The girl friend and I are hosting another couple for dinner. She thinks it would be a great idea for us to play some games post dinner. The only other game that we’ve played is Apples to Apples. And other suggestions for adults (35-45)? (I did a quick search and didn’t see anything.)
Thanks much!
A great resource for board games is at Board Game Geek. I was just very recently turned onto the amazing variety of different games that are out there (my personal experience was limited mainly to classic games like Monopoly). Settlers is a great introductory game, and I’ve recently become addicted to Dominion. You can browse through the different categories they have there pretty easily, but some of the jargon may be difficult to decipher (I know it has been for me). I’m happy to try to answer questions you may have, but I’m sure someone else on these boards is more knowledgeable than I on the subject.
However, if you’re talking about games more along the lines of Pictionary or Charades, I can’t really help you there. Whatever you decide, have fun!
Cranium is nearly universally loved, the best of the grown up party games, in my opinion. It’s both funny and a bit challenging. I also could play pictionary all day, but there are some people who hate to draw, so sometimes that gets in the way.
For quick and simple (but with more strategy than meets the eye) games that accommodate 4-5 players, I’d suggest Cartagena or Circus Flohcati.
“Nearly” being the key word; I dislike it, finding it after the first play to be tedious and repetitive and not especially funny. But yeah, a lot of folks love it. Settlers of Catan is a freakin’ fantastic game, but it requires a fair bit of commitment from players compared to things like Trivial Pursuit or Cranium.
There’s Fluxx, a fairly silly card game in which all the rules are printed on the cards themselves; the rules change constantly. But my main recommendation would be card games, e.g., hearts or cribbage. They’re classics for a reason: a good mix of luck and strategy, fairly easy rules.
Scattergories is loads of fun.
I highly reccomend Dixit. It has beautiful artwork and fixes some of the problems I have with the way Apples to Apples works. It’s a game that is fun for casual/party gamers but can be enjoyed by the more geeky gamer types too.
Scattergories, Cranium and Pictionary are all proven winners, with the latter being even more hysterical after a few glasses of wine, beer, or whatever.
What you’re looking for is something with intensely simple rules, and a lot of opportunity for humor. A game like Merchants and Marauders or Pandemic is fun, but not a party game, while Pictionary definitely fits the bill.
We like to play Zombies, Battlestar Galactica, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Monty Python’s Fluxx,and Settlers of Catan. We’re having a board games night this coming weekend, as a matter of fact. These games are all tremendously fun - some are longer and more involved than others.
I think it’s better with more than four, but Telestrations is a fun party game - sort of a cross between Pictionary and the old birthday-party staple of Telephone. Cluzzle is also a lot of fun - sort of like Pictionary with clay, but it rewards medium-good sculpting, not very good or very bad.
Many good suggestions already (and I’m lamenting, once again, that we have no one nearby to play Catan with), but I’ll throw in Celebrity. I like the three-round version.
Basically, the first round is like Taboo, the second is a little like Password, and the third is like Charades. It’s doable with just four people, although it would be more fun with a bigger group.
I’m an avid gamer (trust the guy with the screen name themed to your question :D) and often provide the games whenever my friends get together. Some excellent suggestions have been thrown out, in particular “Dominion” which is widely available and, from my experience, is easy for non-hobby gamers to pick up.
The problem is that games like “Dominion” or “Catan,” while excellent, are best learned by having someone with experience teach them. That’s not to say you can’t pick them up by just reading the rules; in fact, if you’ve got a head for that sort of thing I’ll also recommend “Ticket to Ride,” “Carcassonne” and “Bohnanza” and just advise you learn it before your party so you can teach it without everyone having to watch you fumble through the rulebook.
If you’re not hobby gamers and don’t know one, though, I’d recommend a game that doesn’t require much concentration; something over which you can enjoy a nice conversation without much interruption. “Uno” and “Skip-Bo” come to mind, and have the added advantage that a deck isn’t going to cost you more than about five bucks. Depending on your tastes, there’s also the classics like “Scrabble” and “Clue” that still get plenty of play even with the abundance of Eurogames in my life.
Kingspades, what do you recommend for 2 players?
My wife and I enjoy for 2:
Carcassonne: the Castle
Cartagena 2
Upwords
Rumi Kube
Worst Case Scenario
Yahtzee
Greed
What else?
Dominion is very good with two players.
You can buy this commercially as “Time’s Up.” It’s awesome and totally worth the money.
Lost Cities is a good two player game.
I’ve heard good things about Jambo, but have never played
Lots of “more player games” have 2 player variants - some work better than others. (I think the 2 player Kingsburg variant is better than the normal game with 3, though the game is best with 4 or 5 IMHO).
Brian
I love this game. But I always encourage groups to use my Vicious Mockery rule. I tell them about the time we played the game, and someone’s mom showed up uninvited to the party (we were in our mid-twenties at the time, it was weird), and one of the celebrities she wrote down was Paul Wellstone. Now, if you’re a US politics buff, you know who Paul Wellstone is; but plenty of people had no idea who he was, and plenty of the ones who had heard his name didn’t know nearly enough about him either to give a good clue for him or to guess who it was based on a clue.
So the rule is that your celebrity must be someone that practically everyone has heard of, or you’ll be viciously mocked. Hillary Clinton? Fine. Henry Kissinger? Believe it or not, you’re treading the line. Paul Wellstone? VICIOUS MOCKERY!
Amateur - we use vicious mockery throughout all of our games. 
Ooh, good question! My girlfriend and I do have a few favorites when it’s just the two of us playing. More often not than we play deckbuilding games together; primarily “Dominion” but we also enjoy “Thunderstone.” She’s particularly fond of tile-laying games, so that brings “Carcassonne” (and in particular the “Princess and Dragon” expansion) and “Alhambra” to the table. “Ra: The Dice Game” is one of my favorites for just two (or three, or four). After playing a couple of games of “Innovation” with four I was really surprised to discover what a much better game it is with just two.
We’re just now starting to explore games that were designed for two players. A friend lent us his copy of “Lost Cities,” and we both really liked that one (she so much that she actually added it to her Amazon wishlist - my heart skipped a beat! :p). We received a copy of “Kupferkessel Co.” as a gift and have liked it, and I really want to get my hands on both “Jaipur” and “Catan Card Game” because I hear so many good things.
( I hope those weblinks work. I’m including them for those who aren’t acquainted with Eurogames, but the firewall at work blocks most of the sites )
Pictionary is fun, but to make it even more so, get a dry erase board, an easel, and several colored markers. Makes it feel more like a game show.