I’ve decided I’m going to be giving board games this year and my outgoing Xmas list is all couples, a couple old (my parents, my GF’s parents) and the rest my age (early 30’s). Between everyone we’ve got all the classics (Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, chess, checkers, etc.) and the usual other standard games (Cranium, Settlers of Catan, Scattergories, Pictionary, etc.).
I’m looking for family/friend-friendly board games that aren’t too involved (things like Risk or Axis and Allies won’t do).
I apologize for not taking the time to give links to these, but if you want more info on any of them, I suggest you search at boardgamegeek.com. It is full of good info.
Partyish games along the lines of Scattergories/Pictionary/Cranium:
Apples to Apples
Wits and Wagers (a combination trivia/betting game, lots of fun)
Word Blur
Non-party games suitable for family play, similar to Settlers of Catan:
Carcassonne
Ticket to Ride
Qwirkle (especially suitable with younger players, although fun for adults as well)
Bohnanza
I’m sure some of our other board gamers will be along shortly with more ideas. Great idea for gifts, by the way!
Everyone loves Apples to Apples. It doesn’t matter if they are 10 or 95 (played with people in both age groups, though not at the same time). Can’t really go wrong with this one.
Blokus was mentioned, but I’m going to second it. There are really no complicated rules at all, so people who don’t like games have fewer excuses to avoid everyone having fun (“I guess I just don’t understand what’s going on” and “this seems complicated - I’m not going to try” all become “oh, this IS pretty fun - why don’t we play more games?”).
Thanks for the input. A lot of my targets already have Apples to Apples. Think I’m gonna be giving Blockus, Qwirkle, thinking about Ticket to Ride, maybe an electronic Catch Phrase, and probably give out a couple of really nice mah jong sets to my parents and/or my GF’s parents, or maybe a really nice Go set.
We love Betrayal At The House On The Hill - it’s not too complicated, doesn’t take too long, but it’s different every time we play and always fascinating.
No one’s mentioned Puerto Rico, which recently recaptured bordgamegeek’s top spot as the #1 game of all time by popular vote? Puerto Rico has the feature (innovative at the time of release, somewhat more commonly found in new games these days) that when it’s player one’s turn, all the other players have a choice to make to advance their own goals or frustrate the goals of others, so there’s never a period of “down time” where player attention drifts away.
I like Ra also (it’s a bit simpler), and it’s a bit faster to play.
The hot new thing in our gaming groups this year has been Telestrations.
If you’ve got creative people who are good at making shit up, try Beyond Balderdash. You make up fake definitions for unusual words, fake plot summaries for really obscure movie titles, fake bios for “famous” people nobody ever heard of, etc. We’ve had games nearly abandoned because people were laughing too hard to continue.
