Axis and Allies, Diplomacy, Chess, Clue: Master Detective, The Game of Life, Trivial Pursuit, etc.
Puerto Rico is a fun game. If you like it, but prefer something a bit less complex, play San Juan, the card game version. Not all card game ports are good (see the card game version of Catan), but San Juan is well done.
I prefer the Carcasonne versions to most of the Catan versions. Hunters and Gatherers is quite entertaining, especially for younger types. One Catan version that can be enjoyable is the board version Settlers of the Stone Age.
I am shocked no one has mentioned the fun that is Ticket to Ride yet. Doesn’t take that long to play a game, and the fun of seeing if you can beat someone to a vital connection is unparalleled by most games. 
Cosmic Encounter is the ultimate, though, for a good group of friends. The original version, not the more recent remake. I loved it when we played with double powers. Used to be quite fun screwing over someone with your second, unrevealed power. 
Hmm. Hamsters ate my response. Here I go again…
My favourites are the classics - Go, Chess, Backgammon, Scrabble. I’ve enjoyed Trivial Pursuit and Scotland Yard, but they haven’t burned their way into my heart the way the older games have.
I grew up among a bunch of Avalon Hill fanatics, and even though it was 30 odd years ago, I still remember fondly games like ‘Kingmaker’, ‘Diplomacy’ and ‘Iron Men and Wooden Ships’. There was another about trying to avoid causing World War I, but I can’t remember the name - Battle of Empires, perhaps? It has been a long time since I had the kind of time required to devote to one of those… At least when I play Go, I can get my ass handed to me in just over an hour. 
Oh, alrighty. I just saw this description in Cafe Society and thought it belonged there:
if it’s about creativity, entertainment, or leisure, it goes here.
…but now I see the separate Game Room.
So anyway, I guess I should clarify a bit. I’m looking for something new; I know about Monopoly, Clue & Trivial Pursuit. 
Also, I’m not much into fantasy-type games. I’m more interested in titles similar to Cranium, Apples To Apples, Outburst and the like.
Thanks for the responses.
Archie
Oh, OK, like party-style games. In that case, my recommendation would be Wits & Wagers. It’s a fun combination of trivia and betting, moves quickly, and can be played by a relatively large number of people.
I’m gonna say Munchkin.
Yeah it’s a card game…but it’s probably the most fun game…ever.
Although Vinci is out of print, the designer has rethemed the game (adding humor) in the game Small World. Some new expansions (races and powers) just came out
If you like Agricola, the followup Le Havre has some similarities (although many differences as well). Much less luck involved.
I really like Endeavor - deep but not too deep (the game starts easy and grows), and a good length for what it is.
Brian
Brian
Wits & Wagers looks like the one (I’m in search of a party game for New Year’s Eve).
Has anyone else here played it?
Still open to suggestions.
Another vote here for Power Grid. Looks complicated when you spill out all the pieces, but even non-hardcore board game players pick it up after a couple playrounds - it’s quite deceptively simple. And all players are usually still in the running 'til the end, which is nice.
Two games from Fantasy Flight - Citadels and Condottiere. Both are technically played with cards (thought Condottiere has a small board) but they count IMO as they require their own decks. Both involve bluffing in a way. Citadels has each player assume a role, and then gather gold to build buildings - the bluffing there comes in as each role has a unique power that is used against other players by targetting (blindly) the roles - so the assassin will go first, and gets to choose who loses a turn that round, by choosing “king” or “magician”, etc. Condottiere is essentially a bidding game, and the bluffing comes in how much you’re willing to bid each round in terms of troops, balancing the need to win each individual battle and still have enough troops to win the next one.
Another one I’ve fun with is Family Business. Everyone starts off with 9 mobsters, and takes turns killing or saving them until one one player is remaining. Guaranteed to ruin a friendship or two (or maybe it’s just the people I play with…) Unfortunately the version I picked up a couple years ago had some pretty lame cards (i.e., not including each card’s ability on the card itself, so people were always scrambling for the instructions). An older version would be better.
Yes indeedy! Othello is just trademarked or registered or some legal thingummy, but it’s like someone took the game of checkers, renamed it Leapfrog or Leaper or something, and put out their own version. The play is exactly the same. AND you can play Reversi in many online game rooms, or even that little Windows game system, it’s in the same folder as Freecell. I also have a couple of cheap board games compilations that include Reversi, so I can play against my own computer.
Dune (6 player), Squad Leader (2 player), and Star Fleet Battles (any number)are traditional favorites on my semi-occasional War Game Weekend camping trips.
