you can win without ever getting an answer right!  It's got a bit of gambling/wagering to go with the trivia, and is a blast.  http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20100

Word games:

Scattergories - It's a classic, but is still very popular and challenging.  http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2381

Royalty - A combination of scrabble and rummy.  Combine letter sets to spell words, add on to others' words, etc.  A great vocabulary stretching card game

Strategy:

Blokus - Competitive tetris, with a twist.  Try to place all of your pieces on the board while blocking your opponents.  http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2453

Ingenious - A color based twist on dominoes, the player with the highest low score wins.  Score 18 points in one color and declare yourself Ingenious.  Deep strategy in a good abstract game.  Unique scaling mechanism to the board provides solid play from 1 to 4 players.  http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9674

Happy gaming!

Answer 11

There are TONS of games out there.

You might try:

Settlers of Catan - a great game of building and trading.

Cranium Hoopla - fast paced party game played cooperatively against a timer.

Ticket to Ride - popular game where you need to race to make train routes.  Very easy to play.

Shogun - like chess and risk?  How about an intensive strategic game where you fight over control of provinces, but also need to manage the taxes and food to support them.  (Warning: this one is a heavy, hard on the brain game).

Mr. Jack - a 2 player game that mixes deduction and strategy.  Very tense and challenging.

Pitch Car - want something anyone can play?  A fun race game of flicking carroms.

Qwirkle - scrabble like play, where you try to create the best combinations based on colors and symbols.

And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of all the games around!

Check out www.boardgamegeek.com for tons of stuff!

Answer 12

for chess there are a few easy check mate moves

Answer 13

We just had a family get together and played these:

Taboo

Quandary

Catch Phrase (Electronic version - very nice)

Upwords

Taboo was a real hoot!

Quandary is a great name for this game because you don't know whether to try to advance your own score at the risk of getting screwed at the end or to just try to s***w up your opponent's score.  A very unique and simple concept.  Doesn't take long to play rounds.  You may have to search E-Bay for this game.

We also played the old "Skittles" game where you swing a suspended ball at bowling pins.  It's old and my wife found it on E-Bay also...but we had alot of fun with it.

Upwords is like Scabble on steroids because you can also stack letters on top of others to score new words.  A very quiet game.

There's also 4-player chess. You may want to search that too.

Answer 14

We've also tried:

Apples to Apples - is simple to play.

Guesstures  - charades with subject adn timer.

Scattergories - best answers not duplicated

My family recently played the following games and had lots of fun:

Settlers of Catan (Build and Trade with other players game; may need the Settlers of Catan 5-6 Player Exp for larger families. )

When you play the intermediate rules, the map becomes more random.

http://www.games-for-less.com/settlers-o...

Carcassonne with River Tiles (It's a tile laying game where you strategize as you lay the next tile)

http://www.games-for-less.com/carcassonn...

You may need the expansion Carcassonne: Inns & Cathedrals for the 6th player.

Non traditional boardgames:

Heroclix

We'll probably check out the following next:

Ticket to Ride

Heroscape

Pirates (Board game version)

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/pirates/

Answer 15

'Scene It' is really fun and has different versions for your favourite genres. It really depends on what you like I guess.

I like: (some of them are probably old)

Taboo

Guesstures

Mystery Mansion

Sudoku

Lots of others too. Go to Toys R Us or something and check out all the new stuff they have!