Other board games

[Slamz]

Any suggestions on games which non-strategy gamers would play and which would not bore me to death?

When we have people over we usually have someone bring over some of the various trivia / thinking / drawing type games but I'm fairly "meh" about those (Pictionary, Taboo, Cranium...). I'm not sure it's the type of crowd that will want to sit down and figure out something like Settlers of Catan, though.


Can you think of some good general audience games which aren't too simple and do not necessarily involve trying to draw a funny picture of a pony?

What do you play when you've invited random friends over, not all of whom are strategy gamer geeks?


(I bet they could get into something like Magic: The Gathering -- a fairly group friendly and straightforward game, but collectible card games are too damn expensive.)

[Hoofhurr]

From what I could tell with Magic you could totally dominate someone new to the game. And there's definitely a learning curve.

[Kakarat]

Dirty Minds

What's a four-letter word meaning 'a female' and ending in u-n-t?"

[Slamz]

From what I could tell with Magic you could totally dominate someone new to the game. And there's definitely a learning curve.

Mostly because if you've been playing for a while, your deck is worth $500 while your opponent's deck is probably worth $25.

But the basic strategy of the game is simple enough and deck building is fun. Each player has "health", creatures have an attack value and a defense value and often some sort of special ability, etc.

Sometimes the rules get a bit obscure or have poorly defined interactions but basically it's a fun, easy to get into game.



But I will never play another collectible card game because in the end they are designed to make you spend very large amounts of money trying to obtain rare, powerful cards, without which it can be difficult to compete. You can build a good deck for $25 but you always know it would be better if you just replace these 2 50-cent cards with those 2 hard to find $50 cards. And those other 2 $20 cards. And those 4 $10 cards...

Are there good NON-collectible card based games? That is, a game where you buy it and everything you will ever need is in that one box. Like poker. Except not poker.



I've actually just ordered Settlers of Catan anyway and will have a look but I think that'll be a hard sell.

I need something more interesting than poker/Pictionary but less complex than Settlers of Catan.

[Grieve]

Monopoly?

[Slamz]

Monopoly?

Takes too long to play, IMO. Kind of boring, too. Even as a gamer, Monopoly is low on my list of things I'd like to play.

I think I'm searching for the holy grail of gaming. The game that's complicated enough to entertain a gamer but simple enough to entertain the average 20-something nightclubber who thinks Pictionary is the height of gaming.

[Zephyrs]

I second Dirty minds, easy to play, and fun.

there is ntohing adversly dirty about it. In fact kids will kick butt cause they are not corrupted.

[Trotts]

Partini isn't too bad for entertaining a crowd of varying interests.

It has a variety of mini games that you play, from moulding clay to look like things.. shooting balls in a cup, your typical trivia.. etc.

Anyhow, threw yah the link below. We've used it a a few different parties and was always fun.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hasbro.com/partini/">http://www.hasbro.com/partini/</a><!-- m -->

[Slamz]

Gonna give "Chez Geek" a shot:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jackson-Games-Chez-Geek/dp/1556344767/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1242845126&sr=8-1">http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jackson-Gam ... 126&sr=8-1</a><!-- m -->

From the description of the top review, it sounds a lot like Magic the Gathering style gameplay, just in a silly setting and not collectible.

[Snowreap]

Settlers of Catan isn't terribly hard to learn; having just the right number of players is probably more of an obstacle than learning the rules.

Blokus is a good board (style) game, but limited to 4 players maximum.

any video game that encourages taking turns works well as a party game, regardless of how many people are present. DDR and Guitar Hero are both good, but if I had to choose only one I'd go with Guitar Hero since you don't need potentially expensive third-party controllers (the 'stock' DDR dance pads are awful).

there are also some fun (non-collectible) card games, marketed as children's games, which might be of interest. for example, Slamwich and SET.

-ken

[Zephyrs]

There is also a Dilbert cardgame that is good
It plays like asshole but the deck is dilbert characters and Dogbert is the trump card.

[Riz]

Slamz, DOMINION. This is what you seek. Think of it as a deck-building game. It's my current favorite.

[Slamz]

Slamz, DOMINION. This is what you seek. Think of it as a deck-building game. It's my current favorite.

Ooo, yeah, that does sound good. Just read up on it a bit. I ordered one.

[Breand]

my wife liked Catan and she's a hard sell. Pandemic I think is playable with "normal" people.

check out Guillotine too. simple and fun

[Moristans]

We play Apples to Apples a lot.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.educationallearninggames.com/how-to-play-apples-to-apples-card-game-rules.asp">http://www.educationallearninggames.com ... -rules.asp</a><!-- m -->

It's a lot more fun than the instructions might suggest, especially if you're playing with couples.

[Eremith]

Not much on board games, but card games:

Munchkin is good for gamers, but beware there are many, MANY sets you can collect (not necessary though.)
http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/

But for a general purpose audience, Fluxx is the fastest, easiest card game I've played in a long time. There's a number of specialty decks available, but the standard one is perfect for just about everyone.
http://www.looneylabs.com/

[Slamz]

I can now recommend "Chez Geek" if you have a group of people that you want to subtly move away from "Pictionary" and towards some real strategy games.

Chez Geek is a non-collectible card game similar to Dominion.

A lot of the typical card game elements are present:

* You have an income every turn with which you can buy stuff
* You can spend that income to buy improvements for yourself
* You can attack other people to undermine their position
* There are "counter" cards, that will counter something someone else is trying to do

It's basically a simple strategy card game with a silly, party-friendly setting and straightforward rules that won't take more than one game to master. But there's enough complexity to it that 3+ people in a game can play and make it interesting (you can also play with 2 people but that kills a little bit of the strategy). The setting is basically "20-something roommates" who aim to accumulate enough "slack" points to win. For example, you can Surf the Net for 2 slack, or purchase Cigarettes for 1 slack or a book for 3 slack, etc, then play a Busy Signal to cancel your opponent's Surf the Net and call up Hungry Girl to sit in someone else's area and eat 1 food per turn until they can get rid of her, etc.

Lots of elements that remind me of Magic: The Gathering, just simplified and made silly.

This game seems like a great stepping stone to get people off of the Cranium/Taboo, purely social games and into something more strategic without simply slapping down Settlers of Catan and expecting them to dive right in.


We haven't moved to Dominion yet, but that's next.

[Breand]

Pandemic, played it alot with some family and friends this weekend. They all liked it, but the reality is there is no autonomous action per player. Basically, since it's a co-op game where strategy is openly discussed, it winds up being the most seasoned player (i.e. me) tells everyone else what they should do and we just do it. Makes the inferior player feel useless. Still a cool game tho, but you want to play with strategy minded people so they all have a say in what's going on.

Now to get started on that 23 page Arkham Horror instruction manual...yikes.

[Jodah]

Apples to Apples is a good one as Moristans said. Its good fun if you think like your friends and know all their inside jokes. A lot of times if you can pull off a good joke they will pick your card even if its the worst one in the pile.

[Jakensama]

I need something more interesting than poker

It doesn't exist.

[Alio]

Ticket To Ride?