One I don’t think has been mentioned yet: Talisman. It’s basically a board game version of a fantasy RPG. A group of us played this estensively several years back so most of my knowlege is of the first edition and expansions. I’ve got the new revisions but haven’t been able to get a crowd up to play them yet.
When my old DM didn’t feel like running a game, we’d usually break out Dune. Like Cosmic Encounter, each player had a special ability. We’d always turn the leader tokens upside down in the box and mix them around and draw them, so that everyone had a chance at being Harkonnen.
Now I want to dig out my old box and find a new gaming group.
Having mentioned Cosmic Encounter, I now feel obliged to mention one of my favorite dice games, Cosmic Wimpout. This is a fast paced game for the more mathematically inclined. One summer, I achieved the status of Coolest Aunt in the World for introducing my nephews to this game. You do need the special dice, but they are very reasonably priced.
We have Small World, I still miss Vinci. I keep looking for a copy!
I am the goto game person for our family. One year, possibly last year, around the holidays I brought Acquire [I was overjoyed that I found it for just 10 bucks, ALL of the pieces, at a flea market.] and Catan over.
The division among the players should have been predictable :
The players that don’t care to think when they are “playing” a game hated Acquire, the people who took a gamble early on had the least amount of fun later on, and the other half of the crowd [me included] did all we could in a tooth and nails fight for first.
The sad thing is, I LOVE Acquire, I love the subterfuge in the game, and the punishment you have to take the times you have to be truly open [Buying stock on a chain you JUST built on.]
In my experience though, it seems as if Acquire is a middle child in board games, it is not as easy to explain as games you would expect to find at Wal Mart or Target, but it doesn’t hold the interest of people who have bookmarked BoardGame Geek.
Catan on the other hand? We all get out of it what we want, and we always want to set the game up again to better our skill and make people forget how bad we did in the last game.
However, it would seem that we would all stop what we are doing, if it means we would get to play Balderdash, Wise and Otherwise, or some other word bluffing game. The injokes and references to family history always seem to find a place in balderdash, a lot of laughs are had, a few people trick a few other people, and on occassion, one of us will just know the right answer.
Yeah, I mean having munchkin in a game stack for the family is kinda like a Duck in a dungeon.
I have banned Archie Spelunker and Pulp Friction for being socks.
Carry on with the game discussion.
Ellen Cherry
Game Room Moderator
Party games then? That’s … I can work with that. [I used to work at Board Game store, we pimped Cranium like you wouldn’t believe. - I even pitched it to one guy, who happened to be the actual creator of a rival product. He of course wasn’t advertising this fact, and I only found out after he point blank told me.]
I will then move Balderdash to the top of my list, as you already have Cranium and Apples. Be sure to get the version with 5 categories, instead of the original version with just words.
Players supply their answers to what a 10 dollar word means, What N.M.I. might stand for, why <Persons Name> is famous, The plot to a [usually b or worse] movie, based on it’s title. People then vote on what they think the right one is. Points are awarded to you if people vote for your answer as truth, if you vote for the true answer, or if you write down the right answer.
I have not played the next two games, but I bring them to your attention anyway, as I think they might be right on the money:
ImaginIff Imagine if your brother were a road sign, what road sign would he be?
Everyone at the table then writes down what sign your brother would be. people who share in writing the most common answer advance.
In hit or miss you are given a category and 45 seconds to write down members of that category. At the end of 45 seconds, roll a die. Hit or Miss comes up, and you have to chose an item you wrote down. If Hit comes up, choose an Item that you think everyone wrote down. If Miss comes up, choose an item you wrote down that you think no one else wrote down.
You might want to give True Colors a shot, but it is not best for family, as all of the answers and votes become way too predictable.
A good game to have on hand, that plays real fast, but is real enjoyable is LCR. A simple dice game, but a lot of overtaking in rank position. Incredibly easy, Incredibly fast, incredibly fun. It only took my family one game to exchange in the included poker chips for player contributed quarters.
For me, my all-time favorite is Kingsburg, a quick kingdom-building game (very much like the town building in Heroes of Might and Magic series) with a vicious bidding system for resources. Quick and fun.
My second is Pillars of the Earth, which is again a resources-gathering, cathedral building game with a neat theme. Right now I am having fun with Dominon, which is a game where you build your deck (during the game). It’s like a closed collectible card game with some neat mechanics.
Also Traders of Carthage is a very neat trading game where players have opportunity to sabotage each other. It’s rules-lite and tend to hook in players who don’t play hardcore board-games.