I also enjoy the XXXenophile card game. It’s not for children cause the art work is R-Rated, and the sexual innuendo flies, but is a fun strategy card game. Basically, you lay out cards in a pattern face down, turn over cards and spin one of them 180 degrees. If the spun card and another card have the same edge symbols, the card with more symbols on the edge ‘pops’ and is either put into your scorepad, or into your toybox. There are three types of cards; characters, settings, and gizmos. Characters have special effects that go into play when they pop (for instance, the picture on several cards has the character pointing to an edge, the card on that edge will also pop.) Settings have effects that start when the card is turned face up and last until the card is popped. (One setting is ‘Your own apartment’ Players that live with parents need 10 more points to win.) Gizmos have effects that start when popped and as long as they are in your toybox. (XRay goggles let you see the top card in other players draw stack.) Settings and Chars are worth points, first person to 100 points wins.
I also enjoy the original Civilization board game, which is way to complex to be explained here.
And of course, I am a major RPG’er.
>>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.<<
I can’t believe nobody mentioned Euchre…It’s a four player card game that all of my friends play obsessively at every gathering. It’s too complicated to explain in a post, so here is a site that explains the rules. http://www.joe.to/~guildda/euchretw.html
Scrabble Trivial Pursuit Backgammon Gin Rummy (or Rummy 500, whatever you call it). Trouble Sorry Kerplunk (a tall, hollow tube with tiny holes all around a section of the center that you stick pixie sticks through. Dump a bunch of marbles on top of the pixie sticks. Turn the tube so the slot at the bottom faces the cup in front of you and pull out a stick. Turns rotate between 2 to 4 players. After all the sticks have been pulled out, the person with the fewest marbles in their bin wins). Hearts Spades Solitaire Monopoly Pictionary Rummykube (Originally from Israel, it’s pretty much the same as Rummy 500 only with mah jongh-like tiles instead of cards). Boggle (If you need an explanation, let me know). Pente Uno Battleship Guesstures (or however you spell it - the one that’s like charades). Mastermind (Player 1 sets up a series of different colored pegs behind a sheild. Player 2 places colored pegs in the board in the hopes of duplicating Player 1’s arrangement. Player 1 indicates with a white marker how many they have correct (but not which one(s)). Player 2 continues various color combinations in the hopes of duplicating Player 1’s set-up. If they do it in a certain number of tries or less, they win. If they don’t, Player 1 wins). Simon (Let me know if you need a description).
Does anyone remember the name of the one that’s a 3-dimensional tic-tac-toe? It’s got little plastic pieces like tiddlywinks and a 4-level, clear plastic thing with round indentations to lay the plastic pieces in (4 rows x 4 rows x 4 tiers high).
I know there are a ton more that I’m forgetting. We grew up playing these kinds of games as a family, and even got together with my parents’ friends and their kids to play as well.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
Go (game of position play).
Chang-gi (Korean Chess).
Xiang-qi (Chinese Chess).
Ploy (ca. 1970s version of Chess - 3M Games).
Havannah (game of position play invented by Christian Freeling).
Twixt.
FivePlay, also called InterPlay (kind of a tic-tac-toe game, but with ability for both players to occupy the same cell; win by meeting one of a number of winning combinations).
Realm (Complex strategy game, also ca. 1970s - also 3M Games).
Realm interested me most because of the movement options:
Rearrange own pieces in any one realm (the board is 12 x 12 & each realm is 3 x 3).
or
Move any number of own pieces from any one realm into any other realms.
or
Move any number of own pieces from any otehr realms into any one realm.
or
Immobilizing certain of own pieces (temporary sacrifice)
Depending on different events, you get to create (introduce) pieces (Base, Power, Enforcer and Probe, IIRC) into the game and, again depending on those events, you either claim a realm. The winning condition is reaching a set number of claimed realms.
If anyone has a set they want to get rid of, contact me–I can’t find one!
Sylence – I remember Dark Tower, in fact I’ve been thinking about it on and off for some time now. Maybe it’s time for a revised version.
My favorites? Well, I don’t play anything very often, but:
Trivial Pursuit
Monopoly
Poker
Milles Bornes
Uno
Scrabble
If I have to make a list, that is. I’m happy to play most games if I’m in that sort of mood. Most of my “tabletop” gaming was of the pen & paper roleplaying sort in my youth. Now I rarely get the chance to play anything that isn’t on my computer.
–Da Cap’n
“Playin’ solitaire 'til dawn
With a deck of fifty-one.”
Well, I’m the fifth to mention Mille Bornes. Should we have an SDMB Mille Bornes gathering?
Other games:
chess
scrabble
monopoly
checkers
backgammon
rummykube
uno (my 5-year-old niece wins almost every time she plays, too often to be explained for by random chance. How can this be?)
jass (a swiss card game, my alltime favourite) http://www.pagat.com/jass/swjass.html
Does anyone know of “Easy Money”? A rip-off of Monopoly that I used to play as a kid. I liked the Easy Money board more than the Monopoly board. I’ve never seen it except as a child though.
okay… here’s my list. or at least what i can remember right now.
pictionary, clue, trivial pursuit, uno, canasta, keiser, chess, checkers, speed, and of course that game that i forget the name of… you know, with the pieces that you move, and the board.
“human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein
Me too on Trivial Pursuit, Life, Scrabble, Yahtzee and Tri-Bond…
I also love Magic: The Gathering. It’s a role-playing card game. Lots of fun.
Has anyone played Huggermugger? I can whoop anyone at that game. The object is to uncover a secret word, letter-by-letter. You do this by spelling, giving definitions, solving anagrams, etc.
Theres nothing more fun than a good game of Axis and Allies with friends…(take a look at the games subtitle. find out why.)
other than that? I like the ones that involve drinking…
(hm, yeah i suppose i’m not being too specific there…)
You want a real role playing card game, try DragonStorm by BlackDragon Press. Magic isn’t roleplaying, because you aren’t actually in a role, you are simply assembling a deck for a game of strategic warfare. DragonStorm on the other hand is truely roleplaying. The cards are used to define a character whom you roleplay in situations that are created by a gamemaster, whom also uses cards to define the current situation.
DS was created by Susan VanCamp, who has done a fair amount of the art on Magic cards, as well as other fantasy art works. The game has its faults, like all games, but it is roleplaying.
>>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.<<
